Spontaneous Fission
© Prakash John Mascarenhas. 29th November 2002.
We call ourselves Goans and our country Goa. However, I ask, is this terminology correct?
Goa is the name of a particular place, the city of Goa, which is today dead. It is the first place that the Portuguese conquered from the Sultan of Bijapur, in 1510. From this city, they expanded into the entire Ilhas — the Isles; and then, within a few decades, they wrested also the countries of Bardez and Shasti. For a very long time, then, the city of Goa was the capital of this territory, until it was abandoned due to the Black Death — the Bubonic Plague that swept off so many millions around the globe. It is for this reason that the territory came to be called, colloquially, Goa, and its inhabitants, Goans.
However, the name is imprecise. There is no ethnic group or community, from the anthropological viewpoint, that bears the name of Goan. On the contrary, anthropologists recognize 'Goans' as part of the Konkani ethnic community.
Our land has always been called the Konkan. Our language was always Konkanni. Now, the Konkan extends from the river Gangaveli in the North Canara district, formerly the southern-most district of the then Bombay Presidency in British India, going north upto the Narmada river. Particular parts, especially in the North, were dominated by one or the other tribe and therefore received that tribe's name. Thus, the Kolis, Ahirs, and Kunbis dominated what is called the Kulaba, Alibaug or Raigad, district, to give it its consecutive names, (Kulaba is its historic name) and the Far North, including Daman, Dadra & Nagar-Haveli, is dominated by the Vasas, for which reason, the tract is historically called the Vasava. Vasava and Vasa are the roots for many names in this region: Versova, Bassein or Vasai and Silvasa, etc.
Another remnant Konkani people are the Dangis of the Dangs, a small, hill-bound district nestled in the western coasts of the Sahyadri Mountains, which separate the Konkan from the Khandesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka, to its east.
The so-called East Indians and Samvedis are also Konkani peoples. The former, the largely Christian, indigenous people of Bombay, the islands of Shasti, Vasai, Thane, New Bombay, etc. were forced by their Marathi conquerors to conform to their conquerors' tongue: the result, a curious admixture of Konkani, Portuguese, Marathi and English.
What becomes evident from all this history is that the Konkani people have allowed themselves to become fragmented and divided, and invading, colonizing peoples from the east and north — the Marathi and Gujarati, have largely displaced us in a large stretch of our country.
In fact, the situation is so bad, that most Konkanians still are ignorant about these facts, and allow themselves to be treated as aliens in their own country at the hands of these colonists!
This ancient Indian habit of splitting off into more and more sub-groups or castes continues to hold sway among the Konkani. Picture the extraordinary behaviour exhibited by the various Konkani groups of Goa and expatriates based in Mangalore, Bombay, etc.
The Mangaloreans are emigrants from Goa, largely enticed by the Raja of Bednore (Nagar) because of their reputed agricultural skills. Then they underwent the traumatic Babylonian Captivity under Tipu Sultan. To survive this atrocity, they had to assimilate with their Hindu neighbours. In sum, then, today, the Mangalorean is culturally very distinct from the Goan, and tends to follow the Hindu customs which the Goans had long ago rejected.
As a result, each group holds the other away at arms' length, and elders scandalously strive to persuade younger members from inter-marrying.
Nor is this all. Even among the Goans, there are sharp regional and caste-based distinctions. Bardezkars and Shastikars will not intermarry, if they can help it, though the barriers are not as much insurmountable as it is between Goans and Mangaloreans. Then again, others strut around, tomtoming their Brahmin or Kshatriya pedigree, to the shame of the sincere Christian, and disdain those whose ancestors came from the so-called lower castes. In some places this casteism is so strong that, like in the predominantly Hindu villages of British India, there are practically separate hamlets for the different castes. Moreover, the privilege of being a Gaumkar and partake in the zon is still restricted most shamefully to those who claim to be 'upper caste.' And so on and on.
So powerful is the hold of this habit or tendency of fission, that the Goans have set themselves up as distinct groups on the basis of those who were born and brought up outside the Motherland, in places such as amche Bommai (pointedly a Konkani city, which is located very much in the Konkan), Karachi, East Africa, etc. Native, or Goa-born Goans tend to look down upon these as being less than Goans, which unfortunate attitude only alienates them and weakens the Goan community even further.
Bommaikars should not allow a small minority of ignorant recidivists to alienate and dishearten them. What if we are not born and bred in Goa? If Holy Goa — Purbache Room (Rome of the East) — is not the physical place of our births or our physical home, it is nevertheless our spiritual home. We are always Goans where-ever we may reside. This is our right and our privilege, of ancient and legal provisions, for are we not still recognized as Gaumkars and zonkars? Can any of these ignorami deprive us of these rights — unless we permit them to?
There is no reason for us to pay attention to these idiots, or allow them to ruin our peace of mind and confidence in our identity. Moreover, let us remind ourselves always of this: Goa is a part, and only a part of the Konkan. Before we are Goenkars, we are Konkankars; for the Konkan is our country, our nation and our motherland. And, despite all the pretensions of the Marathi and Gujarati colonists and the ignorance of some or many Konkankars, amche Bommai is located entirely and completely, safely within the confines of amche Konkan. This is unlike the Munglurkars who are resident outside the motherland, in the country of Tuluva. Again, unlike the East Indians we are not denationalised and assimilated to the colonists. Therefore, we Bommaikaram are not, and can never ever be Bhailem; therefore, we have no reason for being ashamed and diffident in the face of the foolish, peacockish display of niz-Goenkarponn by Know-Nothinger recidivists. Amim sogglem meyoan poilem Konkankaram asat, anim magir, Goenkaram!
And as far as the faith is concerned, too, we have no reason to be ashamed. As any perusal of Church history will show, we, too, as much as the Goa-born Goenkars, have shared the burden of defending and propagating the Holy Faith, and have not shirked the burden or been found wanting. We have provided the Church with many priests, bishops and others, with missionaries, teachers and ideologues. Therefore, what cause have we to be ashamed of being Bommaikars?
However, in order to overcome these evils, and to strengthen ourselves and our unity, we must learn to disregard and contemn these stupid and unreasonable - even anti-Christian, distinctions and learn to accept all members of the community as equals.
There are good and bad people, patriots and traitors, as much among the Goa-born Goans as there are among the Bommaikar Goans.
Again, although the Mangaloreans are no longer, strictly speaking Goans, they still remain Konkani and Konkankars, and as such, we must strive to win them back and to encourage them to join us in the Irredentist program, by returning and re-settling in the Konkan — in Kadwad, in Goa, in Sawantwadi, Malwan, Vengurla, Kankavli, Kudal, etc., so as to counterbalance the Marathi colonization effort. For this program, however, to be successful, all Konkankars must co-operate, by making the sacrifice of leaving their alien residences and resettling in Goa and its vicinity, not to retire into Susegadism, but to actively revive our society and culture.
Members of the Konkani Christian community must be persuaded to disregard caste and regional distinctions and encouraged to intermarry. Only thus will we be able to resist, and even hope for Konkani irredentism.
We will need to encourage exclusive Konkani Christian colonies, depending on a co-operative rediscovery of honest agriculture, animal husbandry and industrial manufacturing. We must be able to produce good quality products so that we can demand of our compatriots that they favour only our products with their customs.
This is the only way that we can begin our mission of recovery and redemption.