Goan Nativist Movement

Agnelo Gomes , USA. Taken from GoanCauses. Text modified.
A day before my departure to the USA I received a phone call from Senhor Luis Antonio de Souza, from Divar; that he would like to convene a meeting with me in Margao along with some others persons, at my Aquem-Alto residence on 29th July 2001 at 8:30 p.m.

Subject of the meeting was to gain moral support from expatriate Goans for the Gaumkar movement to save the �Comunidades� and �Bandhs� that are mismanaged by the 'State Government' of Goa.

The Meeting was attended by the following:

  1. Senhor Policarpo C. de Souza, President, Association of the Constitutents of the Communidades of Goa.
  2. Senhor Nelson Azavedo
  3. Advogado Andre A. Pereira
  4. Senhor Luis de Souza
  5. Agnelo Gomes of Goancauses.com
Adv. Andre A. Pereira spoke eloquently on the history and existence of the Comunidade system prior to the 451 years of Portuguese presence in Goa, stating that the word �Comunidade� is a Portuguese appellation for Gaumkary. A Gaumkary means an indigenous ancient association - community of villagers or gaumkars (constituents of the village) and constituted by men from the first settlers or inhabitants of Goa inter alia with inherited common contractual responsibility in a given locality.

The unspent and unreserved revenue earned during the year in the course of providing social welfare measures is shared or distributed proportionately among constituents of the Gaunkary on a year-to-year basis according to the provisions of the Code of Civil Law. The quota that is disbursed to Gaunkars is known as zon or 'earning,' which can be considered to be a sort of honorarium for common service rendered to the Gaunkary.

Various comunidades own vast lands, fields, coconut and cashew plantations, aframentos, and etc., which in turn were leased to gaumkars to cultivate, the profits to be shared with the Comunidade administration by paying �Predial.�

The Law required that the person who leased the fields, coconut plantation etc. made it his full time job and he is not allowed to work commercially on other assignments.

Senhor Luis de Souza spoke of the Bandhs system, built and maintained by villages, taking those at Divar for illustrating his subject. A bandh is a dam or retainer wall (bund in British India) installed to prevent saline water getting into the fields.

After 1961 the Indian Union's 'government of Goa' constituted by the MGP party, which represents the Ganthies — Marathi Colonists in Goa, disregarded the Comunidade laws and allocated the land to the tillers on ownership basis. The tillers instead of cultivating the land and sharing the profit with the comunidade, stopped producing and after a while the land was sold for real estate development for huge sums. Some tillers became millionaires by selling comunidade land to the Ganthies for exuberant prices, that same land which they got for free.

Also, many 'freedom-fighters' and politicians quietly purchased comunidade lands from the Occupation 'government' for a small price like Rs 5 per square meter and sold the land to the Ganthies for huge sums and became millionaires overnight. Thus the comunidade properties have been criminally squandered.

In Divar, according to Senhor De Souza, the Ganthies broke the bandhs intentionally to flood the fields with saline water and started raising shrimps for export, thus destroying the fields. The tenders for the re-construction of the bandhs are given for large sums. However, the construction materials used were so cheap and substandard, the bandhs would collapse immediately, while the Ganthies merrily went on raising their shrimps.

There is no law and order, and local people are afraid to question the authorities involved, because the rulers don�t want to hear anything bad spoken about themselves and will use the police to harrass those who accuse them of complicity and criminality.

Agnelo Gomes stated that, under Portugal, Batkars (Revenue Farmers) and Escrivaos (Scribes) misinterpreted comunidade laws and amassed land. Most of the population, something like sixty-five percent, were reduced to landless labourers and tenant farmers, Mundcars, who were given nothing except a small piece of land for building themselves a hut (zopdi) to live in, and the land on which these stood was also owned by bhatkars. And I know it for fact because I was born in one of those zopdis.

Now the politicians are bringing in Ganthies and give free comunidade land to increase their vote-banks.

Agnelo Gomes stated that instead of giving free land to the Ganthies expatriate Goans should be given land to build vacation-homes, at minimal cost, with the clause that this Communidade land is inalienable and cannot be sold to anyone. This way we will keep the Ganthies out of our country and protect our Goan identity that is under the onslaught of the Ganthies.

Adv. Pereira agrees in principal and he�s all out for it.

Agnelo Gomes further stated that in Kashmir no outsider could buy land. Nehru had promised Goans to give autonomy. However, 'freedom-fighters' such as Purshottam Kakodkar and the rest told Nehru to back off, since it�s more of a Catholic vs. Hindus issue: Catholics were pro-Portuguese and Hindus pro-India. That is true.

The Hindus even tried to sell Goa to Maharashtra, so much afraid they are of the Catholics. Eventually many Catholics abandoned Goa and moved to the USA, Portugal, UK, Canada, etc. since Dayanand Bandodkar demoted many Catholics holding government jobs only to be replaced by Ganthies — largely corrupt IAS babus from India.

Agnelo Gomes further stated in order to protect our Comunidades, we Goans must form a grassroot movement of enlisting militia in each comunidade and enforce the unaltered laws of the Comunidades set forth before Portuguese landed in Goa, and codified in Goan law prior to the Indian Invasion — "Peaceful protests and yet we are determined to fight back against any force unleashed against us"

We strictly warn the 'police': "Watch out, we�re coming at you, if you don�t behave!"

We Goans must not allow any 'NGOs' and political parties to intervene with (and hijack!) the Gaumkary movement. As you are well aware, these 'NGOs' and politicians are controlled by vested groups with alien loyalties.

Only Niz Goenkars must be allowed to participate in this movement, these Gaumkar Militias. We must challenge the Indian government that Indian laws of buying land in Goa and the rampant inflow of Ganthies on to our soil will not be allowed.

A marginal number of aliens, 5% of the native population will be allowed, and only to work as labourers. However, they will not be allowed to vote in our elections and own land. All land presently sold to the Ganthies must be recovered at the price of Comunidade listing then sold.

The meeting was adjourned with all parties agreed to implement the proceedings.

Agnelo Gomes requests all expatriate Goans to support this grassroot Gaumkary movement. All Goans are Gaumkars and have right to buy land in Goa at nominal prices.

So my dear fellow Goans please support this GoanCause to secure our Goan identity. Trust me as you would trust in Ve. Padre Agnelo de Souza!
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