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On Thu, 28 Oct 2004, Neal Pinto wrote:
My question was an inquiry on the "popular opinion" of Hindus regarding the employment of the caste system by Catholics in Goa. In other words, what does the average Hindu think of a Goan Catholic trying to call himself a Brahmin?
Neal, Interesting question. I think nobody answered it because it's a difficult question to answer. Fools rush in where... and so I'm going to try. This answer is based on episodic information, which may or may not be a reflection of the wider reality.
First, with the episodic narration:
* Two days back, we were sitting in Cafe Prakash, when a
Hindu friend from Ponda remarked that Catholics, particularly
Brahmins, seem to have a far greater attachment and pride
in caste attachments then their Hindu counterparts.
I am in no position to vouch for the veracity of this
statement. One would need to understand how it works in
both communities, and then one's own filters and biases
would also play a role in evaluating the reality. * Some five years back maybe, I was talking to a journalistic
colleague, actually a very perceptive and politically-savvy
editor. When the issue of names, conversions and the like
came up, the editor and his family was more than surprised
to note that conversions in Goa (like in Kerala, but unlike
most of the rest of India) had taken place from even among
the so-called "upper" castes. In other parts of India,
Christian conversions are seen as a lower-caste phenomenon.
Which is why, I believe, the Hindutva fundamentalist elements
in places like Gujarat and Orissa can treat converts almost
with contempt, and their you-cant-convert-without-the-state's
-permission logic. * One trend of analysis views the United Goans Party
(quite unlike as the average Catholic would read it) as an
alliance of sorts between the "upper caste" Hindu and the
Catholic. A similar interpretation is sometimes given to
the pro-Konkani campaign. See, for example, Ashok Row Kavi's
writings in The Week around 1987. * I think there's some a lot of these-guys-are-quite-like-us
kind of solidarity within similar castes across the
religious divide. It would be interesting to study how
caste plays up with or against religion. * In Cuncolim, during the (caste-based) conflict there,
there was an element of 'solidarity' between the
Chardos-Kshatriyas. If one recalls rightly, there were
some statements of support from one to the other.At the sub-altern level too, people tend to build bridges across caste. But the issue is rather complex and perhaps in need of more academic research. FN
