ARCHIVES ON THIS SUBJECT RE-VISITED: colaco.net/ The Caste System of India ... A curious oxymoron is the presence and practice of the caste system among the Roman Catholics of Goa and Mangalore. For centuries ... www.colaco.net/1/caste.h ________________ CASTE STRUCTURE http://www.webindia123.com/goa/people/caste.htm
In Goa, the Bamonn or the Brahmins belonged to the originally priestly class taking upon other occupations like agriculture, trade and commerce (merchants), gold smithy etc. The Chaddho or the Kshatriyas were the noblemen, warriors and related soldiery taking up commercial avocations also. The Vaishya-Vanis were engaged in trade and among them were the 'shetts' or goldsmiths pursuing the craft of gold and gold ornaments. The Sudir or the Sudras were the workers and agricultural labourers engaged in the servicing professions. The Gavddi or Kunnbi were the landless labourers, earlier dislodged by the above high castes and living in their own wards in the village. There were the Gauddo or Gaudde, probably the Vaishya counterparts in Goa of the neighbouring Karnataka's Gowda, as there is 'Gaud' found in the Canacona taluka of Goa on Karnataka's border. The caste structure in Goa was somewhat like pre-eminence in the social hierarchy based on the nobility of blood, very much resembling the idea of family nobility in the rest of India. All the castes or rather sub-castes or jatis like Saraswats, Karades, Chitpavans, Padhyes etc. among the various segments of the population of Goa, particularly the goldsmiths and some merchants probably, as seen from the surnames of members of communes purportedly all- Brahmin, were lumped into the Christian caste of Bamonn or Brahmin. The various groups among the Kshatriyas or locally known as Chaddho were mainly the noble and warrior class. Some of them engaged in the trading profession, known as Chatim, which was an occupational appellation common to Brahmins also. The caste appellation of Chaddho gradually fell into disuse. Later among the Hindus of this caste in Goa who did not embrace Christianity began preferring the appellation of Maratha. The Marathas and Vanis were incorporated into the Christian caste of Chaddho . Those of the Vaishya-Vani caste men who could not get themselves merged as Christian Bamonn or Chaddho, appear as Gauddo in place in Bardez Taluka of Goa, among Christians and those among the Hindu remnants of this caste in the present Canacona taluka etc. Gauddo caste among Christians is treated as one of the three high castes. It is believed that large number of Vaishya-Vanis emigrated to the adjoining district of Sindhudurg in Maharashtra. Their descendants trace their origin to Goa and the flight of their ancestors at the time of the conversion fever. The Christian counterpart of the Hindu Vani is the Gauddo Christian caste. The goldsmiths call themselves 'Daivednya Brahmins' and are known in Goa as 'Shetti'. they were put into the Christian caste of Sudir or Sudras, which is a lower caste. They did not get into the caste deemed superior because they were known as 'Panchal' or the artisan group of castes. The aboriginal stock in Goa is known as the 'Gavddi', is a higher caste. The Christian convert of the Gavdi aboriginal was termed as Kunbi. The Kunbis are found in large number in the Salcete taluka than in any other taluka of Goa. At the time of the conversions carried out by the Portuguese missionaries, there were untouchables like the 'Mahara' and Chambars, who were converted to Christianity. They are found in Chandor village. Chambars have later merged with the Sudras among Christians. Bamonn and Chaddho are the two advanced castes among the Hindus in Goa. They continued to attach their caste to the Christian names and surnames even after conversion. The first mass baptisms or conversions to Christianity were effected in the two prominent villages in the vicinity of the then city of Goa, Divar Island and Carambolim villages, the first of the Bamonn and the second of the Chaddho. The majority of the total number of village communes converted to Christianity belonged to the two high castes. The priests in the Goan community should be recruited from the Bamonn and Chaddho. At some places the Christian name, is mentioned along with the old Hindu name while at others the Christian name is mentioned with the person's father name in the Hindu original or in case of the father being a Hindu. The surnames of Poi, Kamat or Vamotim, Desai Kudav, Naik, Prabhu or Porbu etc. are common to both the high castes of Bamonn and Chaddho. Christian Bahmonns and Chaddhos are the two leading rival classes among the Goan's. The continued maintenance of the caste system among the Christians in Goa is attributed to the mass conversions of entire villages, as a result of which the religious complexion of the whole village was given a new coat of Christianity without affecting its age-old social structure which was rooted in caste foundations. The old usages and customs and age-old traditions, including superstitions of a varied order, especially the caste-system were transferred. The Portuguese, fearing the relapses of their coverts to Hinduism, destroyed all available material reminiscent of the old religion including literary works which are stated by historians to have been in Konkani, mainly religious or socio-religious in nature. __________ Read more below: __________ Title : Social history of Goa Author : I. Arul Aram Publication : The Hindu Date : May 27, 1997 Goa - A Social History (1510- 1 40): P. D. Xavier; Rajhauns Vitaran, Minaxi Building, Wolfango de Silva Marg, Panaji, Goa-403001. Rs. 300. The book, based on the author's doctoral thesis, documents the historical evolution of the Goan society spread over 1 30 years. The period of study covers the early years of Portuguese rule. The author presents both the good and the bad aspects of Portuguese rule with specific references to the Indo-Portuguese cultural conflicts, role of the church and the crown, the system of slavery, the status of women and the type of education. Two curious aspects ofthe rule are that they were the first to arrive anti the last to depart from India and unlike the other Europeans, they were religious fanatics and played all tricks to convert their subjects. According to the author the Portuguese came to Asia not only for spices but also for promoting Christianity. They succeeded in transforming the Hindu- Muslim dominated society of Goa into a western-dominated one. "The frenzy of the (Catholic) religious orders in Goa, the unethical methods they adopted to change overnight the long established customs and traditions hallowed by and embedded in the religion of the land, the privileges and immunities they showered upon the converts, the banishment of the stoutly refuting and refusing orthodox Hindus and the confiscation of their properties, were indeed the catalytic agents of social change." A large number of Muslims Including women and children were put to death, in the Portuguese conquest of Goa from the Sultans of Bijapur. They considered Muslims their greatest enemy as they monopolised the trade in the cast. But the lives of good looking young wives and daughters of the slain Muslims were spared only to marry them to Portuguese nationals willing to settle down in Goa. Non-Christians did not enjoy privileges. Persecution laws were passed and Goans were compelled to embrace either Christianity or emigrate from Goa. Hindus were forbidden to celebrate their feasts and festivals. Although caste was unpalatable to the church, the upper caste converts considered themselves superior to the converts from other castes, and never allowed the other converts to celebrate church feasts. The church ultimately succumbed to the caste system among the converts and passed resolutions to select only men of upper castes to be ordained priests. Though the Portuguese and the church professed that they did not believe in racial discrimination, the higher positions in the army, navy. civil administration, judiciary, municipality and even in the church hierarchy were filled only with the whites. Converted Christians too Were given jobs in government and church offices, but only in lower cadres. Temples and mosques were destroyed and churches were built over them. The lands belonging to some destroyed temples were handed over to St. Paul's College, which served as a great centre of learning attracting students even from other parts of India as well as abroad. Long before the conquest of Goa by the Portuguese, Konkani was the language of the Goans. Later, there were Marathi, Kannada and Persian influences. The Portuguese used their language as the lingua franca and made it the medium of instruction in seminaries, colleges and parish schools. Education remained with the Church just as in medieval Europe. Only in 1773 a secular, official and graded education started in Goa. The church also built hospitals as a tool for converting Hindus. The clerics also assisted the poor, consoled the weak and gave alms to the needy. The life of St. Francis Xavier had a profound influence on the natives. The Christian women enjoyed property rights, they could move out freely, converse with strangers, and their opinions were sought whenever a new scheme was launched. The freedom enjoyed by the Christian women influenced [lie Hindu outlook. A law was passed to prevent child marriage which enabled girls not only to receive education but also to have a say in choosing their partners. The church encouraged widow remarriage and championed against sail and also burying them alive. Just as in the rest of medieval India, the Portuguese used a number of slaves as domestic servants and farm hands in Goa. Since slave trade was a lucrative business the church accepted slavery: but it asked the Portuguese masters to be kind towards their slaves. to teach them catechism, to give them food and clothing. Several restrictions were pat on non-Christian slave traders. The clerics in Goa tried to convert as many slaves as they could. The converts were forced to adopt western ways of life. But to satisfy the Indian mind, the Jesuits at St. Paul's College composed Christian Puranas which was read in churches and homes. Also the craze for image worship was satisfied with the procession of crosses and holy pictures. The author rightly regrets the "artificial insemination of Portuguese culture in the womb of the Goan society." But for the fact that no convert was allowed to use any Hindu name or caste name, to wear dothi or saree, to apply tilak or wear nose ring, to celebrate the wedding in oriental style. the Goan Christians would not have got culturally alienated from the rest of Indians. The book makes for interesting reading about the factors that went into the making of enchanting Goa. http://www.hvk.org/articles/0597/0260.html ______ Orlando Ribeiro, a renowned Portuguese geographer-historian, whose recently published Goa em 1956: Relatório ao Governo (Lisboa, CNCDP, 2000) refers to “mestiçagem espiritual” in Goa, implying thereby what Gilberto Freyre, a Brazilian sociologist of Portuguese origin, on a Salazar-sponsored visit to Goa five years earlier, in 1951, to propagate “luso-tropicalismo”, defined as “unidade de sentimento e cultura”, meaning a common heritage of feelings and culture ( an expression appropriated by Orlando Ribeiro on pp. 82, 119 of his Report). Orlando Ribeiro’s academic credibility and relatively high degree of impartiality and critical perspective make his Report valuable for all interested in evaluating how much of the impact of the Portuguese in Goa was really lusotopic, lusophonic and lusophilic. Obviously Salazar did not like the report and it remained unknown till it was published recently by the Portuguese historian Fernando Rosas, with an introduction by Orlando Ribeiro’s wife Suzanne Daveau. Here follow some extracts translated from the Report: “My intimate being and my way of going about force me to be very frank and not to hide those aspects which are less pleasant, or to avoid those aspects which hurt our national feelings. I think that it is good to face the hard reality, however painful it may be to us. It is only this way we can avoid ambiguities, illusions and hesitations, and can know for sure on whom we can depend and what should be the ground for our decisions.” “Unlike elsewhere where the Portuguese, attracted by the coloured females had produced very quickly a mestiço population (população mestiçada), the rigidity of the caste system in Goa forced the Portuguese to produce only a new caste of descendentes. Albuquerque’s dream of creating a luso-indian population, as insistently recommended by D. Manuel, vanished very early. Only a few women, whose caste condemned them to low social status, sought to marry these foreigners to gain upward social mobility. ” “Unlike in Brazil, where so many illustrious and humble families proudly acknowledge their Portuguese origin and mixed descent; unlike in Cabo Verde, whose creole population feels very close to us, because of their old African slave-ancestors who shared the blood of their white masters, the Goans have preserved the purity of their caste, but yet reveal a surprising degree of assimilation of our habits and living style. Here we have only a spiritual miscegenation (mestiçagem espiritual). It is hard to believe though that no Portuguese blood runs into the veins of the rural aristocracy of Salcete or the old Christian families of Margão.” “Meantime, it is surprising to note the meagre presence of the Portuguese language among the Goan Christian population. Only the educated inhabitants speak Portuguese language correctly and fluently, and not rarely with remarkable eloquence. Many families in Margão use Portuguese to converse among themselves. But they use invariably Konkani with their servants, just as it happens with the generality of the village population. However, during feast celebrations, in the roadside conversations, in the dramatic performances, it is not difficult to pick up Portuguese words, like pai, mãe, família, casamento, sacramento, which reveal the deep influence of Portuguese language upon day-to-day lives of the people.” “I have known reasonably well the adjacent Islands and have a small book written on Madeira; I have visited all the Portuguese territories in Africa, starting from Mozambique, and have studied better Guinea and the islands of Cape Verde; I have spent four months in Brazil and observed its deep recesses; I have known something about the Muslim world since my days as student and after my visits to Morroco, Egypt and West Africa. I had thus acquired a good preparation to initiate my research in Goa. Goa appeared to me as the least Portuguese of all the Portuguese territories I had seen so far, even less than Guinea, which was pacified in 1912! I had witnessed a near total ignorance of our language, the persistence of a society, not only strange and indifferent, but even hostile to our presence, our limited influence, encrusted as a schist in the body of renascent Hinduism, all this has left me very disillusioned about Goa.” Unlike in Portuguese Africa, where the expressions Metrópole and metropolitano are used with some discretion, in Goa it is common to hear the binary use of Province / Portugal and Goan Christian / Portuguese. That is how Portugal and the Portuguese are mentioned by Goans who share our language and customs, but not our feeling of patriotism. Pátria for a Goan is his Goa, not Portugal, and it is in Goa that they want to experience their freedom and their privileges. The Hindus in general and many Goan Christians as well, entertain ideas of closer relations with Índia and autonomy for their land.” “Twenty-three years ago I had gone on a boat-cruise to our Atlantic islands, and I remember the affection and warm welcome that was accorded to the Portuguese by the African populations. My longer visits to Guinea, Cabo Verde and São Tomé confirmed that experience. In Goa it is different. The predominant relationship is of distance and suspicion, when it is not an outright or camouflaged antipathy.” http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Forum/1503/RO_Relatorio.htm Gilbert Lawrence <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Gabriel de Figueiredo Hi Gabriel, I fully concur with your post. That's the way I was taught and brought up by my family, and my village in Goa and in my Catholic education in Goa and in Bombay. So I do not know where these guys come up with blanket statements. Of course there are going to be the odd-balls, as in any society, that don't have manners and etiquette. But to brand a community and / or institution for casteism is 'just off the top'! And some are confusing individuals who are ignorant and impolite as casteists. Well these folks are inconsiderate and boorish TOWARDS THEIR OWN CASTE members be they upper or lower. I like the title they have given themselves - Anti-Casteist. So what are the rest of us? Pro-Casteist? As some audaciously pigeon-hole us! Can you or someone elucidate what is meant by varying grades of Bamons (or any other caste)? To me one is or one is not! Does the term suggest like varying shades of pompousness? :=)) Regards, Gilbert