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TRI Continental Film Festival - Dona Paula, Goa, Sep 28 - Oct 2, 2007
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Folks,
I picked up this one on another site.
Mervyn3.0
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Multicultural Goans in Canada
Origins
Although Goans have come to Canada from several parts
of South Asia and East Africa, their identity is
defined by association with the small territory of
Goa. Only 3,700 square kilometres in size, Goa is
located on the western Malabar coast of India along
the Arabian Sea between the states of Maharashtra and
Karnataka. It is distinct from other lands on the
Indian subcontinent in that for over four and a half
centuries it was a colony of Portugal and as such was
known in the language of that country as Estado da
India ("The State of India").
The history of Goa, a rich trading post that until
1327 had been ruled by various Hindu dynasties and
thereafter by the Muslim rulers of Mogul India,
changed dramatically when in 1510 a Portuguese fleet
under Alfonso de Albuquerque arrived in the city.
Within a decade, the Muslim ruling elite was
eliminated and the city was transformed into a major
centre of commerce and trade between Europe and
Portugal's extensive colonial empire in
southeast Asia. Led by the missionary work of St
Francis Xavier, the local Hindu population was
converted to Roman Catholicism, and in 1557 Goa became
the seat of an archbishopric at the top of a Catholic
hierarchy spread throughout all Portuguese colonies in
this part of the world. Despite frequent attacks by
Portugal's overseas rival, the Dutch, the attempts of
the neighbouring Maharashtrian rulers to annex the
territory, and its gradual economic decline beginning
in the second half of the seventeenth century, Goa was
to remain a Portuguese colony until 1961-62, when it
was seized by India.
Goa was initially governed as a territory by the
central government of India, but in 1987 it became a
separate Indian state with its own government. Known
for its long white sandy beaches, its churches and
other architecture in Indo-Portuguese style, and its
still older Hindu temples, Goa has become the most
coveted spot for tourism along India's western
coast. The state's population of 1.2 million people is
divided between Hindus (65 percent) and Roman
Catholics (34 percent), with only a minuscule
number of Muslims. Two years after becoming an Indian
state, Goa adopted Konkani as its official language.
Konkani is a dialect of Marathi, an Indo-Aryan
language close to Hindi that is spoken in Goa as well
as in the bordering regions of Maharashtra.
Although during the period of colonial rule the
Portuguese offered full citizenship to all who became
Christian, they still maintained a rigidly
hierarchical distance between, on the one hand,
persons from Portugal and their descendants (called
Castees), and, on the other, native Goans who
converted to Christianity. Moreover, Portuguese names
of Goans do not mean necessarily that they are of
Portuguese descent, since at the time of baptism the
newly converted Hindus were given Portuguese names.
Those born in Goa of the unions between Portuguese men
and the local Konkani-speaking women were called
mustees, or mestiz, numerically a small group, who
were considered impure by the Goan Christians. In the
decades since Goa became part of India, the mestiz
have become assimilated to the Anglo-Indian community
although they have not always been accepted easily by
the rest of Indian society. Even though Konkani is the
state language, and some older Goans still know
Portuguese, English is the most widespread language in
use among Goans at home and abroad.
A Hindu from Goa once stated that, if ever there were
a colony on Mars, Goan Christians would be among the
first to go there. This sentiment expresses the
enterprising spirit and the propensity of Goan
Christians to emigrate across the ocean to distant
lands to seek their fortunes. In contrast, the
Hindus of Goa were not inclined to emulate their
Christian compatriots. As a result, the vast majority
of Goans abroad, including those in Canada, are
Christians. These people are the direct inheritors of
that distinct blend of Indian and Latin traditions
known as Indo-Portuguese culture. It is familiarity
with this culture that has made Goa's Christians
comfortable with the language, food, dress, music,
art, and architecture that they encounter in Western
countries.
Migration, Arrival, and Settlement
>From the mid-nineteenth century on, Goan Christians
began migrating in large numbers to territories
throughout British India, in search of better job
opportunities in cities such as Bombay and Karachi.
Because they were Christian, and familiar with
European culture, the Goans were acceptable to
the British, who also recruited them to work in the
British colonies of East Africa and Persian Gulf ports
such as Aden, where their vocational training
and clerical skills were in demand. Yet, even today,
Goans still resent the term "Goanese," which the
British used disparagingly to refer to Goan
Christians in lower-class service occupations, such as
cooks, tailors, butlers, waiters, and ayahs (nannies).
Although Goans started immigrating to Canada in the
1960s, it is estimated that over 90 percent of the
community arrived during the 1970s, a large number
from East Africa and Pakistan, and a smaller group
directly from Goa. Still more recently, there has been
an increasing number of Goan immigrants
to Canada from Middle Eastern countries. Regardless of
what country they may have left, the immigrants and
their descendants born in Canada identify as
Goans, not with the last country in which they resided
(if other than Goa). With regard to Hindus from Goa,
only a very few have emigrated; those who
are in Canada prefer to identify with Hindu
Maharashtrian Canadians from Goa's neighbouring state,
Maharashtra. Hence, the discussion about Goans in this
entry will focus on the Roman Catholic community.
Since Goans are not listed separately in Canadian
census data, no clear immigration and settlement
statistics are available. It is estimated that
there are approximately 13,000 in Ontario and 10,000
in the rest of Canada. The estimated total population
of 23,000 is calculated on the basis of the
membership in the Toronto-based Goan Overseas
Association (GOA), the Montreal-based Canorient
Christian Association (CCA), and Goan associations
and clubs in the cities of Hamilton, Ottawa, Winnipeg,
Edmonton, Calgary, and Vancouver.
Economic Life
Most Goans who immigrated to Canada were skilled or
semiskilled workers or professionals. Today, the Goan
community in Canada includes two provincial court
judges, many lawyers, a dozen presidents and
vice-presidents of corporations, architects,
engineers, accountants, government bureaucrats,
professors, teachers, doctors, and performing artists,
as well as owners and managers of small and mid-sized
businesses. Goans are also well represented
in semiskilled jobs, as mechanics, machine-tool
operators, factory workers, and supervisors and
workers in service industries. Currently,
approximately fifteen Goans are employed as policemen
in metropolitan Toronto, and one, who died in 1992,
had reached the rank of staff inspector, at the time
the highest rank that any ethnic officer had achieved
in Canada.
Community Life
In Toronto and Montreal, informal "village"
associations act as friendship and quasi-kin circles
for both established Goans and new immigrants. These
"village unions," as they were called in India, came
into existence as part of the large-scale immigration
of Goan Christians to Bombay in the late nineteenth
century. One of their main purposes was to celebrate
the feast of the patron saint of old home and thus
renew the immigrants' solidarity ties with their
native village. The institution of the village union
was replicated by Goan Christians in Pakistan, in East
Africa, and now in Canada, where these groups are
referred to as "socials," "organizations, " or
"associations. " In Toronto, there are fourteen
loosely structured associations that routinely
celebrate the feasts of the village unions' patron
saints, as well as other religious events in the city.
Announcements of village feasts are posted in Goan
newsletters in Toronto. It remains to be seen whether
second-generation Goans in Canada will preserve the
links that their parents are maintaining with their
ancestral villages in Goa.
There are also more formal associations. The Goan
Overseas Association (GOA), founded in 1970 and based
in Toronto, describes itself as a "non-religious
sociocultural association. " It is the largest Goan
organization in Canada, and indeed in North America,
with branches in Montreal, Winnipeg, Calgary, and
Vancouver. A major proportion of its members are Goans
from East Africa. The Goan Overseas Association
publishes a quarterly newsletter, Pulse. It sponsors a
full and varied annual calendar of events, including
horseback riding, a Gold Cup field-hockey tournament,
a Gold Cup dance, a boat cruise, a symposium, a family
day, a seniors' Ladhainah (Catholic liturgy), a
celebration of the feast of St Francis Xavier (the
patron saint of Goa), a children's Christmas Mass, and
Christmas
and New Year's dances.
The oldest Goan association in Canada was the
Indo-Pakistani Christian Association, founded in
Montreal in 1965. By 1969 it had a membership of 100.
>From this association emerged the Canorient Christian
Association (CCA), incorporated in 1971, with
headquarters in Montreal. It publishes a newsletter
called Contact . The association established a chapter
in Toronto in 1974, and another in Ottawa in 1987. Its
membership is made up largely of
immigrants from the South Asian subcontinent.
Initially, there was rivalry between the GOA and the
CCA but, in the 1980s, it diminished and the
associations began to sponsor joint cultural and
social activities. The CCA's cultural centre in
Toronto has been made available to the GOA for its
social occasions. The latter group has now purchased
land in the Toronto area on which to build its own
centre. The two associations celebrate the New Year
separately, each sponsoring its own gala New Year's
dance, one of the most important events in the year
for Goan Christians.
In order to bring the second generation into the
larger Goan community, the Goan Overseas Association
established a youth wing in 1978, and in 1982 it
added a Youth Development Secretary. The GOA now
offers more community-based social events that are
popular among Goan young people, and attendance at
its social functions has been as high as 300. A Young
Adults Committee has also been formed within the GOA.
Other Goan Christian associations in Canada are
following the GOA's lead in bringing Goan youth into
their social and cultural activities. The CCA, for
example, has always had a large body of Goan young
people participating in its activities, but it has
only recently formally recognized their separate needs
and interests. Goan young people, for their part, are
using their positions in the associations to question
their parents' old-world Goan values, the place of
young Goans in Canadian society, and their Goan
ethnicity. Their self-examination and the
intergenerational debates that it leads to are a sign
of the vitality of the Goan community. In 1977 a Goan
senior citizens' group started its own organization in
the greater Toronto area. Organized into eastern,
western, and central zones, it has established a
friendship network among Goan seniors.
Other organizations serve the large community in the
Toronto area. These include the Goan Charitable
Organization, an arm of the GOA that assists
Goans and other Canadians with their financial needs.
There are also associations reflecting "new faces"
within the Goan Christian community in Toronto, the
Konkani-speaking immigrants from several Middle
Eastern countries, who are forming their own Goan
associations to sponsor dances and socials for their
communities. There are also associations in other
cities in Canada: the Vancouver Goan Association, the
Edmonton Goan Association, the Calgary Goan
Association, the Goan Association of Manitoba in
Winnipeg, and the Quebec Goan Association in Montreal.
Kinship, Family, and Religion
Conversion to Christianity did not fundamentally alter
pre-existing elements of Goa's Hindu caste hierarchy
and values, and Brahmin-Christians and
Chardo-Christians, for example, maintained their caste
superiority by intermarrying among themselves. The
pride of belonging to a Brahmin-Christian family still
persists among first-generation Goan
immigrants to Canada. However, younger Goans, who were
born in Canada or arrived as children, have not only
crossed the old caste barriers by marrying spouses
from other castes within the Goan Christian community,
but, in several cases, have chosen their spouses from
outside the Goan community. The issues of dating,
courtship, and inter-caste and interracial marriages
frequently lead to intergenerational conflicts in
Goan-Canadian families.
Goan Christians in Canada are active members of the
Roman Catholic Church. They do not have their own
parishes but worship regularly at local Catholic
churches with mainstream Canadian or inter-ethnic
congregations and they participate actively in the
activities of their parishes, both religious and
social. Church attendance is fairly high. Goan village
associations in Canada frequently are named after
Roman Catholic patron saints from the South Asian
homeland.
Culture
Most first-generation Goans in Canada speak Konkani,
an Indo-Aryan language, as their mother-tongue. Few
learned the language formally in school, however,
since Konkani only became the official language of Goa
in 1989, and only now is taught in schools. Goans
recognize that speaking Konkani is a key element in
maintaining their identity in Canada, and in the
larger communities of Toronto, Montreal, and
Vancouver, they have made an effort to organize
Konkani language classes for their children. In
addition, Konkani plays and skits are regularly
performed by Goan theatre groups in a few cities
across Canada, including the Goan Theatre Group that
functioned in the mid-1970s and the Goan Konkani
Troupe active since the 1990s, both in Toronto.
Goans in Canada see themselves as a fun-loving people
who enjoy dance, music, and food. They use the term
sosse gado to describe their equilibrium of mind,
which, they are convinced, is conducive to a fuller
enjoyment of life. The outward signs of this joyous
mental state are music, dance, and other performing
arts, including both Western and Goan theatre. These
activities are essential to Goans in Canada, and act
as a catalyst for frequent social gatherings.
Throughout the year, formal Western dances are
organized by the Goan associations in Canada to
celebrate numerous events, especially the New Year.
The New Year's dance sponsored by the Goan Overseas
Association in Toronto attracts as many as 1,200 Goans
every year. Unlike most South Asians, Goans are
interested in Western music. Since the nineteenth
century, Goa has produced several composers of Western
music, and Goan singers and performers on Western
musical instruments dominated the Western musical
scene in India. There are members of the Goans
community in Canada who are professional opera singers
and musicologists, while others perform as singers and
instrumentalists in local bands. Toronto Goans have
produced and directed well-known musicals, such as The
King and I in 1989 and Jesus Christ Superstar in 1994,
in which all the members of the cast were Goans.
Goans have also created their own music, known as
mando. Originally, mando was a sophisticated poetic
composition in Konkani, expressing themes of love
and separation, and describing traumatic political and
social happenings in the community. Mando poetry came
into vogue in the mid-nineteenth century,
at the same time that social dancing began, and the
mando was set to Western-style music and danced.
Today, competitions are held in Goa to maintain high
standards in this distinctive Goan art form, and mando
singing and dancing are regularly performed by Goan
groups in Canada.
An avid interest in sports binds Goans together in
Canada. Christians in Goa have been members of India's
national teams in football (soccer), field
hockey, and track and field since the early 1930s.
Their love of sports has been brought to Canada, and
Goan men and women have represented Canada in
international field hockey competitions. One of the
objectives in the founding of the Goan Overseas
Association was to facilitate sports activities among
the group in Canada. In Toronto the Overseas
Association annually holds track and field events and
sponsors an Ontario-wide Gold Cup field-hockey
tournament. The Edmonton Goan Association sponsors
badminton and field hockey and the Quebec Goan
Association sponsors darts teams.
Intergroup Relations and Group Maintenance
Despite their self-identification as Goans, their
Christian faith, their Portuguese names, and their
European lifestyle, Canadian society generally
perceives Goans as South Asians in terms of ethnicity
and race. Like other South Asian immigrants, Goans,
therefore, have had to bear discrimination from
Canadian society.
A first-generation Goan immigrant with a knowledge of
Portuguese finds it easier to communicate with
Portuguese Canadians. The Canadian-born second
generation often do not interact with the Portuguese
because of ignorance of the language and lack of
memory of a shared history. Racial difference also
is a hindrance to Portuguese-Goan social interactions.
On the other hand, Goans assimilate easily to the
Canadian-South Asian milieu. The closeness or distance
in relationship with South Asians varies, depending on
regional and class affiliation. In this regard, Goan
Christians will have more dealings with Hindus from
Goa, with whom they share common cultural traits, than
with
Christians from other parts of India.
Representatives of the two major Goan associations in
Canada, the CCA and the GOA as well as the Quebec Goan
Association, the Hamilton Goan Association, the Goan
Association of Winnipeg, the Calgary Goan Association,
the Edmonton Goan Association, and the Vancouver Goan
Association, came together for the Goan International
Convention, held in Toronto in 1988. The convention
was also attended by representatives from Goa, Africa,
Australia,
Great Britain, Malaysia, the Middle East, and the
United States. From this convention emerged a new
federation of Goan Christians called the
International Goan Organization (IGO). Its aim is to
coordinate the cultural, economic, and educational
activities of Goan Christians all over the world, and
to maintain close links between Goa and the Goan
diaspora.
As a direct result of the IGO's initiatives, young
people from the Goan Christian community in Canada
went to Goa to attend workshops and familiarize
themselves with the cultural and industrial life of
Goa, while individuals from Goa came to Canada to
acquire training in Canadian business management. An
international conference, "Goa: Continuity and
Change," was held by the IGO in association with the
Centre for South Asian Studies of the University of
Toronto in 1991. The activities of the International
Goan Organization support the desire of Goans in
Canada to become part of a larger network of overseas
Goans in order to encourage group solidarity and
make it possible for its members to retain their
ethnic identity.
The motto of the Goan Overseas Association - "work,
courage, unity" - also expresses the essential ethos
of the closely knit Goan community in Canada.
Perhaps more than any of the other South Asian
communities in Canada, Goans have the benefit of
Western cultural linkages, accumulated over four
centuries, to aid them in adapting to the Canadian
environment. Their love of Western dance and music,
their skill in sports, and their Christian faith
are socializing factors that have also helped Goans to
integrate with mainstream Canadian society. Yet their
desire to retain their Indo-Portuguese history and
culture, and to keep in contact with Goa as
their cultural centre, unites them to the larger South
Asian community in Canada.
Further Reading
A useful description and history of the Indian state
of Goa is James M. Richards, Goa (London, 1981). A
sociological study of rural Goa is in the volume by
Olivinho J.F. Gomes, Village Goa: A Study of Goan
Social Structure and Change (New Delhi, 1987).
For a brief introduction to Goan Christians in
Ontario, see Milton Israel, In the Further Soil: A
Social History of Indo-Canadians in Ontario (Toronto,
1994), 37-9. A very recent study of Goan identity,
culture, and history in both Goa and Canada is
Narendra Wagle and George Coehlo, eds., Goa:
Continuity and Change (Toronto, 1995).
N.K. WAGLE
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