Cornel--
With all due respect, your pursuit of the subject of caste is getting to be
very tiresome. Of course, one has the option to use the delete button but I
am often curious as to what drives you on and so the impulse to quickly read
as to what you have to say.
It would be helpful if you were to cite some examples of your suffering
persecution at the hands of the bamons. Growing up in Goa in the fifties, I
was never exposed to any spectacles of such persecution. We all lived
together harmoniously, the cristaos, hindus and the muslims--we were
interdependent. This was a culture inherited over the centuries and we
managted to get along despite our
----- Original Message -----
From: "CORNEL DACOSTA" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "Goa's premiere mailing list, estb. 1994!" <goanet@lists.goanet.org>;
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Sunday, April 06, 2008 8:45 AM
Subject: Re: [Goanet] LIMERICK FOR THE DAY 58 - CASTE AND THE CHURCH
Hi Anand Virgincar and Gilbert Lawrence among others.
Further to Anand's statement below, I am rather
intrigued that among my respondents, several
'Catholic' Goans have expressed firmer adherence to
caste, and as apologists, than our Hindu Goanetters
who have contacted me on this issue. Of course, with a
non representative and small sample, one cannot draw
conclusions but I am nevertheless most perplexed by
what on earth sustains many Catholics to the evil of
caste, some 500 years after conversion to
Catholicism--to the extent of even celebrating their
membership and adherence to caste!
Is it possible that although one does not inherit
caste biologically, the reality of socialisation and
indoctrination into caste by 'Catholic' parents into
their offspring has been incredibly sustained and
intense? Or is it possible that 'Catholic' caste
adherents feel more vulnerable without the crutch of
caste, especially among those less endowed in the
cranial department? Or even perhaps, by drawing on
Anand's point about knowing right from wrong on caste,
has this key characteristic among most humans, been
blunted by the very Catholicism in Goa that, has never
indicated that caste practise is wrong and
unacceptable within the Catholic faith and has
consequently, effectively 'nurtured' and accommodated
it through the historical hegemony provided to caste
adherents by the Bishopric itself, and the senior
Catholic clergy who wield symbolic and real network
power in Goa?
The more I look into this utter nonsense of caste
among the so called Catholics in Goa, the more I
discover about this distinct form of brown on brown
racism ever so embedded where it should definitely not
be for the simple reason that Roman Catholicism has no
caste in terms of belief, ideology and theology.
Consequently, it is my considered view that, any
contamination of Catholicism in this respect, should
be expunged as a matter of some urgency through the
leadership of the Church itself in Goa.
Cornel DaCosta, London, UK
PS If the Church acts as suggestted by me above, I
have ascertained from significant numbers of Catholic
priests as well as the laity, that there is no fear
that any such necessary Church action repudiating
caste will lead to an exodus from the Church---just in
case this is a niggling fear for the Archbishop.
--- anand virgincar <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
wrote:
> I can confidently say that I speak for tens of
thousands of educated ( and by educated I do not refer
to college degrees only but to
awareness of what is right and what is wrong )
Hindu's in Goa
THE CASTE SYSTEM IN THE HINDU FAITH IS ONE OF
THE GREATEST EVILS EVER DESIGNED BY HUMANKIND.
THOSE WHO CONTINUE TO USE THE CASTE FACTOR TO
DISCRIMINATE AGAINST OTHERS ARE STUPID AND
ABHORABLE CREATURES AND A DISGRACE TO THE HUMAN
RACE.
Signed/-
Dr Anand Virgincar
Oxford, UK
