I enjoyed reading the article written by Jason Keith Fernandes on "Sneezing at the Brahmanical Polemics at the Global Goan Convention.
In a letter I had published in the Goan Chaplaincy Contact magazine in London I had written "Caste", "class" or whatever other name you wish to use, may be based on a different system, but exists in societies all over the world, not just among Goans. In England, predominantly a Christian country, you have the aristocracy class, the upper middle class, the middle class, the lower middle class and the working class which still exist today just as you have the "Bamons", the "Chardos", the "Mahars" and the "Kunbis" in Goa. Those of you who appear thankful that the "class" system has evaporated in the Western world will, I am sure, have their belief shattered if they spend time in "villages" in England speaking to the "gentry" there. In an article by Kevin Hobson "The Indian Caste System and the British", he states "The caste system has been a fascination of the British since their arrival in India in the 18th century. Coming from a society that was divided by class, the British attempted to equate the caste system to the class system. As late as 1937 Professor T. C. Hodson stated that: "Class and caste stand to each other in the relation of family to species. The general classification is by classes, the detailed one by castes." However, I agree with what Jason Keith Fernandes concludes "Merely because it has gained credibility over time however does not make it right, it only makes the task of dealing with it, and the sneaky manner in which it secretes itself into our work, that much more difficult." Rose Fernandes Surrey United Kingdom
