I have very carefully gone through the write ups by several writers and still there is more who are continuing their debate in the Goanet news;
Fr. Victor Ferrao’s who is the Rector in the Seminary of Rachol, stated that “There were no Hindus in Goa before the Portuguese landed” seems to have generated a debate amongst the Goans on the Cyber space. The Indian philosophy of life has existed since time immemorial. Unlike organised religious of the world Hinduism still exists as a way of life, which blends religiosity with spirituality. Across India the complexity of Hinduism is extremely difficult to trace. Just as it is difficult to see air but one can feel it, Hinduism although may not have emerged as an organised faith amongst its people, it has always remained as a part of life amongst our people. We in India always exhibited diverse tendencies in our life style, from worshiping forces of nature, its elements, and the biodiversity. We have evolved ourselves to revering several thousands of Gods in human form or even hybrids of man with animal forms. Respect for life, sustainability and interactive understanding has made India as a tolerant nation. Slowly Hinduism in its original form is slowly loosing its meaning a fundamentalism of organised religious groups has slowly driven some of those practicing Hinduism to organize themselves as a form of religion to counter the effects of those forming the organised religious group. Offshoot of Hinduism is Buddhism which is the response to the system of caste discrimination. Goa during the pre Portuguese era certainly had a philosophy of life may be different from that practiced by those from the North or South India. Our fore fathers did not live in a vacuum and the spirituality and religiosity was unique, distinctive and amalgamation of the various tribes which migrated into and made Goa their home. Let us not demean and denigrate our ancient heritage and a far tolerant Goan culture by blanket ascertain to or, contrary to the existence of Hindus in Goa. Goa is a peaceful and a happy state due to our rich ancient culture passed down in our blood. Each area has its own way of life which is different from other regions of India, hence Hinduism cannot be marketed strictly in one form only and therefore there is unity in diversity in Hinduism. Only in recent times, fanatics are trying to destroy the time essence of Hinduism which is which and stood test of times. Let us not fall prey to this distortion. Hence I would like to give my readers an example how we Goans are pulling down one and other.. I might give you a simple example of a local fisherwoman who gave a reply to a British woman who was a tourist in Goa and I was stunned to hear that reply: White Lady said: Look at the crabs in your basket, they are coming up and may be you should take care that they won’t fall out. Fisherwoman said: You do not worry my dear Lady, these crabs are Goans and not from the Britain. Our Goans crabs are so smart that they know how to pull them down by each other and they will never fall out from my basket. This is our Goan Crab mentality. Stephen Dias D.Paula Mob: 9422443110