Where the grass is greener By Augusto Pinto
Every family passes on some family lore from generation to generation, although the details, if inconvenient and especially if undocumented, will tend to get a little fuzzy, and in the retelling will assume a more dignified form which will enhance the self-esteem of the tale-tellers' families. Among Goan Christians, chances are that their guppas will be linked to foreign lands. This is partly because many Cristaos have ingrained in themselves the belief that 'Goeiam ravum munis zaina' (one cannot amount to anything much, living in Goa). The material benefits that emigration has given to relatives, neighbours and friends has engendered this belief. The Bomoikars, the tarvottis, the Africanders and the Gulfis are some of those who have regaled Goans who have listened to them open mouthed, at some time or another. Some of these tales are hilarious and incredible, and some are full of pain and suffering -- tales of family members who were lost at sea; or were victims of political vicissitudes; or economic disaster. But although all these stories are poignant to the families who have gone through such crises, do they have any importance beyond the sentimental? Here lies the significance of Selma Carvalho's first book: 'Into The Diaspora Wilderness: Goa's Untold Migration Stories from the British Empire to the New World', Goa: Goa 1556 / Broadway Publishing House, 2010. Her research on the Goan diaspora reveals how the Goan Catholic community constructed and reconstructed itself as it emigrated. The 'Diaspora' book examines how and why large numbers of Goan Catholics began to leave Goa from the eighteenth century onwards for economic reasons. This is a phenomenon which continues up to the present, one effect of which is that Catholics are now a minority in Goa, where once their upper classes ruled the roost. Carvalho's story does not explain how and why Goa is slowly becoming a land devoid of innocence, where murder and rape and drugs are the staple diet of the daily newspapers; or why it is becoming the preferred homeland of both an elite cosmopolitan Indian as well as the proletariat of different states, and also a haven for desirable and not so desirable foreigners. But an understanding of Goan emigration, which is what the 'Diaspora' book offers, is an important background to understanding today's immigrant influx into Goa. For Goa's emigrants created the vacuum which others now fill. Carvalho shies away from calling her book a history. It is in fact a well written history of the emigrant Goan community, one which a professional historian would be hard pressed to write. That's because her narration is framed by her personal experiences in four different countries: born in Goa, brought up in Dubai, she graduated in Goa and then went back to the Gulf where she worked; but after she got married, she lived in America for several years before relocating to Britain. Her observations, and the anecdotes of a large circle of acquaintances embellish the book. This is garnished by insights from a wide variety of published sources; and also hitherto unpublished manuscripts. The letters and memos of the political agents of the British that she has unearthed in the British Library reveal much about Goan life of earlier times. At times the book gives the feel of a novel. For instance the second chapter starts: 'As the first peek of summer spread over Europe thawing the ground with lashings of warm rain, Robert Walpole was in a rather exited state.' A pedant might question how Carvalho could know what Walpole's mental state was when he learnt that the Portuguese wanted to sell Goa to the Dutch in 1772, but this style does make for good reading. Her literary grace also results from the book's careful structuring. The text moves deftly between diverse periods of time -- such as the 18th century when the Marquis de Pombal almost sold Goa, to later eras when Goans were going in droves to the British possessions, and later to the Gulf for employment around the middle of the last century. The narrative frequently moves in flashback, to carefully examine for instance, the behaviour of the Afrik'kars as she calls the Goan Africanders, in an omniscient narrator fashion told by Carvalho with the occasional neat turn of phrase that makes the reader to smile. Also, the book moves in space with ease from domestic uncertainties in Goa, to the tarvottis' oceanic home, to East Africa, the Gulf, Europe and to America. The book deals in depth with Goa after the Portuguese had managed to create a well-structured but in-egalitarian colony with a whole lot of inhabitants who had aspirations which they could not fulfill in this feudal economy. It observes how a well-heeled Portuguese-speaking Bamon and Chardo landed aristocracy had been nurtured to oversee the rest of the public, along with a Church hierarchy that essentially came from the same class, and Saraswat traders who provided the economic backbone. But the rest, which included not only the Bahujan Samaj, the 'lower' caste Sudras or Mahars Cristaos, and tribes like the Gauddas and Kunbis, but also the poorer Bamons and Chardos, had to put up with the shenanigans of the rich -- some of which are documented sardonically by Francisco Joao da Costa who used the pseudonym Gip, in his 19th century novel 'Jacob e Dulce'. This foreshadows the dominance the British would exert over the psyche of the Goan Christian as their shipping industry; their colonies in India and East Africa; and their protectorates in the Gulf became magnets for underprivileged Goans. 'Diaspora' dwells considerably on the Arabian Gulf but first after noting the linkages between the Arab traders and the Portuguese. The Arabs have used Goa as an entry port, sometimes legally, sometimes not, for their trading activities from medieval times until after India's Independence, when imports of foreign goods were banned. During this time Goa was a convenient conduit for smuggled goods that could make a good killing in the Indian market, both for them and their Goan and Indian collaborators. But around the mid-twentieth century, with the discovery of huge oil reserves in the Gulf, and the emergence of shrewd rulers like Sheikh Rashid bin Said al Maktoum of Dubai, who weakened and subsequently eliminated the stranglehold of British political agents, things changed. Now there was a need for an army of clerical and other staff to man the properties of the Arabs, and Goans of different classes rushed to fill in the vacuum. It was a society which was unequal and unjust, but the Gulfie as the Dubaikar and Kuwaitkar and Bahrainkar who emigrated there was called, swallowed his pride and worked conscientiously, longing for the day when he could go back to Goa on a holiday to earn some admiration from his fellow Goans who did not have his good fortune in benefiting from the Arabian black gold mine. Incidentally Carvalho points out that in Arab lands, where women are notoriously denied their fundamental rights, it is ironic that Goan women were able to empower themselves by gaining employment there, to support their families back home. At times this financial independence had to be earned at the price of mental and sexual harassment as has been narrated in Damodar Mauzo's Konkani novel 'Karmelin'. 'Diaspora' moves back and forth, from the time when after the tarvottis had established that there was a decent living to be obtained in the British Colonies to the time when the Goan emigrant began to move to the West. The book also documents their emigration to various parts of British India, moving to places like Burma (the subject of 'Songs of the Survivors' by Yvonne Vaz Ezdani), and fanning out to African colonies like Kenya, Tanganyika, Uganda, Malawi and South Africa. But by the 1960s, African freedom movements began their inexorable march towards independence, and Goans who had identified themselves too closely with the interests of the British, began to nervously pack their bags (although to be fair there were some egalitarian Goans like Pio Gama Pinto, Fritz D'Souza, and the part Goan Joseph Zuzarte Murumbi, the Indian educated second Vice President of Kenya, who had espoused the cause of the African). Some came back to India, but a large number chose the greener grass of Britain, Canada, America and Australia. But in these migrations many of these overseas Goan Christians drifted further and further away from their umbilical cords -- the land of Goa and the language of Konkani, creating a class of Goans who had little connection with India. Selma Carvalho is very typically Goan in the sense that she glorifies her own caste the Chardos, in the subtle manner that Maria Aurora Couto's 'A Daughter's Story' celebrated the Cristao Bamons and their links with the Hindu Saraswats. 'Diaspora' controversially suggests that the tarvottis and other early emigrants out of Goa were mainly the Chardos from Salcette. Chances are more likely that Goa's emigrants and even tarvottis came from a variety of Catholic communities ranging from tailors to toddy-tappers, but they also would come from the Bamon belt of North Goa, that spreads across Sangolda, Saligao, Assagao, Moira and Aldona. A clue as to why Bamons would be among the early Goan emigrants are the Goan English medium schools that first opened in Bamon Bardez villages -- like St Joseph's in Arpora, Mater Dei in Saligao and Liceu de Sacre Couer in Parra. These schools gave children a grounding in English in Goa itself, so that parents did not need to send their children to places like Bombay and Poona and Belgaum and Hubli and Jabbalpore. This English grounding enabled them to take up jobs in British ships and colonies. Details such as these aside, 'Into the Diaspora Wilderness' is a book that provides deep insight into the Goan Christian's personality. It describes how they evolved from traditional Hindu roots, where they were no different from other Konkan communities, to becoming global citizens. While it is a saga regarding which Goans themselves should engage in serious introspection about, before they make their way ahead, it is also a story which other middle class Indians would do well to study. For they too are now treading a similar path and will encounter similar pitfalls that the Goans in the past have had to negotiate their way across. * * * First published in the Herald. The author can be contacted at: Augusto Pinto, 40, Novo Portugal, Moira, Bardez, Goa, India E pinto...@gmail.com or ypinto...@yahoo.co.in P +91-832-2470336 M +91-9881126350 * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Now available in Toronto, a few copies of *Into The Diaspora Wilderness* by Selma Carvalho. Contact Bosco D'Mello bo...@goanet.org (416) 803-7264 http://selmacarvalho.squarespace.com/