since i have been accused of writting exclusively about the brahmin catholics, i now request for a little more space on the goanet from messrs. Herman and Frederick to deal with the chardo catholic
these two gentlemen together with their associates have created a wonderful medium where goans can express themselves without fear of being subjected to harassment by the powerful sections of the goan community.; it is the experience of this writer for over thirty years that anything that is even remotely agains our two 'upper'castes was immediately thrown in the waste paper basket by the scribes of our newspapers obviously to please their bosses. manusmrti, the vade mecum of casteism consists of 12 chapters out of which only 3 chapters ( 7 to 9 ) are devoted to hindu ruling classes i.e. maharajahs and rajahs and who rightly belong to the kshatriya caste and the remaining 9 chapters belong to brahmins. this vade mecum makes only passing references to the other two castes i.e. vaisyas ( traders and farmers ) and sudras. you will be surprised to know that besides the four castes there are four more classes in the hindu society i.e. outcasts, untouchables, outlaws and aliens. i dont know from where the word chardo originated, but it would appear that it sounds more like a portuguese version, the word that is commonly used by goans is chhaddi, but i have a feeling that the well to do among the chardos like bhatkars, gaumkars, and jonnkars do not like this term as it is closely akin in pronunciation to a swear word in konkani. so i shall stick to the word chardo the land owning farmers whether the big ones in india like zamindars or small ones like goan bhatkars are known as jats in hindi heartland and as marathas in maharashtra and they are all vaisyas by caste. to the best of my knowledge no jats or marathas have ever claimed to be kshatriyas by caste. if i am not mistaken vaisyas are not even entitled to the thread ceremony that exclusive ritual confined only to the higher castes. the exception was shivaji who hailed from landowning class of marathas. he freed maharashtra from the mughal rule and proclaimed himself king and hence became a kshatriya. but marathas in general were never given the status of kshatriyas except in our beloved goa. the chardos approached the patriarch and requested him that their confraria should be treated as that of kshatriya and gave the example of shivaji's coronation as king. the patriarch readily agreed and so it came to pass that goa has a substantial population pseudo-kshatriyas who along with the pseudo-brahmins had for four centuries formed the backbone of the pax iberum antonio