Crossroads of Religions: Shrines, Mobility and Urban Space in Goa
ALEXANDER HENN
International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Volume
32.3 September 2008: 658-70 The definitive version is
available at www.blackwell-synergy.com.
Abstract
Wayside shrines -- representing Hindu and Catholic divinities
and saints -- show an astonishing dynamic in the cities of
Goa and India. Not only do they persist in a milieu of
drastic modern change that often seems to be at odds with
their traditional locations, aesthetics and purposes, but
also some of them surpass temples, churches and mosques in
popularity. The popularity of these seemingly marginal
religious monuments is a response to three forms of mobility
characterizing modern Indian urban environments: cultural
mobility -- the diversification and fluctuation of religious
ideas and practices; social mobility -- the diversification
and fluctuation of people from different castes, social
classes and geographical regions, as well as the change of
caste and class status due to socio-economic change; and
physical mobility -- the movement of and movement around
increasingly dense and complex flows of motorized traffic.
The shrines modify and transform the centuries-old
spatio-religious system of Hindus and Catholics to fit the
conditions of late-modern city life. They allow a culturally
diversifying, socially changing and geographically
fluctuating population to engage with a variety of
personalized deities and saints whose charismatic authority
is not only quite independent from formalized local social
hierarchies, but often also cuts across orthodox divisions
between religious traditions.
Introduction
One of the most conspicuous errors of modern social theory
has been the assumption that modernity would gradually
eliminate religion from the public sphere. This indicates
that modernization theory and Marxist theory both erred
considerably in arguing that religion would retreat into the
private sphere of individual belief or be replaced by the
demystifying objectivity of scientific rationalism.
Notably, however, the evidence today showing that this
prognosis was wrong comes not only from a late-modern
'religious resurgence' (Sahliyeh, 1990), which raises
concerns about an increase in religious conflicts and
violence in many parts of the world (Juergensmeyer, 2000).
Arguably, significant proof of the fact that
religion is standing its ground in modernity can
also be found in its persistence and growth in many
cities where, at times, it plays a rather
reconciling and appeasing role (Mayaram, 2005).
In order to argue the case for the persistence of religion in
the modern urban space, in this article I explore wayside
shrines in the cities of Goa.
Goa, to begin with, marks a special region within
the Indian nation (Newman, 1988). Its peculiarity
is owed to the fact that it was under Portuguese
rule and Catholic hegemony for almost half a
millennium (1510-1961), making it the longest-held
European colony on South Asian soil. The remnants
of this history, an odd blend of Hindu and
Catholic, Konkan and Lusitan traits, marginalized
Goa within India to the extent that, after its
liberation in 1961, it was on the verge of being
absorbed by neighboring Maharashtra.
Interestingly, however, the changes that India is
experiencing today, after the end of the Neruhvian planned
economy and with the opening up of the global market (Das,
2002), render Goa's once defamed colonial heritage into a
remunerative asset of its fast-growing tourist industry. The
successful marketing of Goa's exotic East-West blend to
domestic and international tourists is demonstrated by the
number of tourist arrivals increasing from 380,000 in 1980
(Government of Goa, Daman and Diu, 1981: 89) to 1,263,000 in
2000 (Government of Goa, 2001: 115).
The number of tourists visiting Goa every year, therefore,
roughly equals its population today, which is 1,343,998
(ibid.: i). More important still, the tourism boom exposes
Goa to a dynamic of urbanization that, notwithstanding the
comparatively small total figure of its urban population of
668,869 (ibid.: 3), compares with India's metropolitan
cities.
This can be highlighted by three observations. First, Goa
considerably exceeded all-India figures for decadal urban
growth in the period 1991-2001 (Goa 39.77%, all-India 31.13%)
(ibid.: ii). Second, with regard to other urbanization
markers, such as cultural diversification, media exposition,
consumer culture and motorized traffic, Goa's figures are
disproportionately increasing due to the impact of its
tourism industry and the large number of domestic and
international tourists. Finally, urbanization and
urbanization-like processes are developing in Goa, not only
in the vicinity of its four major cities -- Panjim, Mapusa,
Marmagao and Margao -- but also in a number of coastal areas
where tourism agglomerations are formally under village
administration yet, for practical purposes have an urban
character.
Wayside shrines are neither exclusively urban nor modern
phenomena, but are rooted in an old tradition of associating
religious monuments and, more precisely, gods or saints
believed to reside at particular localities with spatially
defined communities. This notwithstanding, I would point out
that the shrines constitute a form of religiosity that today
serves the needs and articulates the concerns of the urban
population in a particular way and, therefore, has become
especially popular in Goan cities.
I will attempt to show that, even though the shrines are
generally quite simple structures, many of which seem to be
stylistically at odds with modern milieus or placed at
locations where they almost founder in the midst of heavy
traffic, they not only persist in the rapidly changing urban
environment, but have even grown in number and public appeal
in recent years to such an extent that some of them are
competing in social significance with long-established
temples and churches.
How can this striking persistence and popularity of seemingly
marginal religious monuments in the urban space be explained?
I would suggest that the religiosity dedicated to the shrines
successfully negotiates centuries-old structures and values
that manifest the sacred in locality and space with the needs
and concerns of people facing rapid socio-cultural change and
mobility. In particular, the shrines, more successfully than
the temples and churches, respond to three forms of mobility
that occur more markedly in the urban environment: cultural
mobility -- the diversification and fluctuation of religious
ideas and practices; social mobility -- the diversification
and fluctuation of people belonging to different castes,
social classes and coming from different geographical
regions, as well as the change of caste and class status due
to socio-economic change; and finally, physical mobility --
the movement of and movement around increasingly dense and
complex flows of motorized traffic.
Religion, space and social order
The relationship between sacred beings,
geographical space and social order is deeply
rooted in Goa (Henn, 2005), and India for that
matter. This means not only that all significant
spaces and locations within and outside Goan
settlements are associated with one or several
sacred patrons, but also the worship dedicated to
the territorial patrons distinctly reflects and
enacts the social order of the communities
worshipping them.
For Hindus, the center of this spatio-religious structure of
social order is marked by the gramadevata,1 that is, village
gods who are believed to be the founders and protectors of
the villages and whose main residences are the central
village temples.
Gramadevata closely identify with 'their villages', and their
icons, images and signatures can be found in countless
shrines located at significant public places and buildings,
as well as in and outside private homes and shops throughout
the village. The territory associated with gramadevata is
clearly defined by ritual boundaries (sime) and regularly
asserted by space-marking rituals (yatra, sime band).
>From the village temple center, the spatio-religious
organization extends into larger, or connects to equal size
or breaks down into smaller territorial units. Thus,
gramadevata are commonly seen as local manifestations of one
or other of the great Hindu gods who are associated with the
Hindu cosmos at large.
More specifically, Shanta Durga, the sanskritized
form of the ancient Konkan village goddess Sateri,
is seen by many Goans as the patroness of the whole
of Goa. At the inter-village level, gramadevata are
related to other village deities who are regularly
ritually honored as their neighbors and often
considered their sisters or brothers.
At the sub-village level, gramadevata are related to little
or tutelary deities seen as their subordinates or servants.
Known either as jage-veile, literally 'those from the spot',
or shimeveile, literally 'those from the border', these
little deities are either associated with sub-village
territories such as village or town wards (vade), or mark
liminal sites such as the boundaries between villages or
between the inhabited and cultivated land (vado) and the
wilderness (ran), or can be found on river banks, sea shores,
bridges, hill tops and, most commonly, crossroads.
The wayside shrines, which may represent either village
deities or little deities and, not infrequently, show images
of both, have various shapes. These range from aniconic spots
(jago), marked by a tree or a rock or nothing conspicuous at
all, to grotto-shaped shelters (gumpti), to smaller and
bigger temple-like structures.
It is the shrines, therefore, that mark the most variegated
and dynamic sites in the spatio-religious system, since they
not only constitute the intersection of the territories of
village gods and little deities, but they also mark all
significant locations at the center, periphery and boundaries
of the village and outside the village territories.
Socially, the worship of the gramadevata enacts, if not
constitutes, the social order of the village communities. In
particular, it distinguishes ganvkar -- villagers considered
the descendants of the original settlers of the village --
from castes and clans who are said to have settled in the
village later.
Thus, the ganvkar consider the village gods (gramadevata)
their family gods (kuladevata) and are the trustees (mahajan)
of the village temples. As such, they enjoy distinct ritual
honors and privileges (man) in the temple festivals and
rituals, such as being the first to receive the blessed food
(prasada) or having the right to carry the paraphernalia
(murti, tarang) of the village deities during ceremonies and
processions.
The ritual honors are stratified (first man, second
man, third man, etc.), therefore reflecting the
hierarchy of caste or seniority in the village
community. Comparing the worship centered in the
temples with the worship dedicated to the shrines,
the latter, to some extent, reiterates the
spatio-religious scheme and social order set up by
the former. Thus, the shrines are maintained and
most frequently visited by people living in their
vicinity who are considered their patrons and who
believe that the sacred beings residing in them
protect the territories and locations they are
associated with.
It should be emphasized, however, that the worship at the
shrines, as will be described in more detail below, neither
with regard to the composition and sectarian affiliation of
their sacred occupants, nor the composition and social
hierarchy of the communities worshipping them, shows the same
exclusivity and formality as the worship in the temples.
A peculiar feature of Goa is that the
spatio-religious organization of Roman Catholics,
who constitute approximately 30% of its population,
shows striking resemblances with the
spatio-religious organization of Hindus, who
constitute approximately 65% of the total
population (Government of Goa, 2001: 16).
Hence, each Goan village and town also has one or several
Catholic patron saints whose iconographic representation and
ritual veneration is centered in the village churches, while
numerous crosses (khuris) and chapels dedicated to them are
scattered around the village territory. Socially, the worship
of the patron saints is organized by members of confrarias or
brotherhoods who, like their Hindu counterparts, the ganvkar,
enjoy the status of genuine settlers and hold distinct honors
in the village ceremonies and festivals, which for the
Christians take place in the local churches. This not only
implies that confraria members are entitled to wear special
ceremonial dresses and to lead the community of devotees
during church festivals and processions, but also the group
of Catholic ganvkar, as a rule, is stratified in confrarias
maiores and confrarias minores, which reflect the hierarchy
of castes in the village community.
The organization of Catholic patron saints, like
the organization of Hindu village gods, forms a comprehensive
religious map that extends to the supra-village and breaks
down to the sub-village level.
Goan patron saints represent historical or mythic persons who
first of all embody European traditions, since they all
belong to the body of Catholic saints canonized by the
Vatican, and only secondly do they embody Goan traditions,
having gained a particular Goan mythology or iconography.
The most salient example is St Francis Xavier
(1506-22), the co-founder of the Jesuit order.
Successfully propagating the Christian doctrine in
early modern India, Japan and China, Xavier, who
died in 1522 in China, was canonized by the Vatican
in 1622 and henceforth venerated by the global
Catholic community as the Apostle of the Indies. In
Goa, however, to which his mummified body was
transferred in 1553 and is preserved to this day in
the cathedral of Old Goa, Xavier is known and
venerated as Goencho Sahib, the Lord of Goa. At the
sub-village level a large number of additional
saints, sometimes called santos minores, are
worshipped in chapels and at crosses (khuris) where
their icons and images can often be found next to
those of the respective patron saints.
Urban shrines and cultural mobility
Wayside shrines are especially popular in cities and although
it is impossible to give exact figures, the shrines outnumber
temples and churches by far. There are hundreds of wayside
shrines in the four major Goan cities: Panjim, the capital,
and Mapusa, Marmugao and Margao, the capitals of the
provinces of Bardes, Marmagao and Salcete, respectively.
Moreover, new shrines continue to emerge in the
urban areas and some of the older urban shrines --
such as the Holy Cross Shrine on the outskirts of
Panjim and the Shri Dev Bodgeshvar Shrine in
Mapusa, discussed in more detail below -- have
gained a degree of popularity in recent years that
exceeds even that of the local temples and churches
in terms of numbers of regular devotees and
architectural visibility.
Arguably, one of the features contributing to the appeal of
the shrines in the urban space is their openness to
devotional diversity. The shrines not only relate to the
veneration of a multitude of major and minor, local and
translocal Hindu gods and Catholic saints, but also many of
them represent Hindu deities and Catholic saints in close
contiguity or in one and the same shrine, thereby inviting
lateral or even syncretistic worship.
Prominent, although not at all unique examples of
shrines located in close proximity are those
representing the Hindu Sri Dev Bodgeshvar and the
Catholic Lady of Vailankanni in the heart of the
market of Mapusa. Located back to back to a tree,
both shrines actually claim one and the same spot
(Figure 1). More commonly, hybrid shrines shelter
Hindu and Christian icons in one and the same
shrine or under one roof.
A prominent example of this type of shrine is that of Our
Lady of Vailankanni located at the central plaza of Margao,
which also shows an image of Shri Dev Damodar, the Hindu
gramadev of the city.
Lateral or syncretistic shrines are neither
exclusively modern nor urban phenomena. There is
strong evidence that they were facilitated as early
as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by the
iconoclastic nature of the Portuguese-Catholic
conquest. The conquerors not only destroyed the
Hindu monuments in Goa but systematically replaced
them with Christian churches, chapels and crosses,
and although unintentional, produced an exact
Catholic replica of the spatial order of Hindu
monuments and sites (Mitterwallner, 1983). Thus,
when Hindus, in the late nineteenth and throughout
the twentieth centuries, reinstated their claim on
the Goan landscape by (re)building temples and
shrines, if not in the very same places, following
the same pattern of their old spatio-religious
system, this led to a close contiguity of Hindu and
Catholic monuments in many places.
Although an old phenomenon, lateral and syncretistic worship
has particular appeal today to the diversified and
fluctuating communities and crowds of Goa's urban dwellers,
businesspeople, clients and visitors. This is supported by
the fact that lateral and hybrid shrines especially flourish
at locations where public and private forms of worship
intersect, as is the case in many urban contexts.
Two patterns of this intersection are worth elaborating.
First, in service and business locations, due to the
multi-religious constitution of the staff or the clientele or
both, images or idols of tutelary figures and religious
scenes from various religious traditions are displayed.
Especially conspicuous are the shrines at urban
hospitals and taxi stands that, obviously
reflecting the physically critical nature of their
services, are usually very elaborate and
multi-religious, commonly displaying images of
Hindu gods, Christian saints and often also a
picture of the Muslim Kaaba (Figure 2). Similar
hybrid displays can be found in grocery shops,
workshops, travel agencies and at business
locations that are frequented by a multi-religious
population (Figure 3).
The other common pattern of lateral or syncretistic urban
worship is shown in public shrines displaying images of
sacred beings that have become popular with Goans for
personal reasons, rather than due to territorial or family
associations. These sacred beings, whose images may be found
at individual shrines or together with images of local
gramadevata and patron saints, vary from local figures such
as the Catholic Father Agnelo or the Hindu holy man Arjudh
Anand, both of whom gained fame in Goa in the early twentieth
century due to their miraculous healing powers, to figures of
supra-local, national and even international reputation.
Most popular among the latter in Goa today are
Shirdi Sai Baba and Our Lady of Vailankanni, two
saints who, at first glance, seem to embody quite
different characters.
Shirdi Sai Baba was born in 1872 in Shirdi, a town in central
Maharashtra where he lived the life of a religious ascetic
and became recognized and worshipped as a saint for his
siddhis or supernatural powers. Our Lady of Vailankanni, also
known as Our Lady of Good Health, represents an incorporation
of the Christian Mary who, according to legend, manifested
herself in a series of apparitions and miracles in the
sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Vailankanni, a coastal
town in Tamil Nadu.
A closer look, however, reveals certain similarities between
these two saints, which suggests that urban shrines gain
their popularity, among other things, by allowing for
devotional fluidity and diversity. First of all, both saints
have a distinctly charismatic appeal -- a reputation of
miraculous power, that radiates beyond their respective home
region.
One may argue with Max Weber (1978) that it is precisely this
charismatic power -- detachment from any specific genealogy or
territory -- that gives special authority to both saints. In
other words, they are predestined to become autonomous
spiritual patrons functioning largely independently from the
territorial confines and social order associated with
gramadevata and patron saints.
Shirdi Sai Baba is worshipped in countless public and private
shrines in Goa and other parts of India and, interestingly,
even in a series of devotional centers in the USA, Canada,
Cuba and other international locations (Sai Baba,
http://www.saibaba.org/).2 Likewise, Our Lady of Vailankanni
is very popular in Goan shrines and draws millions of
pilgrims from all over India to worship her at her Shrine
Basilica in Vailankanni, Tamil Nadu every year.
Another significant commonality of the two saints is their
distinct cross-religious reference and followers. Shirdi Sai
Baba was born a Hindu Brahman, yet, orphaned as a child, was
brought up by a pious Muslim and, in his later teaching and
practice, combined elements of Hindu bhakti and Muslim Sufi
devotion that made him popular among Hindus as well as
Muslims (White, 1972; Babb, 1991). Vailankanni, who unifies
in her person numerous characteristics of the Virgin Mary and
the Hindu Devi and is worshipped in a distinctly 'Indic' way
that combines Catholic and Hindu iconographies and practices,
not surprisingly, has become famous for attracting Catholic
as well as Hindu devotees (Newman, 1993; Meibohm, 2002; 2004).
Finally, both saints are embedded in hagiographic
narratives that, while stereotypical in their
respective Hindu or Catholic contexts, address a
particular common sociological audience. Hence,
while Shirdi Sai Baba embodies the familiar Hindu
evolution from ascetic to avatar and Vailankanni,
also known as the Lourdes of the East, represents
the typical Catholic apparition to the shepherd
boy, both manifest their powers outside established
-- Brahmanical or clerical -- frameworks, thus
becoming particularly appealing to the proverbial
'ordinary people'.
In sum, the two saints most frequently worshipped in wayside
shrines in Goa thus demonstrate the shrines' devotional
diversity in three ways: first, they exhibit a distinctly
charismatic -- independent and personal -- authority; second,
they refer to distinctly hybrid, Hindu-Muslim and
Hindu-Catholic traditions, respectively; and third, they are
accessible outside established -- Brahmanical, clerical and
to some extent even territorial -- frameworks.
Urban shrines and social mobility
Due to their tentatively autonomous status in the
spatio-religious system, the shrines are accessible and
attractive to worshippers belonging to diverse castes and
classes, and also to people whose social status changes due
to shifting socio-economic conditions. This also implies that
the shrines are open to worshippers from different
geographical regions.
Two urban shrines that have experienced an
extraordinary evolution in Goan cities in
postcolonial times illustrate this social and
geographical diversity and fluidity of shrine
worshippers. First, the shrine and now Temple of
Shri Dev Bodgeshvar in the city of Mapusa.
This shrine originated in the mid-1930s, when people started
to pay ritual homage to a tree on the outskirts of the city.
Judging from its location, paraphernalia and mythology, it
was associated with a sacred being belonging to the category
of either shimeveile (border guardians) or of holy men --
sanctified Hindu ascetics.
In the years to come, and in particular after Goa's
independence from Portuguese domination in 1961, the shrine
continued to grow in popularity and size until by 1966 it had
evolved into a small temple that was officially recognized
and registered in Mapusa.
The Gazetteer of the Union Territory: Goa, Daman and Diu
(1979: 787) mentions Bodgeshvar's temple as the only Hindu
sanctuary under the category `places of interest' in Mapusa,
obviously because its annual festival in December/January was
considered 'one of the biggest fairs in Goa'.
In 1993, construction work was completed to replace the small
temple with a large temple, showing a life-size
anthropomorphic icon of Bodgeshvar, who by then had been
ennobled as Shri Dev Bodgeshvar.
As I have described in greater detail elsewhere
(Henn, 2006), the extraordinary evolution of this
shrine was, and still is, closely related to the
demographic growth and socio-economic prosperity
that Mapusa, like other cities in Goa, has
experienced since the end of Portu guese rule.
Moreprecisely, the shrine appealed to the highly
dynamic, socio-economically mobile and ethnically
diversifying urban population of Mapusa. Hence,
unlike the other temples in the city -- whose
trustees are either Gaud Saraswat Brahmans,
belonging to Goa's largest caste of Brahmans, or
Vani, belonging to a long-established merchant
caste of Mapusa -- Bodgeshvar's trustees represent
members of the Vani, Bhandari and Maratha castes.
Thus, Bodgeshvar's trustees not only constitute a
heterogeneous caste group, some of which belong to the
subaltern rank of Shudra, but also owe their positions to
their recent professional success and socio-economic
prosperity, rather than longstanding establishment in the
city. Not surprisingly, therefore, and obviously encouraged
by the fact that his iconography and mythology refers to a
local god and a mendicant monk, Bodgeshvar also enjoys great
popularity among Mapusa's growing migrant labor force from
Karnataka and other Indian regions.
Another wayside shrine that has experienced an
extraordinary evolution in recent years is the
shrine and now Church of the Holy Cross of
Bambolim, also known as Fulancho Khuris, the Flower
Cross, on the outskirts of Goa's capital, Panjim.
Memories of this shrine go back to the 1940s, when people
started to pay homage to a small white stone cross located
next to the mud road that was eventually to become India's
National Highway 17, connecting Panjim with Mangalore and
Mumbai.
Legends explaining what singled out this particular cross
from the thousands of crosses scattered over Goa's landscape
and settlements to become a prominent religious landmark in
the area of the capital vary in detail, but they all refer to
the miraculous interventions by which the cross is said to
have protected people from danger and accidents, or cured
them of illnesses.
Among those reporting early miracles of the Bambolim cross
were miners working in nearby quarries, farmhands harvesting
cashew fruits in the surrounding forests, construction
workers building the highway, and one Cassiano Afonso from
the nearby village of Siridao, whose wife was miraculously
cured of cancer. These stories recur down the decades and
document, above all, the ever-growing and changing population
worshipping what later became known as Milangrincho Khuris,
the Miraculous Cross.
Regular devotees became, in particular, the
communities of Gavde from the nearby villages of
Bambolim and Siridao, who once formed part of Goa's
tribal population, although today, for various
reasons, they constitute a rather diverse group.
The Gavde are divided into three religious communities: those
who adhere to Hinduism, those who converted to Christianity
in historical times, and those who collectively reconverted
to Hinduism in the early twentieth century. In addition, the
fact that they earn their living today partly from
agricultural labor and fishing, partly from employment in the
service sector and small businesses, and partly as migrant
labor in Europe and the Persian Gulf marks the visible
social, cultural and economic differences among them.
Obviously, however, the popularity of the Bambolim Cross was
further increased by still more diversified and changing
groups of worshippers, such as the soldiers from the nearby
military camp and colony, who reportedly adorned it with a
metal canopy and marble tiles in 1969; the patients, visitors
and staff of the nearby Goa Medical College and Hospital; and
last, but not least, the innumerable crowd of drivers and
passengers of private cars and two-wheelers, taxis, buses and
trucks stopping on their way in and out of Panjim to pay
homage to the miraculous cross.
Eventually, therefore, the committee of the
Bambolim Cross, which was formed by an enterprising
priest of Siridao and a couple of lawyers and
businessmen from Panjim, successfully cleared the
legal ground and raised the money necessary to make
the small cross into a church in 1996. The
intangible and material support that made this
transformation of an inconspicuous cross into an
impressive church possible, as the resultant
Souvenir (Shrine of Holy Cross of Bambolim, 13
October 1996) shows, came to a large extent from
private people and businesses in Panjim and, in
remarkable numbers, also from Goans working and
living in the Persian Gulf.
Urban shrines and traffic
The appeal of wayside shrines to urban populations ultimately
is built on their relationship with traffic. At first glance,
this relationship seems rather awkward, given the fact that
many shrines are obviously technically or aesthetically at
odds with their urban environment.
Hence, many old shrines are literally in the way of the
expanding construction of urban roads, almost foundering
amidst the heavy traffic surrounding them, and sometimes more
seriously creating dangerous traffic hazards and bottlenecks.
Similarly, old shrines can be found next to modern houses,
business centers and shopping malls, where their archaic
outlook starkly contrasts with the late-modern style of the
architectural environment (Figure 4). Conspicuously, however,
these technical and stylistic oddities usually do not lead to
the demolition of the shrines, but rather to their
`integration' into the new urban design.
A particular case in point occurred in 1993, when the small
chapel of St Anthony in the village of Soccorro (Bardes) was
planned to be demolished to give way to the widening of
National Highway 17 leading to Mapusa. The plan triggered a
vociferous public protest that filled the local newspapers
for weeks and was settled only when the government agreed not
to demolish the chapel, but to carefully dismantle it and
exactly rebuild it alongside the widened highway (Dias, 1993;
Mahambre, 1993).
A similar case involving another chapel located at the
highway entrance into Margao has been pending for years. No
agreement has been reached so far, with the result that the
chapel, still located at its original spot, now encroaches
onto the highway space and seriously impedes the flow of
traffic. Another very common sight is old wayside shrines,
crosses, chapels and even entire churches being located right
in the middle of busy crossroads, roads and highways, with
heavy traffic flowing around them left and right (Figure 5).
In the heart of Goa's modern cities, the uneasy integration
of the shrines into the urban architecture is evidenced in
some odd views and perspectives. Not only does the
integration of old shrines into late-modern architecture
often create the impression of an anachronistic blend, but
also new or remodeled shrines that adapt to the architectural
style of their modern environment curiously stand out from
the traditional shapes of shrines (Figure 6).
The 'odd' location and appearance of wayside shrines, and
their tenacious persistence in the urban space, is due to
their traditional 'functions'. The shrines traditionally
either represent local village gods and patron saints or
little deities and minor saints, and therefore, are located
at literally all significant locations in and around the
villages and cities. Since central and liminal locations such
as settlement plazas and market places, borders, bridges and
crossroads are traditionally predestined for wayside shrines,
their
present-day locations at critical traffic points is
inevitable. Locals commonly believe that the sacred beings
associated with territories and locations act as protectors
of their inhabitants and the people living nearby or passing
by. Traditionally, this protection was perceived to be
comprehensive in nature, extending from natural calamities to
social disharmony and human maliciousness, with a focus on
illnesses and accidents. In addition, protection while moving
and traveling, be it on roads or by sea, was a special
function attributed to the territorial patrons. Both Hindus
and Catholics have particular spiritual patrons who are famed
for their protection of travelers. For Goan Catholics this is
Nossa Senhora de Boa Viajem, Our Lady of Safe Travel; for
Hindus, the entire class of little deities known as rakhne or
guardians, some of whom are said to continuously walk the
village territories and therefore are ritually offered
leather sandals in certain villages. Another aspect
reflecting that the territorial patrons are associated with
protection while moving and traveling is their location at
liminal sites such as boundaries, bridges and crossroads.
While here too traditional concerns were comprehensive,
making, for instance, ritual precautions necessary when
transgressing village boundaries by marrying across them, the
actual physical dangers when moving in liminal territory and
public space were always taken seriously.
During the last three decades of the twentieth
century, motorized traffic underwent a dramatic
increase in Goa, and the whole of India for that
matter. From just 35,205 vehicles in operation in
Goa in 1981 (Government of Goa, Daman and Diu,
1981: 77), the number increased to 125,965 in 1991
(Government of Goa, 1989-91) and 333,666 in 2001
(Government of Goa, 2001: 101). This increase in
motorized traffic not only intensified the concerns
of Goans relating to injury or death caused by
traffic accidents, but also their appreciation of
deities and saints traditionally known for
protecting them from precisely these dangers and
threats.
It is no surprise, therefore, that, the shrines of tutelary
beings located at crucial points in the city traffic, such as
access and exit roads, bypasses, crossroads, central plazas
and market places, are the most frequently worshipped of all
shrines today.
In addition, many places that are related to travel and
traffic, such as taxi stands, bus and railway stations,
landing stages for boats and ships, and travel agencies, have
sumptuous and often multi-religious shrines. Finally, the
images, idols and signatures of protecting patrons can be
found in or on most private cars and two-wheelers, boats and
ships, as well as taxicabs, rickshaws and buses. Especially
noteworthy is the Panjim office of Indian Airlines, which
provides spiritual protection for its clientele by displaying
a life-size statue of St Francis Xavier.
Conclusion: urban shrines and late-modern religiosity
The religiosity dedicated to wayside shrines in
Goa's cities has modified and transformed the
centuries-old spatio-religious system centering on
Hindu gramadevata and Catholic patron saints to fit
the conditions of late-modern city life.
In particular, a culturally diversifying, socially changing
and geographically fluctuating population engage with a
variety of personalized deities and saints whose charismatic
authority is not only quite independent from formalized local
social hierarchies, but also often cuts across the orthodox
divisions between religious traditions.
Moreover, the shrines, and the tutelary beings believed to
reside in them, have become sites for the articulation of
concerns emerging from the increasing hazards of urban
motorized traffic and provide some reassurance against them.
The shrines express and enact a form of religiosity that
proves to be especially apt for cities in which cultural,
social and motorized mobility mutually enhance each other in
the generation of a rapidly changing modern world.
Refuting earlier modernist and Marxist theories,
the urban shrines also supply evidence that
religion stands its ground publicly in modernity.
This evidence does not add to the concerned, if not
alarmist report of a late-modern increase in
religious intolerance, conflict and violence
(Juergensmeyer, 2000), but rather reveals the less
dramatic and therefore often missed qualities of a
religiosity that mediates and reconciles cultural
and social difference and appeases rapid change
(Mayaram, 2005).
These qualities have also gained distinctly modern features
by simultaneously narrowing and widening traditional
community-based religious orientations. Hence, the
religiosity dedicated to the shrines on the one hand widens
the local hierarchies and orthodox boundaries of and between
ganvkar and confrarias, as well as gramadevata and patron
saints, by allowing and, in the Goan case, increasing the
social and cultural diversification of both the worshipping
communities and the worshipped beings.
More generally, the religiosity dedicated to the shrines
shows a flexibility that lives up to late-modern urban
conditions and concerns that are experienced not only in Goa
but worldwide. On the other hand, the religiosity dedicated
to the shrines narrows the community-based interaction
between worshippers and worshipped by tending to reduce it to
an interaction between individualized worshippers and
personalized gods and saints.
This also reflects a tendency not only in Goa but worldwide.
Eventually, therefore, the Goan case suggests that
late-modern urban religiosity realizes individual approaches
to global conditions and concerns.
Alexander Henn
ah...@exchange.asu.edu
Department of Religious Studies
Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ
85287-3104, USA.
2 It is to be mentioned here that Sathya Sai Baba (born
1926), a contemporary Hindu Holy Man figure with a national
and international reputation, claims to be an avatar or
successor of Shirdi Sai Baba (Urban, 2003; Srinivas, 2008).
The Goan and, as far as I can see, Indian followers of Shirdi
Sai Baba, however, do not relate, let alone confuse the two.
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--
Figure 1 Hindu-Catholic twin shrines, Mapusa (source: photo
by Gabriele Henn)
Figure 2 Multireligious shrine at a taxi stand, Panjim
(source: photo by Gabriele Henn)
Figure 3 Multireligious shrine in a grocery shop, Taligao
(source: photo by Gabriele Henn
Figure 4 Wayside shrine in Margao (source: photo by Gabriele
Henn).
Figure 5 Wayside shrine in Panjim (source: photo by Gabriele
Henn).
Figure 6 Shrine in a bus, Panjim (source: photo by Gabriele
Henn).
--
I owe thanks to Alito Siqueira MA for his continuous support
in my research in Goa. Jose Lourenco deserves gratitude for
helping me locate and understand some fine shrines in Margao.
I also thank Gabriele Henn for contributing the photographs.
