Understanding Portuguese writing from the Goa of another century Priest-scholar Dr Eufemiano Miranda, from Cortalim and now in the parish at Chicalim, explains how his recently- published book in Portuguese charts out the contours of Goan writing in that language.
BOOK EXTRACT: By Eufemiano Miranda ---------------------------------------------------- eufemianodejesusmira...@gmail.com or +91-832-2714005 This study attempts to be a humble step to take further prior surveys of Indo-Portuguese literature, namely the monographs by Vicente de Braganza Cunha (Bombay, 1926), Filinto Cristo Dias (Goa, 1963), Vimala Devi and Manuel de Seabra (Lisbon, 1971). It tries to analyse the content or themes of the literary works dealt with by Indo-Portuguese writers. The word literature is taken to mean literary productions of a creative nature or of fiction. Indo-Portuguese refers here to ethnically Indian writers in whom there is a harmonious confluence of European standards and motifs of local inspiration. Five themes are identified: (i) Brahmanism in conflict with Liberalism as embodied in Francisco Luis Gomes’ writings, principally his novel Os Brahamanes (ii) The world of landlords (batcaras) and tenants (mundkars) as reflected principally in Orlando Costa's O Signo da Ira (iii) The fascination with the mystery of Bharat-Mata (Mother India) (iv) The temple dancer of India (v) The land and her people as depicted in Gip's Jacob e Dulce and Agostinho Fernandes’ Bodki, themes that reflect the social history of Goa. The chapter Panorama da Vida Social de Goa nos Séculos XIX e XX aims at getting a bird's eye view of the socio-historical background of the 19th and 20th centuries and understanding the influence of the Portuguese presence in Goa on the formation of the homo goanensis. The scenario of education and learning, the establishment of the printing press and, as a result, the evolution of journalism and social life, are briefly examined. The Christian segment of the society, principally, as compared to the Hindu sector, went through a cultural separation. As a consequence of it, social customs and ideas of the converted were changed. The acculturation that took place in Goa could rightly be called a Luso-tropical civilization, to use the expression coined by Gilberto Freyre, the Brazilian sociologist-writer who visited Goa in the 1950s. Next comes 'Francisco Luís Gomes: O Bramanismo em Conflito com o Liberalismo'. The Constitution of 1822, that the Portuguese Parliament voted for after the Revolution of 1820, and the Constitutional charter of 1826, given by King Pedro IV to the nation and its overseas territories, were a concrete fallout of the Liberal ideas proclaimed by the American and French Revolutions. Francisco Luis Gomes of Navelim, a doctor by training and a member of Parliament, became the representative par excellence of Liberalism in Goa. In Parliament, he fought for freedom in his beloved Goa. His novel Os Brahamanes was born of his Liberalism coupled with his Romanticism, inspired by the Gospel and a vision faithful to the Portuguese nation. The novel portrays the dramatic conflict between the White and the wheat-complexioned Brahmanism superiority) or the two types of pride rooted in race and culture. The resolution or the moral of this conflict is found in the words that Francisco Luis Gomes puts in the mouth of his character Tomas: "My victory will be the reform of all codes by the Gospel." This is followed by the chapter 'O Signo da Ira e o Mundo dos Batcarás e Manducares'. Goan society comprised of a class of landowners (batcaras) and another of rural labourers. The latter lived to serve the former. The small middle class comprising just around ten per cent. This social reality lends itself to fiction. Vimala Devi, Laxmanrao SarDessai and R.V. Pandit portrayed it in their short stories and poems. A work of high aesthetic value was Orlando Costa's O Signo da Ira, a masterpiece in Neo-Realism which earned its author the Ricardo Malheiros Prize in Portugal. Indian philosophy, religion and mythology are intertwined and form a living tradition. They are still very much part of the life, and society, where they were born and have blossomed. India's mystery and fascination lies in them. Our literature has been enriched with short stories and poems that reflect the philosophical tenets or hymns of praise to the gods, to their functions, or homage-portrayals of the great personalities of Indian history. In Indian society, particularly in Goa, there existed a woman taken to symbolise a contradiction: the temple dancer (kalavant). Over time, the devadasi, or servant of the gods, became a woman who sold herself. Historians and sociologists used varied pproaches to study this institution. The nautch girls or devadasis underwent a metamorphosis in the romantic imagination of the Indo-Portuguese poet to become a symbol of beauty and feminine grace. The theme of the kalavant exercised a strange fascination over the Goan poet. In the chapter 'A Terra e a Grei', it is noted that Goan society is portrayed principally in two Portuguese language works of fiction. The Christian middle class of the end of the 19th century and beginning of the 20th is depicted with their idiosyncrasies and hidden weaknesses in the novelette Jacob e Dulce by Gip, a pen-name of Francisco Joao da Costa. In Agostinho Fernandes' novel Bodki one finds a picture of the rural Hindu society with its beliefs, usages and customs. The Indo-Portuguese writer is a "romantic", a man under the spell of a "rupture" and a "longing for totality". Ethnically Indian, he has on the one side, imbibed traits of a Western, Christian, Latin culture and, on the other, lives under a strong subconsciousness of the Vedic-Upanishadic Hindu substratum. He turns to himself in a dramatic and painful manner, like the Romantics, in his search for self-identity and self-definition. >From the perspective of literary aesthetics, Indo-Portuguese literature can be considered as a corpus of works conceived and brought forth in the agony and ecstasy of nostalgia. If some works can be plainly classified as belonging to Romanticism or Neo-Realism (Social Realism), others, principally the poetic works, had influences of the Parnasian or Symbolist schools, or are best interpreted in the light of the Sanskrit theories of Alankara, Riti and Rasa. Portuguese by expression and Indian by the aestheticism of the writers, principally of the poets, as well as on account of the themes and motifs underlying it, Indo-Portuguese literature belongs to the Portuguese Literary Tradition. Just as the Manueline style in architecture -- a happy blending of the flowery Gothic with the plastic poetry of elements of the Eastern flora and fauna and of the maritime motifs of the Portuguese naus -- is a characteristically Portuguese style. -- Oriente e Ocidente na Literatura Goesa: Realidade, ficção, história e imaginação Eufemiano de Jesus Miranda May 2012 SEE IMAGES: http://www.flickr.com/search/?q=literatura%20goesa