http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/Sufi-refrains-of-Goas-history-of-Arab-connections/articleshow/46168427.cms
Delight overflowed Panaji's waterfront this week, when Sufi Sutra brought joyous dance and music from around the world to Kala Academy. Huge credit is due to Prasad Lolayekar's department of art and culture for the unexpected highlight of this season of back-to-back festivals—the effort repaid by house-full every evening, with additional hundreds seated in the aisles and standing behind. Such an enthusiastic response from Goa could be expected for Projeto Sarava, exuberant sambistas from Minas Gerais in Brazil. But standing ovations also rewarded complex Andalusian sounds of Tunisia's Mechket, Moroccan singer and flamenco dancer Karen Ruimy, and the festival's standout performers, Egypt's Mawlawiyah, dizzying, whirling dancers accompanying Amer Eltony's rumbling, rock-star vocals. As the festival's director, Amitava Bhattacharya said "there is clearly a great affinity and pent-up desire for this kind of cultural experience in Goa." It is true the Arabic music that drew such large numbers to Panaji isn't new to Goans. In fact, this little sliver of the Konkan coastline has been connected to the Arab world for millennia—long predating Islam itself—and even today 56% of all emigrants from the state live in the Arab countries of the Persian Gulf. The award-winning author, and speaker of Arabic (and part-time Goa resident), Amitav Ghosh wrote about the cultural resonances: "I remember the first time I encountered the familiar Goan gesture of greeting, where after shaking your hand people will touch their fingertips to their hearts. I was astonished—for this seems to me a quintessentially Arab gesture. And indeed the Arab world is everywhere in Goa—it is after all, only on the other side of the pond. The taxi driver who brought me here tonight speaks Arabic; sometimes we use it as a secret language. In Panaji I have heard young Goans arguing with each other in Arabic—they had perhaps grown up in the Gulf. Here is something at once very old and very new." In fact, Middle Eastern, Arab, and Muslim strands are essential—though usually overlooked—to Goa's multi-layered cultural identity. The self-taught historian Anant Ramakrishna Sinai Dhume went so far as to posit that Goa's unique Gaunkari system of collective land ownership is the direct result of settlement in Goa by Sumerians from ancient Mesopotamia (now Iraq) more than 4,000 years ago. Certainly, from the 8th century, there is considerable evidence of to-and-fro; the Kadamba kings had an Arab chief minister, and a roaring trade in Arab and Persian horses landed in Goa serviced the warring kingdoms of the Deccan. That trade with the Arabs—horses were weapons of mass destruction in the pre-industrial area—defined Goa's value to the conquerors who struggled for control right until Alfonso da Albuquerque's bloody takeover in 1510. Shilaharas and Kadambas, Vijayanagar and the Bahamanid sultanates all sought exclusive control of the valuable Hanjuman (thus Anjuna) where Arab settlers called Navayats imported horses, and exported precious stones, rice, and spices. It is a popular misconception that Goa was first globalized and thrown open to the world during the Portuguese era. In fact, thoroughly cosmopolitan Yusuf Adil Shah of Bijapur (he was a Georgian from Central Europe, whose navy was led by a Polish Jew) developed the world-famous trading emporium that attracted Albuquerque's interest, described by early Portuguese traveller Duarte Barbosa as "inhabited by Moors, respectable men and foreigners and rich merchants and other gentlemen, cultivators and other men-at-arms... a place of great trade in merchandise. It has a very great port to which flock many ships from Mekkah, Aden, Ormuz, Cambay and the Malabar country." That golden pre-colonial era has been wonderfully depicted in the landmark (but little known) novel, 'Love and Samsara' by Eusebio Rodrigues, long-time professor of English at Georgetown University in the USA, who died a few weeks ago. Rodrigues masterfully portrays the Muslim Indian Ocean, when Arab and Indian traders crisscrossed from Chapora to the Middle East and Africa, while Sufi Islam established deep roots in India, especially the Bijapuri domains that included Goa. All that ended temporarily when Portuguese rule commenced with the slaughter of at least 6,000 Muslim defenders of Goa. But realpolitik soon took over, in 'Medieval Goa' Dr Teotonio de Souza writes "Portuguese-Bijapur relations were more cordial than the relations of the Portuguese with any other neighbour of theirs in Western India." By the 17th century, the ancient connections across the Arabian Sea were restored anew. That rich cultural history underlay overwhelming audience responses to this week's memorable performances at Sufi Sutra.
