------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Documented by Goa Desc Resource Centre Ph:2252660 Website: www.goadesc.org Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Press Clippings on the web: http://www.goadesc.org/mem/ ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ --------------------------------------- Of food, language, shrines --------------------------------------- by N. Shivdas
The recent hosting of the Saraswat food festival, raises some issues. Should eatables and daily food items be segregated on community lines? Can fish-curry-rice, which is Goan in nature and belonging to no community or religion or caste, be seen as belonging to any group?
Goa too, like other regions across the globe, has been seeing influential groups and communities claiming as their own not just food but also land and temples. In the past, everything that was more beneficial, honourable and respected belonged to the so-called elite sections of society. But, as we enter into the 21st century, should the same continue?
Legend and lore has also been used to build up such a case in the past. One version of history would tell us that the land of present-day Goa was specially created by Lord Parshuram to be settled-on by his favoured section.
Lord Parshuram, going by this legend, brought down the brahmins to Goa to perform a yadnya. At that time, Lord Parshuram is said to have shot an arrow and pushed back the great Arabian Sea, to create a land for his select people. Thus we have the dasgotri meaning Saraswats from ten gotras or clans who were brought in by Lord Parshuram, who himself was no less than a creator equivalent to Lord Brahma. And since this section is considered to be directly a creation of God, then naturally whatever is good and precious belongs to them. Which includes food.
But is this so? Keeping aside the legend, history tells us that the Saraswats
entered Goa as late as the 12th century of the current era. But this historical
reference never seems to make it, even in the Tourism Department, or
Information Department brochures.
Instead, Goa is depicted as a Parshuram bhoomi, which is scientifically absurd. Land, if we accept modern science, is not created by man or God. It is a geographical phenomenon, or a natural upheaval.
Coming back to the issue of Goan food, it is absurd too to name any dish on
community lines. Preparing of food is, of course, an individual talent. One who
prepares it could belong to any caste or community group. Should food also be
segregated at all?
In terms of cooking, if at all, it was the humble Goan Catholic cooks that were
known for their culinary skills outside Goa, many migrating to Mumbai
(then Bombay), on board the ship or even abroad based on their cooking skills.
Hindu cooks or randpi though belonging to another Hindu community, would cook large-scale food during temple festivals or wedding parties. They too weren't Saraswats. Mostly, they belonged to Porob or Prabhu families, and though being one type of Brahmins, were not Saraswats.
One fact is granted: Saraswats being well-to-do and having resources in terms
of all necessary ingredients and foodgrains, they prepared good and tasty food.
Particularly curries, uman and fish-based food. But preparing good food does
not depend on community or caste. Good food can be prepared when you have
access to the many small and not-so-small items and resources needed to
prepare a particular dish.
If you needed to prepare a tasty fish curry, or uman, one would need sufficient
coconuts, which in times past large sections of Goa's poor simply could not
afford.
As with the label of Saraswat food, there was and to some, there still is a Saraswat language, that is Konkani. When I speak Konkani in my community, or among non-Saraswats, those hearing me would sometimes comment that I speak Bamni Konkani. During the language controversy, most of the protagonists of Marathi, as also Goans from the North Goa areas of Bardez- Pernem, would protest that they were unwilling to accept Bamni Konkani as the official language of Goa.
I do not know who gave such a branding to our mother-tongue Konkani, but till date people from non-Saraswat Hindu communities often would refer to the language as Bamni or Bamnachi bhash.During the language agitation of 1985-87, we often had to field such queries.
Actually speaking, the styles, accent and phonetics of the language vary from village to village, or taluka to taluka. So much so that when someone from Pernem speaks Konkani, it is done so in a different style, which strikes one as being closer to the Malvani of Maharashtra's Konkani coast. Then, someone from Canacona would tend to speak Konkani more like that spoken in Karwar. Off coastal Goa, say in Antruz the area around Ponda we would hear diverse varieties of Konkani.
A Saraswat from Ponda speaks Konkani in a different accent from a non-Saraswat. To give an example, a Saraswat would say aila, while to a non-Saraswat the same term would be eila. One could argue that eila is grammatically correct, as the Konkani verb is evop and not aivop. But, the common man would not bother to go in for a deeper study of such differences.
Given therefore that the Konkani even among the Hindus of Goa varies from place to place, it cannot be branded as Saraswat Konkani, since a Pernem- based Saraswat like the Deshprabhu does not speak exactly like a Margao- based or Canacona Saraswat.
If Konkani was a Saraswat language, it would imply that all Saraswats irrespective of their location would have been speaking similarly. To complicate matters, besides the Hindu versions of Konkani, there are also Catholic-based divisions of the language.
Bardez's Konkani style is quite different from that of the Salcete Catholic. Besides, Catholics who reside among Hindu communities speak a language with is neither exactly Hindu nor Catholic in influence. We can see such examples of Catholics in the so-called New Conquest areas of Goa, such as the talukas of Bicholim, Ponda, Sanguem, Quepem, etc.
Besides this Goan style of Konkani, there is also the Karwar variant of spoken Konkani. Then there's also the North Kanara and South Canara Mangalore Konkani, and further down south, the Kerala Konkani.
All these versions of Konkani have been highly influenced by the major languages of the states in which they are home, namely Kannada and Malayalam. Naturally, the Goan finds it rather difficult to understand Mangalore Konkani or Kerala Konkani. Yet, till date, it is sometimes claimed that Konkani is the language of the Bamon or, for political reasons it might be sometimes described as a Catholic language too. But such claims are absurd.
After food and language, we also have to face the issue of places of worship. I have been agitating on the issue of temple-entry for the past 25 years, and started a social movement against temples which restrict entry to the sanctum sanatorium (garbhakudd) only to some groups.
It has been our view that major temples belong to all, even though their present mahajans may predominantly belong to certain groups.Hindus, regardless of caste, have their family-gods or kuldeva. Such kuldevas are held in common across caste divides. For instance, Ramnath is the family-deity of Saraswats named Keni, Talaulikar, Lotlikar, or Kosambe. Similarly, Ramnath is also the family-deity of Lotlikars who may belong to the traditional goldsmith or bhandari communities.
Ask our central minister Shripad Y Naik which is his family-deity, and he will promptly reply Ramnath. Minister Naik has named his sawmill at St. Pedro after Ramnath. But though he is a kullavi (devotee) of Ramnath, Mr Naik is not enrolled on the list of the Ramnath Devasthan mahajan committee.
Temples in Goa which do not allow entry to their sanctum sanatorium
to all Hindus have differing claims about their origins, which are sometimes
contradictory. For instance, in one, the shivlinga was first seen by a
cowherd who belongs to the Gawda community. Lore says he saw a cow
giving milk to the shivlinga, and went home to tell his master, Vinayak Sharma.
Cow-herds or the rakhno, as they were then called in Goa, are referred to in many temples which currently don't open entry to their inner sanctum to all.So, the question that arises is whether those groups migrating into Goa brought along with them their gods, or whether the gods first appeared to local cow-herds.
Does this suggest that there were no deities and gods in Goa prior to the Parshuram legend? Such questions were probably not raised in pre-Liberation times, because the foreign rulers of the state did not understand much about the issues involved, nor were they concerned.
The Portuguese, when they ruled Goa, framed the Mazania laws, which
were defined by the literate and elite interests of that time. The first committee
was constituted in 1858, and the second came in 1885. In neither was there
a single representative of the non-elite communities or bahujan samaj,
as we now know it who could be involved in drafting the law.
Till date, the age-old Mazania laws are in practise, in effect keeping some sections away from the inner sanctum of Goa's temples
Now, we are also seeing the possibility of an axe on the Mundkar Act and Land to the Tiller Act, which will deprive justice reaching out to the common man in Goa.
At this rate, we should not be surprised tomorrow if it is decided to organise
on a caste-basis festivals for fashion, gods, and language. Imagine a
situation where Goa goes about organising Daivdnya, Vaishya or Bhandari
food festivals. Not only would it leave behind a bad taste in the modern
social set-up but what happens to the idea of Goa?
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Shivdas is a Konkani writer who has campaigned on issues of language,
temple-entry and social reform for the past many years.
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HERALD 28/1/04 page 6
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