I respect the blunt or polite refusal by those who do not wish to reveal the caste label they have inherited. It is not very difficult though to find it out with some effort and time that any research usually requires. Hence, some time from now it could be possible to analyse this on-going debate and know more about its most involved participants. It would be possible then to know if it is primarily an exercise of self-serving catharsis by a caste-group seeking to relieve itself from its real or imagined traumas of caste-oppression, rather than a sincere and altruistic struggle for defence of human rights.
In a society that is never static, and is more fluit in times of faster economic and social changes as the one in which we are presently living, the caste strangle-hold is bound to get losened. There are a few studies conducted about this process in some of the Goan villages. At least two of such studies are conducted by non-Goan / non-Indian researchers with no native biases. Montemayor studied Loliem for a thesis in sociology presented to Delhi University in 1970. Janet Rubinoff worked in Corlim and Carambolim in 1978-79 and presented her thesis in anthropology in 1992 to Toronto University. Unfortunately we do not have published versions of either. But they are good studies that enable us to understand how the caste structure has evolved over the centuries in Goan society. Though not directly related to Goa, we have an excellent analysis of how the secularisation process in India has affected the Caste system over the past 50 years or so. (Cf. Peter Ronald de Souza (ed), *Contemporary India: Transitions*, New Delhi, Funda��o Oriente / Sage Publications, 2000, pp. 237-263). The same process is affecting Goa as well and will have similar effects. Perhaps the increasing caste-noises are the cries of a wounded and dying monster? P.S. Janet Rubinoff refers in her thesis that the *bhangi* caste became superfluous in Goa with the extensive use of pigs. Could not the resourceful Goans devise something similar to get rid of Bamonn, Charde, Sudir, etc.? Teot�nio R. de Souza
