GL responds: Teotonio thanks for your compliments and you liking my analogy of caste-identification and the work of Gandhiji, Mother Teresa and Black progress in the USA. Finally some real smart Goan follows and likes my logic. Too bad that a few (no names please) are not smart like you to follow the reasoning. Of course magir they try to explain to others "what Gilbert is saying". :=) Sorry I didn't mean to unwittingly bring you into this Goan comedy. :=)
On a serious note, your posts are ... "When EF Hutton talks, everybody listens." So I am glad you've come in. Perhaps we now can have an historical and factual dialogue on this and related issues. Not too long ago, there was a 'sober post' claiming: 1. Most of today's Goan Catholics are lower-caste Hindus from outside Goa. 2. In the 17th and 18th century they came voluntarily into Portuguese-Goa. 3. Willingly they converted to Catholicism. 4. They assumed the upper-caste label of the village they settled-in. When I inquired about the documentation for these events, I didn't get a specific reply. The respondent said 'these conclusions can be drawn' through common sense. I would appreciate your elucidation and confirmation of the above facts. Also the document you requested has been kindly posted in cyber-Goa by Gasper Almeida. Do you think after you read it, you could distill this rather long post and give us a Reader-Digest version? You could separate the wheat from the chafe in that 9-page scientific article where you were well referenced. Congratulations! Thank you in anticipation. Regards, GL Teotonio R. de Souza: I respect the blunt or polite refusal by those who do not wish to reveal the caste label they have inherited. In a society that is never static, and is more fluid 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 loosened. 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. Perhaps the increasing caste-noises are the cries of a wounded and dying monster? *********************************************************************** * G * O * A * N * E * T *** C * L * A * S * S * I * F * I * E * D * S * *********************************************************************** Greet your loved ones in Goa with flowers! http://www.goa-world.com/goa/expressions/ EXPRESSIONS - The Flower Shop. World famous all over Goa! ***********************************************************************
