Mr. Avelino D'Souza of Bastora/kuwait asks me: could you clarify where on the caste hierarchy you belong?
I must say it is a very good question. However , therre is no clear cut answer but I shall try , as briefly as possible, to tell a story that has been with our families for the last two and half centuries. For your information I have our family tree chart that goes as far back as mid-eighteen century. You may take with a pinch of salt but we do believe it for it concerns our family members. Let us consider ourselves to be living inthe seventeen century somewhere in Ponda /Sanquelim talukas of today.Being in the rich agricultural region of Konkan, there are many temples including those which were vacated from Bardez/Salcete region with the advent of the Portuguese. The temple poojaris ( i.e. the officiating priests including the newcomers from Bardez/Salcete ) are living like godlings on earth. The temples are also some sort of orphanages for unwanted girls because their husbands to whom they were married ( under child marriage ) died before they attained the age of puberty. So the young widows are given to the temple to serve as maids. Some of these nubile girls attract the attention of priests who entice them into concubinage. I don't blame the priests, for it happens all the time and everywhere. The children of these illicit unions , however, have some problems . To which caste do they belong to ? not the upper caste, of course. Hence there is resentment . If they continue living on the outskirts of the temple, they are considered to be outcasts. So what do they do ? Let me state, at this stage, that it was a very small number of children of such illicit unions who migrated across the river and settled down in the first villages they came across in Bardez/Salcete area and became catholics. The young men got married and claimed 'high' status no matter in which caste they got married into, but some young women who did likewise,were, however, not so lucky. Antonio
