Hi Selma, I fully agree with Mario here. While the East Indians are culturally quite different from other Maharastrian or Catholic communities, they do identify themselves as Maharashtrians and more particulalry as the original indigenous inhabitants of Mumbai(a fact of which they are proud of!). Infact the East Indians I know speak Marathi at home, though they have a good command of the English language.
Your point that East-Indians consider themselves as ethnically different from the rest of India(anymore than say, the Manglorean Catholics or Sikhs) is a bit far fetched to anyone who has had friends from that community. Cultural diversity is one of the reasons we are proud to be Indian. India shows that people who don't share a religion, language or customs can still get along as one(sometimes...). Why shouldn't we celebrate that. As Mario eloquently puts it "No one in India obsesses on such cultural minutiae, it doesn't take away from being Indian.." If the East Indians should be solely described as Maharashtrian then surely we will have to do the same with Mumbai-Goans, Parsis, Bene Israel Jews, Anglo Indians and other communities that make up Mumbai. Amusingly, when I was in working in Mumbai some of my Goan(descent) friends(from Orlem and Bandra) used to make fun of our East Indian friends because they were too "local" and not westernised enough. Interestingly many of these friends had a knowledge of Konkani that consisted of ten words at most and a picture of Goa that didn't extend beyond their ancestral village, Anjuna raves or Tito's. To misquote you misquoting Azeglio "we have created an India, it is time to create some Goan Indians" Regards Sunith Velho I became convinced, that there is no > justification for a separate ethnic listing. > > The facts of the case can be condensed as followers: > The worked for the East Indian Company. > They were converted to Christianity. > They owned large tracts of land in Bombay which were > taken over by the government. > Mario observes: > Selma, I'm not sure why you are having such a hard time with acknowledging the distinctive community called "East Indians". They are all Maharashtrians and acknowledge themselves as such, and the term not only identifies them as Catholics, but distinguishes them from Goan and Mangalorean Catholics. Its no more serious than that. _______________________________________________ Goanet mailing list [email protected] http://lists.goanet.org/listinfo.cgi/goanet-goanet.org
