Justice at the Grassroots with the subtitle A Tribute to Antonio Francisco Fernandes, Leader of Goa's Tribal Communities by Cyril Aleixo Fernandes is one of the latest publications of Goa 1556.
The Introduction to the book. The Tribal Communities of Goa is what makes the book worth the buy. The reason for this chapter is that Antonio Fernandes was a Gaudda and he worked much for the community. It gives a concise summary of the origin of the Gauddas; the different strands of the community which includes the Christian Gauddas sometimes called Kunbis; the Navgauddas who were reconverted to Hinduism from Christianity; the Velips; the Satarkar Gavddas; the Bhavankar Gavddas; Gawas; Bhattikar Gavddas; Jhalmi etc. It explains their lifestyle as agriculturists and as khazan bulilders and keepers. Thier social organization and their 'commune type of living originally is described thus: "Gaudda society is built on a respect for all life forms including plants and trees. There is a deep recognition of mutual dependence of all life forms including plants and trees. Within a patriarchal framework, respect and status are accorded accorded in proportion to a person's contribution to social requirements but only while the person performs that function. A priest could be treated with great respect during a religious ceremony or a docctor revered during a medical consultation, but once such duties have been performed, the priest or doctor became equal to everyone else. The possesion of highly valued skills or knowledge did not lead to a permanent rise in status. This meant that no individual or group could engage in overlordship of any kind or enjoy gereditary rights." The cultural activities of the Gavddas including the dhalo and fugdi which revolve around the mannd are commented upon. Moving to the more recent history, the pauperisation of the Gauddas began after the entry of the Indo- Aryans who call themselves Goud Saraswat Brahmins who subjugated them and took away thir lands. The Portuguese colonizers made it worse as through their codification of the Communidades the ganvkari rights of the Gavddas were further eroded. Their present status is that of landless labourers generally. They are supposed to benefit from Reservations but in reality not much comes their way through this. In the meanwhile 'development' has resulted in housing becoming unaffordable and their very existence as a community is in peril. The remaining chapters of the book give an account of Antonio's life and works.It describes his activities as a Sarpanch of Cortaliim - Quelossim and the different movements he was involved in such as the fight against the Verna Electronic city which essentially took away the rights to the lands which belonged to the Gauddas, various representations to the Church to fight against discrimination by parish priests, the Konkani agitation, the movement to unite all Gauddas under one umbrella in organizations like Gawda Vikas Mandal, UTAA and also GAKUVED. These chapters are a little disappointing as they turn into an excercise in hagiography. Perhaps this is because the archive of Antonio Fernandes's speeches, letters and other documents are either not available or have been destroyed and hence Cyril Fernandes's depends on casual anecdotes to pad up the book makes for boring reading as most interviewees were not inteested in speaking frankly and only paid tributes to him which after a while sound hollow. The author hits a discordant note when he showers praise on Luizinho Faleiro who was close to Antonio Fernandes and who was probably using him for his own purposes. However the book is not very long so 166 pages plus colour photographs, so perhaps one can overlook this. Also this is one of the few books which highlight the work of one of the subaltern communities of Goa, although the writer is probably not one of them. So Goa 1556 which has been criticised for publishing laudatory accounts of the Goan elite need to be praised for attempting to show the other side of Goan society. Augusto
