When an academic writes... a book on Moira
Frederick Noronha (The Navhind Times, Mar 23, 2025)
Moira is a colourful village in Bardez. You might have heard
of it in various contexts. As a scenic space.
River-surrounded and charming. A place whose many pretty
homes have been built by long decades of expat Goan incomes.
A changing villages, whose empty homes have been passed on to
religious charities, or sold to a growing number of
neo-settlers. Even 'the land of the wise fools'.
Prof Lucio Rodrigues, the well-known figure from Dhempe
College of the 1970s, commented (in his 'Of Soil and Soul and
Konkani Folk Tales', later republished as 'Abolim' and then
as an ebook, 'The Wise Fools of Moira and Other Goan Folk
Tales'): "The village is famous for many things, among others
for its banana plantations, which yield big, long bananas,
called munnouchinz kellim in Konkani, and each fruit is equal
to a square meal....
"The people are... among the most industrious
people of Goa. Blessed as they are with fertile
land, they have used Nature’s gift to raise many
crops -- rice, chillies, vegetables, bananas....
But it is not their industriousness that signals
them out for unique honour among their Goan
fellows. It is for a legacy that they have
inherited from their forefathers -- a wisdom that
is traditional."
In Bardez, the Moidekkar (denizen of Moira) is sometimes
spoken off with a sneer. But, that could also come from a
touch of envy. Given all these facts, there are many reasons
why a village like this needed a book; and finally it's here.
So, how well does it attain its goals?
Incidentally, quite recently, Moira had an elaborate (and
quite readable) souvenir on the village, reviewed earlier in
these columns. Moira also has its Facebook group, and
earlier a YahooGroup. But attempts for it to have a book of
its own have, so far, turned out to be non-starters.
The souvenir, which emerged in 2020, the year of the
pandemic, was also put together by an academician (Augusto
Pinto). This volume's editor has been the Head of the St
Xavier's College (Mapusa) Department of Political Science.
In a sense, parts of the book come across as sounding
academic.
Dr Caetano (Cajetan) Francisco Raposo -- whose PhD
focuses on 'Amendments to the Code of Comunidades
-- Post-Liberation' -- is interesting in his
chapters dealing with the Comunidade de Moira,
Tenants and Khazan Lands, and Mazanias and
Comunidades. Given his specialisation in Political
Science, also worth going to is the chapter titled,
which might seem intriguingly, 'Moira versus
Maharashtra'. Statistics given here are insightful.
Raposo cites work done by researchers like statistician John
Nazareth, who studied the DNA of some Moira gaunkars, and
this helps to create a wide-angle picture.
The story of Jack Sequeira, Goa's first Opposition leader,
credited with maintaining Goa's separate status, his
connections with the village, and what happened to the same,
is shocking, if one goes by what Raposo writes.
The section on Moira's origins, the etymology of its
associated names, and early settlers, are the ones which
might be contested by locals or later researchers, one feels.
For someone who might not know the details, learning about
small-scale industries of carpentry and roof tiles in Moira,
reminds us that the Goan villages were productive units, till
not many decades ago. Quite unlike the dormitory spaces many
have now become.
* * *
This book is split up into 19 chapters. The approach of the
book is straight forward, as expected. It deals with many
issues one would expect in a book of this kind -- shrines in
the village, the comunidade, village panchayat, tenants and
khazan lands, and the like.
Two chapters which you might not have expected are on the
'dynamics of conversion', and another on the stories
surrounding Moira. The chapter on Mazanias (temple
management committees) and comunidades is also informative.
At some stage, the long lists and somewhat formal
approach parts of the book take might slow down the
narratives. For instance, the details of who all
were present at the inauguration of a restored
pre-primary school (p.228), Or the administrators
of the village school. But then, maybe this might
be of interest to a villager reading the book.
Along the way, some of the old photos shared are quite
insightful. For instance, the sepia-toned photo of the old
main school (p.220).
Some space gets devoted to eminent personalities of Moira.
This covers persons some of whom might not be adequately
acknowledged till date. Nuclear physicist Dr Silvestre
Nazare, Prof Gonzaga da Gama Pais (a classmate of this
reviewer, incidentally), the author's son and musician Cyris
Raposo, the late medico-doctor Dr Carmo Azavedo, former Kenya
parliamentarian J.M. Nazareth, Nazareth's son the Washington
State University mathematician and computer scientist Prof
John Lawrence Anthony Nazareth, the Professor Peter Nazareth
who was an academician at Iowa and best known in Goa for his
Ugandan novels and anthology of Goan literature, author Jerry
Pinto, and others.
Others featuring in this book include international referee
Goculdas S Nagvenkar, music teacher Prof Philomena Da Cruz,
internationally noted architect Charles Mark Correia, athlete
Elma D'Cunha, Opposition leader Erasmo Sequeira and his dad
the famed Jack de Sequeira, priest Sebastiao JFA Lopes Lobo,
sportsperson Loretta D'Souza Shreedharan, returned expat
Romeo Coelho, architect Gerard Da Cunha, psychologist-priest
Dr Anthony Da Silva SJ, psychiatrist Dr Joaquim Victor De
Souza, Air Vice Marshal (Dr) Giles Gomez VSM (Retired), Group
Captain (Dr) Vinita Valerie Gomez (Retd), and the prominent
Indo-Portuguese historian Teotonio R de Souza. Probably,
some might still find those others who could have been
included.
Four colourful musicians are in the book.
Legendary Mickey Correa, young music maestro Jason
Quadros, Salazar D'Sa (credited with setting up not
one but two all-women's bands out of Moira), and
Xavier de Moira (Packlo). In the latter's name
lies a story!
Which is the Moira you'd like to encounter? There are
many... Raposo begins his preface saying: "If you behave a
little idiosyncratic in Goa, don't be surprised if you are
called a 'Moidecar'. Then, there is the Moira of the
achievers of yesteryears, and the affluent East Africa
pensioners. There's the village which fascinates well-heeled
neo-settlers, and immigrants from other parts of Goa.
All this and more is hinted at in the pages of Raposo's work.
Sometimes, you need to read in between the lines to
understand the inner-tensions that underline the workings of
a typical (and, in some ways, not so typical) Indian village.
How has it changed since Stella Mascarenhas-Keyes did her
early anthropological work here in the 1980s, at a time when
Goa Studies was largely unknown and hardly any scholars
(interest from those of the Portuguese era had dried up too,
for obvious reasons) were studying Goa?
Raposo offers many interesting details about the village.
One however gets the impression that the "Moira story" would
take a lot of space, and even many more books, till it is
told in its entirety. Just because it is so vast, colourful,
diasporic-driven and globally spread.
'Discerning Moira: A socio-cultural, religious,
historical, political perspective' comes across in
266 pages. It is a self-published, hardbound,
large-sized book priced reasonably at Rs 350. The
book is available from the author at Calizor, Moira
phone 9822687080. ISBN 978-93-5980-132-2. If you
are one of those who collects books on Goa, this is
one for your bookcase.
--
Published in BrieFNcounters column. The Navhind Times, Mar 23, 2025.
