Gilbert Lawrence wrote: > The challenge is how does the Goan Diaspora maintain their identity? The answer from the Parsis (and others) is through their daily, monthly and annual links to their original roots. Like the Parsis, the Goans have come a long way. The challenge facing us, (in Goa and our Diaspora) is whether we can build on the progress we have made. If we wish to also maintain our identity, the Parsee community that has survived more than 3000 years, away from their original homeland, may have some clues for us. Most Parsis do not speak their original language, rather speaking and being educated in the local language of the region they live in. The Parsis have been very adept to blend and be very successful in their new environment, without being assimilated. They have maintained their community links, both locally, nationally and internationally. > Mario responds: > This is rich - reminds me of King Canute. However, I will agree, that many Parsis do think like Gilbert when it comes to resisting assimilation and being elitist, ethnically exclusionary and caste-concious. > Have Goans come a long way only to go back to living like they used to where they came from, when so-called ethnic "identity" is even disappearing where we came from? > Does Gilbert even know that the concept of "maintaining ones ethnic identity" is steadily disappearing in urban, middle-class India as educated Indians in India now frequently marry across all the lines that signify the "identity", which includes caste, that seems to be so important to him? > Does this "Goan identity" include Goan emigrant parents forcing their children to marry within the Goan community and caste, even as they may want to assimilate into the cultures that many of their parents have committed themselves to? Isn't assimilation what has made the immigrant societies of America, Canada, Australia and NZ the free, secular, open societies that they have become to those who choose to live there? Do we want to look longingly backward to the discrimination that maintaining an "ethnic identity" implies, further complicated by Indians with caste discrimination? > The Parsis, who left Persia for India 1,000 years ago, not 3,000, have been declining in number steadily over the years - the total number worldwide is now estimated as fewer than 100,000 - precisely because they have been dogmatically exclusionary and have been inbreeding to the point that it has led to noticeable genetic problems within the community. Does the Goan diaspora want to go down that same road? Do those of us who are Christian want to continue to defy our religion that teaches us that all humans are created equal? > Recently, progressive Parsis, especially in the diaspora, have begun to marry non-Parsis in growing numbers. This is similar to what is going on in the Goan diaspora, especially in America, Canada, Australia and NZ, with opposition from those who want to maintain the "purity" and "identity" of their Goan castes. These progressive Parsis have begun to advocate for the conversion of spouses who were not born Parsis. Currently, those who married non-Parsis were, in effect, excommunicated and shunned by the purists among their leaders. >
