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2008 International Goan Convention
Toronto, Canada
http://www.2008goanconvention.com
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When the religiously persecuted Pilgrims arrived in America on the Mayflower,
they had one hope. To find an undisturbed Eden for themselves and their
progeny. However parochial their concept of a New Order might have been they
did give birth to an America which embraces this desire to break from the past
and give expression to something entirely new, be it ideological or
technological. I have to believe that the Goans who set out for the Gulf in
that first wave of migration had a similar hope.
In 1961, Goa had just been liberated from the shackles of colonial Portugal.
Despite the general confusion that ensued in the years following liberation, my
father recalls, there was also a feeling charged with expectancy, a renewed
confidence and a sense of a new beginning among the young men and women of the
time.
The discovery of oil had made the Persian Gulf route a profitable one and to
this end, the British India line had commissioned four modern D vessels, the
Dumra, the Dwarka, the Dara and the Daressa. These ships of 5000 gross tons and
deck passenger capacities of over 1000, plied the Basra Axis from Bombay to
Karachi, Muscat, Dubai, Bahrain, Doha and Kuwait.
For Goans setting sail on these passenger-liners, it was a treacherous route.
But even the dervish-like shamal storms that often reigned havoc at sea and the
blistering heat off the Strait of Hormuz did little to discourage those in
search of a new life. These Goans were instrumental in creating a more
egalitarian society for themselves in diaspora. For one thing they didn’t
import the horrible excesses of the caste system. It was almost obscene to
mention caste in polite company. Doubtless its ghost inhabited conservative
corridors but it seldom peeped outside or constituted any sort of social
hegemony.
The Gulf also presented another paradigm shift. The heat might have been
torrid, power-cuts constant and water supply erratic but if you knew English
and how to work a telephone, jobs were aplenty. Companies such as British
Petroleum, Shell and Cable & Wireless had a strong and expanding presence.
Initiative, industry and resilience in the face of adversity came to be the
qualities admired. The demons of disparity driven by caste, family name,
connections and other bourgeoisie privilege dissipated in the Gulf. In their
place, success was measured by merit and material well-being.
Unfortunately having demolised the Old Order of inherited status, it gave way
to a New Order of materialism and class consciousness.
The ship my parents sailed to the GUlf in, the S S Dumra:
http://www.biship.com/
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info/input appreciated
selma
