My dear Friends,
As far as the earliest allusion to the word 'Ghanti' in literature I have found,
has neither pejorative nor vituperative connotation, just the ethnic one.
For example, Luís de Camões in "Os Lúsiadas", refers to them in canto Vll,
verso 22:
"Da terra os naturais lhe chamam Gate"
with the editor, Reis Brazil's footnote explaining:
Gate - Monte da cordilheira dos Gates
Zo, what are we quarrelling about being refered to as "Ghanti"?
Alfred de Tavares
> Date: Tue, 19 Aug 2008 15:49:22 +0530> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL
> PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject:
> Re: [Goanet] Goan friend earn A-levels> > There was no question of denouncing
> my Portuguese nationality, because I never had one. Besides, my father was in
> the Indian Army and was with Operation Vijay for the liberation of Goa.> >
> How can you call Goans born and brought up during the Portguese rule in Goa
> Portuguese. Were Indians called in India during the British Raj, Britishers.>
> > Goans normally referred to the Mahrashtrians as Ghantis, the other side of
> the Ghats, not to all Indians.> > Ana Maria de Souza-Goswami> > > -----
> Original Message ----- > From: Goencho Nadd > To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL
> PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] ; [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Sent: Tuesday, August
> 19, 2008 3:14 PM> Subject: Goan friend earn A-levels> > > Ana Maria de
> Souza-Goswami writes “It is not difficult for me to get a Portuguese passport
> because I was born in Goa during the Portuguese regime, so were my parents
> and grandparents. I thoroughly object you using the word 'ghantis' to us
> Indians.” > > > > If you claim to be born in Goa during the Portuguese regime
> of Potuguese parents, then you were born a Portuguese national. Obviously you
> have denounced this nationality on attaining adulthood and taken up Indian
> citizenship. Since you were growing up in North India during the sixties you
> were bred and brought up as an Indian. And during this process, surely you
> were referred to as “Paca pao”. That explains the ire. Because “Paca Pão” was
> to referred to people with Goan surnames and brought up in cultures that of
> ‘Dhobi Talao’, and other places in India with similar culture. That’s the
> exact delusion people in India and Bollywood have of Goa. > > > > Secondly,
> you expose your ignorance to the word “Ghanti”. Which in Portuguese means
> “Alem Ghates”. You are people from beyond the Ghats and I don’t see why
> Indians from beyond the Ghats cannot be called Ghantis!>
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