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Sangath, www.sangath.com, is looking to build a centre for services, training and research and seeks to buy approx 1500 to 2000 sq mtrs land betweeen Mapusa and Bambolim and surrounding rural areas. Please contact: [email protected] or [email protected] or ph+91-9881499458 http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/2009-July/180028.html ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Frederick Noronha's article http://lists.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet-goanet.org/2009-July/179987.html centres around the question of A. K. Priolkar's ideological orientation and has kicked up a controversy in Goan Internet circles. Priolkar's ideological orientation becomes much more clear when one reads his 'Goa Re-Discovered' which is a collection of his essays published in 1967. In the essay,'Who is a Goan?' he comes up with the ingenuous suggestion that Catholic Goans should abandon the surnames like Gama and Albuquerque which were bestowed upon them when they were converted; and revert to the Hindu names they had before conversion. Ostensibly this was to acquire a sense of pride in one's Indian ancestry. What he desisted from mentioning was that frequently the old Hindu names were caste based and would reinforce old caste hierarchies based on caste. Not that some Catholics were averse to such disclosures; Priolkar pointed out how especially around Mangalore names like Prabhu Coelho were common. His essay 'Hindu - Catholic Integration' while ostensibly about creating better relations among these major Goan communities takes great pains in rehearsing every grouse that he could find about Goan Christians and placed all the burden for fostering better communal relations on them. In 'An Appraisal of Govt.'s Policy towards Goa' was a bitter critique of Nehru's assertion that Goa had a distinct cultural identity. He argued that Marathi was the language of Goa and that Goa's culture and Maharashtra's culture was the same. He prepared the strongest ideological grounds for Goa's merger with Maharashtra that I have read. The essay 'The Portuguese Language in India' rehashes the research Priolkar did in his 'The Printing Press in India' to come to the conclusion that Goan Catholics should revert to the use of their mother-tongue - meaning Marathi!! 'Marathi Christian Literature of the 16th & 17th Century' and 'Old Literature in Various Dialects of Marathi' again tries to prove that Marathi was the language of Goa and Konkani was just a dialect. While Priolkar may have been a diligent researcher, there is hardly any doubt to my mind that his research had a definite political edge. In fact he prepared a partisan agenda for MGP and BJP and other Hindutva oriented groups which is still used to this day. -- Augusto Pinto 40, Novo Portugal, Moira, Bardez, Goa, India E [email protected] or [email protected] P 0832-2470336 M 9881126350
