Dear Godfrey, Before you worry about others, look at this below cited post. Better hurry or the tarpaulin on the roof may have blown off... Then you shall be 'homeless in Mumbai' but not clueless.
Also, some more info on the community: The East Indian homelands were the three islands of Bombay, Salsette and Bassein, spanning from Colaba in the south, the western coas from Colaba all the way to to thenorth and bhandup, Thana, Kalyan to the east and include Uran and Korlai (Chaul) in the Kolaba District. The East Indians Brahmin, Prabhu, were converted to Christianity four centuries ago by ‘Portuguese Missionaries’ who according to the custom of the time gave them Portuguese names, and they are Roman Catholic in religion. Bombay was grudgingly given to the English as dowry to Catherine and the East Indians were the first British subjects. When there was scare of Nepolean invading Goa/India, these people formed Portuguese (East Indian) Militia consisting nearly a tohousand fighting young men (special acknowledgements for the Bombay Government were received in the following Order of Council of 8th April 1806). A document in the reign of King George III is extant granting the rank of Captain in the Mahim Division of the Militia to Mr. Pascoal DeMello of Dadar. (PS: There is a 'P. D'Mello road in Bombay and I used to always wonder, probably it was named after Captain Pascoal DeMello of Dadar!) Gilbert (Gnet contributor) sent a link and it should be true what he said about the Indian soldiers in the English army in Afghanistan: The following account of military services in the Great War, the Afghan War and the Waziristan Campaign from 1914 to 1922:. Dr. (Captain) W.M.D’Souza who worked as an Indian Medical Service Officer on active service, wrote that nearly 60 percent of the then medical men of our Community – Civil and Military Assistant Surgeons, Sub-Assistant Surgeons and Private Practitioners – volunteered for military services and served as Officers in the Indian Medical Service and other medical services at various fronts, one of whom, Dr. Ben Athaide, obtained the Military Cross for service at the Waziristan front. A fair percentage of our engineers also served on the Royal Naval Transports and other engineering sections in danger zones, and here an engineer, Mr. C. Rodricks, in a transport lost his life at sea due to enemy action. The Community can also count many others, in numbers running into a few thousands, who volunteered into other branches of services connected with t he late wars, such as the Defence Force, Railways Railways, Erabarkation, Postal, Labour Corps and so on and who were admitted as officers, non-commissioned officers, combatants and non-combatants and who have seen active service on various fronts in and out of India. "Dr. W.M.D’Souza came across a batch of about 200 East Indians from Bassein in the Labour Corps in Waziristan on the front and others were on other fields of activity on the frontiers during the last Afghan War. There is no regiment in India where East Indians are allowed solely as combatants and many who volunteered could not be admitted." The following is a list of East Indian Medical Men who rendered active service on the field or other service in connection with the Great War, the Afghan War and the Waziristan Campaign:- In the I.M.S. (Indian Medical Service) – Drs. Almeida, R.A.M.C.; Ben Athaide. M.B.B.S, I.M.S., M.C.(War Casualty); Lionel Bocarro, F.R.C.S.; Fidelis Concessio, L.M.&S.; William M. D’souza. L.M.&S. (War Casualty); Philip D’Mello, M.R.C.P.&S.; F. Gonsalves, L.M.&S. (War Casualty); J.F. Henriques, L.M.&S.; Manoel Miranda, L.M.&S.; Joseph Augustine Pereira, L.M.&S.; Victor Rozario, M.B.B.S.; Wilfred Valladares, M.B.B.S. In the I.M.D. (Indian Medical Department) – Drs. Lawrie D’Cruz, Edward D’Silva, Arthur Gomes, Valentine Gomes, Valentine Fernandes (killed in the battle of Ctesiphon, 1915; mentioned in Despatches) Lewis Rodrigues. Quite impressive, indeed. This community renamed themselves 'East Indians' to distinguish them from the migrant Portuguese Catholics from Goa and Mangalore/Kanara region. (After British took over the ports in Goa, Anjediva Island to thwart the Nepolean invasion, conspired by Tipu, Goa Catholics came to be hired by the Brits and then followed them to Bombay, Karachi and East Africa). Bucanan speaks with authority that the Inquisitors will not touch him because he was aware the English garrison was close at hand!!!) It is believed that the English invited Mahrata, Vania, other Gujarati and other communities from outside because they could not find suitable candidates from within the East Indians. Here we must also realize, Sindhi Hindus came penniless from Sindh, Pakistan, but now are prominent business community in Bombay. This itself may say something. Regards MD. Message: 11 Date: Fri, 14 May 2010 10:52:38 +0530 From: Daniel Gonsalves <[email protected]> To: undisclosed-recipients:; Subject: [Goanet] MOBAIKARS not MUMBAIKARS and WEALTHY CATHOLICS v/s POOR CATHOLICS.. 150 years back 80% of Bombays population was catholics ( comprising of various tribes and castes who were involved in farming and trading and who live in the 189 Gaothans that are spread across bombay city and suburbs) and 20% were kolis (who were involved in fishing and who live in the 43 koliwadas that are spread across bombay city and suburbs). Message: 3 Date: Fri, 14 May 2010 12:20:07 -0400 From: Godfrey Pereira <[email protected]> To: <[email protected]> Cc: [email protected], [email protected] Subject: [Goanet] An Observation By Godfrey Pereira Message-ID: <[email protected]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset="Windows-1252" Dear Editor, My name is Godfrey Pereira. Recently I wrote an Article titled Letter To The Bleddy Goans From An East Indian Bugger". Thank you for publishing it. Here is another observation. I do hope that you have the space to publish this article Thank You So Much Godfrey Pereira E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 201 978 3027
