In Bombay/Mumbai the chances of any Christian getting a job in central/state undertakings, nationalized banks, RBI, airindia, BMC, city survey offices, talathis office, district collectors office, etc is almost NIL. This prompted some native north konkan christians ( or eastindians ) living in Bombay/Salsette/Vasai/Thane to baptize the eastindian community with the OBC tag. But there are around 400 OBC groups in Maharashtra and each group has lakhs of members. The eastindians will have to compete with other OBC groups for the same number of jobs and facilities those who are lucky will get the benefits. The caste/community column in the OBC certificate uses the words ‘East Indian Christian’ but the correct name should have been ‘North Konkan Christian’ or ‘Norteiros’. The name ‘norteiro’ may have fallen into obscurity because the native christians of north konkan identify with the name eastindian, koli & damanese but what is the problem in resurrecting the name ‘Norteiros’.
One newspaper recently carried a report about one church in bandra paying Rs.20 Lac Tax to protect its Rs.40 Crore property. Assuming each Catholic Church in Bombay has vacant property worth 10 to 50 Crore rupees the total value of all the properties in the possession of the more than 100 catholic churches in bombay will most probably run into thousands of crores or Billions of Rupees. The Parish priests are not interested in utilizing the church assets-resources-properties for the benefit of poor christian parishoners and it is very shameful when the parish priests talk of charity & serving the poor. The vaccant properties in possession of catholic church in Bombay were donated in the past by the north konkan christians (or eastindians) who believed that their donation would benefit the church and its parishoners. Had the eastindians knew that the property which they were donating to the church would be misused by the parish priests the eastindians would have never donated their property to the church. There are a few Christian Activists in Bombay who are sacrificing their blood/sweat/time/money to expose the corruption in the State Administration, Muncipality, Politics and in defending the last few bits of open spaces, mangroves, gardens, playgrounds, saltpanlands but none of the Christian activists dares to expose the corruption in the sale of church property. The native places of the marathi people working in Bombay Muncipal Corporation, District Collectors Office, Talathis office, City Survey Offices,etc are in other parts of Maharashtra this explains why the marathi people were/are not bothered to protect the open spaces, ponds, wells, mangroves, gardens, playgrounds, saltpanlands, etc in bombay from being encroached by slumlords & builders & politicians & migrant slum dwellers. Since the Marathi People are fluent in reading/writing/speaking/understanding the marathi language only they are entitled to jobs in BMC, District Collectors office, Talathis office, City Survey offices,etc where all the official & clerical work is done in marathi language. The Marathi people have monopolized the name Maharashtrian for themselves due to which other native communities in Maharashtra including eastindians & kolis cannot identify with the name Maharashtrians. The BMC claims that because of water shortage in the six lakes the water supply cut of 15 or 30% is necessary. But the BMC never explains why it is clearing the building proposal files of the builders lobby, mhada, sra, etc and providing them with water connections when there is shortage of water in the six lakes. What is surprising is that the eastindian gaothans (villages) in bombay get less water pressure compared to the more water pressure which the slums & residential buildings that surround the gaothans in bombay get. The Homeland of the EastIndians & Kolis is North Konkan which comprises of Bombay, Thane & Raigad Districts and since the natives of north konkan are neither from the warrior class and neither politically active people due to which the Maharashtra govt. has taken advantage and is eating up their land through land acquisition, leaving them to be merely a memory. North Konkanites ( Norteiros – Vasaikars - Mobaikars – Salsettians - EastIndians ) websites : http://www.bombayland.blogspot.com/ http://www.east-indians.com/ One of the main reasons why Christianity has become a Weak Religion is because the Parish Priests give boring & childish & secular Sermons which does not have any effect on the parishoners. The Parish priests are wasting their time and the parishoners time by giving the boring sermons. The command to endure suffering is just another part of a Christian's life. Faithful Christians of all ages have suffered; we are not the only ones. We should expect more sufferings to come because we are living in a country which is hostile to Christians & Christianity. The only sad part is that our Bishops, Cardinals, Priests, Missionaries are not using the vacant church properties, foreign donations, etc for the benefit of our poor christian parishioners even our christian schools/colleges/institutions turn their back on our poor christians. Daniel Gonsalves Bombay. * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Now available in Toronto, a few copies of *Into The Diaspora Wilderness* by Selma Carvalho. Contact Bosco D'Mello [email protected] (416) 803-7264 http://selmacarvalho.squarespace.com/
