Our friend Ashok Row Kavi has a very different take on this, and suggests some of Goa's recent history was also shaped by such competition within the "same caste". The note below is written in typical Row Kavi style, of the 1980s vintage:
QUOTE ...Only two institutions kept the fact in mind that Konkani was indeed a living language. One was the Catholic church which knew that the gospel could be spread only through the local language. The other was the Gowda Saraswat Brahmin community which considered it the 'divyabhasha' (divine language). They controlled the temples in the hinterland and hired Maratha Brahmins to manage them while they adjusted to the situation by learning enough Portuguese and becoming bureaucrats, all the while talking Konkani at home. So quick was their rise that they invited the wrath of both the church and the Maratha Brahmins. Some of the Maratha Brahmins even took the Gowda Saraswat Brahmins to the Madras High Court accusing them of unbrahmanical practices like eating fish and hobnobbing with the mlechas. The Maharashtrian Brahmins lost the case. The animosity between the two Brahmin sects grew. The Gowda Saraswats continued to prosper. The Marathas continued to keep the temple rituals in Marathi and the Gowda Saraswat minded their money in Konkani written in Devanagari script. Thus all Goa's temple records concerning rituals are in Marathi and their accounts in Devanagari Konkani. The church meanwhile developed Konkani in Roman script so much so that even as Hindus pronounce Konkani as 'Kokani' the Christians pronounce it as 'Konkaani'. The party that came to power after Goa's liberation in 1961, the Maharashtravadi Gomantak Party (MGP) was unabashedly pro-Marathi. The Kokanasth, Karada and Deshasth Brahmins were now having their revenge against the Gowda Saraswats. The backward castes rallied around Dayanand Bandodkar, under the banner of Bahujan Samaj which also took a stand hostile to the Gowda Saraswats. UNQUOTE http://lists.whatwg.org/pipermail/goanet-news-goanet.org/2006-August/001803.html FN On 17 January 2012 11:56, Rajan P. Parrikar <[email protected]> wrote: > FN asked: "A question: Do GSBs and bhats consider themselves to be the "same > caste"? FN" > > > GSB and bhats are both Brahmins. There are sub-castes within castes, but > yes, both fall to the Brahmin lot. Goanet contributor Dr. Anil Desai, a > bhat, will > no doubt object if he didn't think so. --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Protect Goa's natural beauty Support Goa's first Tiger Reserve Sign the petition at: http://www.goanet.org/petition/petition.php ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
