IDEALIZED PASTS: AN INTRODUCTION TO SALIGÃO
By
DALE LUIS MENEZES
Fr. Nascimento J. Mascarenhas is a very well known priest in Goa. Apart from
being a priest for many decades, he has also authored several books on the
clergy of Goa and is also intimately associated with the Archdiocesan bulletin
Renovação. Fr. Nascimento was and is actively involved in various online forums
about the village of Saligão in particular and online Goan forums in general.
And through contributing village-related articles and trivia on such forums,
The Land of the Sal Tree was born, a book entirely devoted to the myths,
history and people of Saligão.
Fr. Nascimento’s project promises to be a very novel one as all those quaint
traditions, superstitions and trivia of a uniquely Goan village are included in
the book. This book – as the author is humble enough to claim – is not an
individual effort. Fr. Nascimento had the earnest backing of many Saliganvkars,
chief among them being the Canada-based illustrator of the book Mel D’Souza and
Frederick Noronha. Mel D’Souza (who is also a journalist and author) is a
genius in drawing and sketching and his lines enliven the text and take the
reader to an altogether different experience. In Acknowledgements, we do find
Fr. Nascimento honestly considering Mel to be the co-author of the book, and
Mel in his “trademark modesty” asking his role to be “played down”.
The book introduces us to the village of Saligão: its various wards or vaddes,
the prominent houses and monuments of the villages, the well-known as well as
the not-so-well-known village personalities and the various stories that Fr.
Nascimento as a young boy had heard and which stayed with him for the rest of
his life. Fr. Nascimento also reminisces about his boyhood that was spent in
Saligão and the various people who shaped his personality. The book is a
remarkable introduction to a small village of Goa and a project that has the
potential for emulation by other villages as well. Dr. Olivinho Gomes’ Village
Goa, a book on the village of Chandor can be mentioned in this context. Though
academic, it can help in guiding such projects.
Fr. Nascimento’s account of the construction of the Mae de Deus church is truly
illuminating. He has dug out a lot of facts from the archives. But the lengthy
list of the costs and materials incurred to build the church (pp. 104-112)
could have been included as an annexure as it mars the flow of the book. The
Land of the Sal Tree is not connected by a single large, unifying narrative. It
is rather a collection of diverse stories written with and viewed from the eyes
of passionate nostalgia (or should I say saudades?). It gives us an idealized
picture of Sailigão; a picture the younger generation will be in awe of, but
one that they may not be able to relate to. This book presents a rather
fossilized picture of the past and it seems to yearn for a veritable museum
where all that was cherished will be preserved as it is.
Amongst the many interesting stories that Fr. Nascimento narrates, is one of a
boy called Galdinho (related to Mel D’Souza apparently) who climbed the steeple
of the Saligão church in a bid to impress a girl! But by far the most
surprising and awesome story in the book is of Anthony de Mello, one of the
luminaries of Saligão. Anthony de Mello was a great cricketer who put Indian
cricket on the world map and was also instrumental in establishing the Board of
Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The words of Vijay Merchant, another doyen
of Indian cricket are produced here, as appearing in the book: “For sheer
cricket administration capability, confidence and enthusiasm, there was never
anyone to equal de Mello. He was the man who organized the Board of Control for
Cricket in India, was its first Honorary Secretary, India’s cricket
representative in international cricket conferences, and, finally, its
President…His trump card was his bowling and tremendous enthusiasm�
��Anthony will always be remembered as the builder of stadiums without having
anything in the bank to his credit…there will never be another Anthony de Mello
in Indian cricket.” Surely now, Anthony de Mello rightfully deserves one of the
stadiums of the Goa Cricket Association to be named after him.
The book is neatly written with the quality of the language standing as a
salient feature. But the various articles that have been collected in this book
could have been edited further to avoid repetition and to maintain the focus on
the theme that is the village of Saligão. Many of the traditions, superstitions
and habits that are found in Saligão are also found in rest of Goa, such as the
traditional games that were played and the way certain festivals are
celebrated. Such commonly-occurring traditions and customs should not have been
singled out for elaborate treatment.
In tracing the history of the village and its people, Fr. Nascimento has done a
commendable job. But one can’t help but notice some very problematic statements
being made in this process. While categorically acknowledging that the legend
of Parasurama “is just a myth” Fr. Nascimento when speaking about the migration
of non-indigenous people states, “…the attractions of this land subjected it to
an influx of various races in the course of human migration, resulting in the
establishment of certain social patterns that evolved into a distinct Hindu
culture. This civilization prevailed for thousands of years until the late 15th
century when countries in Europe started seeking new lands to colonize or
expand trade.” The term “race” is very problematic as the boundaries defining
one “race” from another are vague and blurred due to miscegenation. Secondly,
Fr. Nascimento sees such migration of people culminating into a distinct Hindu
culture. This is not surprisi
ng as the colonial and the subsequent nationalist historiography, on which Fr.
Nascimento draws quite substantially, has tried to conceptualize a
pre-Portuguese past that is Hindu in its conception. But this is not so. Muslim
or what is known as Islamicate and other identities have also shaped and
influenced the culture of Goa and, sadly, they do not seem to have been
included in Fr. Nascimento’s analysis.
We all know how some Brahmin or “Indo-Aryan” settlers came to Goa in the dim
and distant past from north India. Apparently many of them had settled in
Saligão. Such families find mention in the book along with their genealogies
after conversion to Christianity. These families had displaced the indigenous
population. The way such a process is talked about is a matter of concern. Ages
ago, the “upper-caste settlers” pushed the indigenous people to the fringes of
Saligão and this is but a microcosmic reflection of how in our society today
such indigenous or low-caste people are kept on the “fringes” and hence cannot
be spoken in such idealized, conflict-free terms. Here’s what Fr. Nascimento
says, “When the Indo-Aryan clans arrived in Goa, they took over the
agricultural land and neighbourhoods from the indigenous people who were moved
to the fringe of the villages. They divided the territory into malos
(provinces), and sub-divided the malos into gãos (village
s).”
The Saligão project (if I may call this book) will hopefully inspire many such
books focusing on Goan villages produced by the villagers themselves. But
rather than the quaint and nostalgic account, we look forward to more critical
engagement that would promise to go beyond our ideas of idealized pasts as well
as saudades.
END OF ARTICLE
Land of the Sal Tree, Stories of the history, legends and traditions of
Saligão, a typical Goan village by Fr. Nascimento J. Mascarenhas (Saligão, Goa:
Goa 1556), 2012; pp. xix+290, Rs. 350/- [ISBN: 978-93-80739-35-9]
http://www.daleluismenezes.blogspot.in/2012/06/idealized-pasts-introduction-to-saligao.html
Find my writings @ www.daleluismenezes.blogspot.com
