Subject: [world-vedic] Is the March over?
From: "Ashwini Kumar" <ashwini_kumarr@hotmail.com
Date: Sun, 15 Dec 2002 21:14:01 -0500

Is the March over?

A Hindu renaissance has slowly swept the former Portuguese colony of 
Goa since its 1961 liberation by India from 400 years of foreign rule.

By Mario Cabral e Sa, Goa

In 1567 the Captain of Rachol Fort in South Goa bragged to his 
Portuguese king back home, "For nights and nights went on the 
demolishing, demolishing, demolishing of 280 Hindu temples. Not one 
remained in the happy lands of our division." Jesuit historian 
Francisco de Souza jubilantly praised the feat, "It is incredible--the 
sentiment that the gentile were seized of when they saw their 
respective temple burning." The astonishing but true fact is that 
every temple was soon relocated and rebuilt by my countrymen; the 
murtis, and in some cases the sacred fire, were heroically rescued and 
reinstalled. Chandrakant Keni, a leading Goan poet, says that although 
Goa's Hindus were put to severe tests as conquerors marched over their 
lands, they had the resilience to convert "temporary setbacks into 
permanent victories."

Goa is located on the southwest coast of India between Karnataka and 
Maharashtra states. It remained a Portuguese colony until forcibly 
taken by India in 1961. The "Christian presence in Goa"--an expression 
very much in vogue during the evangelistic fury of the Portuguese 
rulers and padres (priests), particularly in the 16th and 17th 
centuries--is more visible than vital today, 35 years after 
liberation. For example, Rodale's Guide to Places of the World 
describes Goa as "predominantly Catholic," when in reality Hindus, 66% 
of the 1.2 million populace, far outnumber Christians of all 
denominations.

The first missionaries realized early on that despite backing of the 
state ("conversions were made," wrote contemporary Portuguese 
chroniclers, with "the cross in one hand, the sword in the other"), it 
was difficult to wean Goans from their primal Hindu beliefs and 
traditions. I will share a traumatic and rancorous twist of this Hindu 
stalwartness that involved the splitting up of my ancestral family. 
They took a calculated risk: half the family would convert, and the 
other would escape to Karnataka where other Goan Hindus had settled 
and been welcomed by the Ikkeri king. The half that remained would 
safeguard the estate and assets of the migrating half. The calculation 
was that the Portuguese wouldn't stay in Goa for long--just trade, 
make money and go. That didn't happen. By the 1800s it was clear the 
Portuguese would remain. By then, too, the converted half of my family 
was forced to eat beef and pork and felt they could not return to 
their primal Hindu faith. They had by then appropriated the estate and 
assets of the migrated half, rather than lose it to the Inquisition, 
as the law then stipulated properties belonging to the "heathen" be 
confiscated.

Noted India cartoonist/illustrator Mario De Miranda confirms his 
family's fidelity, "I am a Saraswati Brahmin, originally named 
Sardessai. My ancestors were forcibly converted to Christianity around 
1600 and renamed Miranda. We still belong to the Shanta Durga temple 
and yearly present prasad--oil and a bag of rice--a tradition in my 
family all these years."

Early European travellers, like Venetian epicure Pietro Della Valle 
who visited Goa in the 1700s, denounced in their travelogues 
"unChristian" practices in Catholic churches and shrines in Goa. 
Rather than create for themselves insurmountable trouble, the padres, 
particularly the Jesuits, reluctantly rewrote Christian liturgy. For 
instance, they enthusiastically adopted the Hindu tradition of 
yatra--in the Goan sense of "procession." Neophytes, according to 
chroniclers, paraded to their new Catholic shrines, singing as they 
moved and showering their paths with leaves and flowers, just as they 
had done only a while earlier as Hindus. To this day kumbhas are used 
for Catholic processions. At one stage, even the Vatican tersely 
censured those "gentilic practices" and proliferation of icons in 
churches. No where, lamented Della Valle, had he seen as much idolatry 
as in Goan churches. But evangelists, many of them foreigners--the 
most successful was Saint Francis Xavier--convincingly argued that 
without ethnic accommodations they were doomed to failure.

Other concessions included retainment of social structures. In 1623 
Pope Gregory gave sanction for converted Brahmins to continue wearing 
their sacred thread and caste marks, and Catholics to this day 
maintain the Hindu caste system. Till recently, inter-caste marriages 
among Catholics were frowned upon both by families and the religious 
establishment, and though love marriages are increasing, arranged 
marriage is still preferred. Only Catholics descending from brahmin 
families were admitted to seminaries until the 17th century.

Hindu influence is also evident in Goa's Christian art. Icons of 
Christ have the angular and emaciated features of a Himalayan sadhu, 
and statues of Mary contain the features of Parvati, Lakshmi or other 
Hindu deities. Many angels and cherubs sculpted on altars and pulpits 
of Christian shrines resemble apsaras and gopikas.

At times, the zeal lead to humorous situations. At village Moira, in 
north Goa, a Siva temple was destroyed and replaced by a church 
dedicated to the Immaculate Conception of Mary. Apparently, the 
builder had found the tripartite Sivalinga of the original temple and 
not knowing its symbolism but realizing its artistic value, used it as 
a pedestal for the holy water basin. And there it was, from 1636 to 
1946, when German indologist Gritle V. Mitterwallner noticed it during 
a monument survey. He decided to move the Sivalinga to the Museum of 
the Archaelogical Survey of India in Old Goa, and paid for a masonry 
pedestal for the basin.

Obsessed with quick results, Portuguese evangelists brainwashed with a 
singular lack of concern for substance and almost psychotic emphasis 
on form. Numbers mattered, not quality. They force-fed Goan converts 
beef and pork declaring--incorrectly--that the neophytes could never 
return to Hinduism. They also forced converts to change their 
lifestyles, but never really thought of teaching the natives basic 
Christianity. So much so, in the early 1990s Goa Catholic leaders 
admitted that fundamentalist Christian sects like the "Believers" 
(akin to Liberation theologians), then on the upswing, were 
infiltrating the mainstream Catholic community precisely because the 
community lacked adequate religious foundation. It was realized that 
only a few had actually ever read or studied the Bible. In fact, the 
Old Testament had never been translated into Konkani, the mother 
tongue of Goans and spoken by over 90% of them.

Perhaps this accounts for a current trend, since Goa's liberation, of 
Catholics' reverting to Hindu practices, seen in several arenas. Many 
offer prasad at Hindu temples like Fatarpa. Fisherfolk celebrate 
Nariel Purnima to begin the fishing season and propitiate Samudra Gods 
with coconut offerings. New babies are given Hindu names, and some 
adults are now shedding their Catholic names to adopt Hindus ones. 
Some Catholics observe the 12th day samskara after birth and death. 
Many women now wear the mangalsutra and forehead bindis, and use 
mehndi to embellish palms and soles. Indian dress is more fashionable 
(kurtas, saris, etc.) and rotis (flatbread) are a Catholic staple.

Hindus are culturally strong, but understandably influenced by 
Christianity. Goans of both communities celebrate together socially at 
festivals like Divali and Christmas, though essential religious 
rituals are attended separately. Hindus do not attend Christian 
churches, though quite a few, particularly of lower castes, in a 
crisis or in gratitude for favors perceived as granted, propitiate 
Catholic "miraculous saints." Influence also occurs educationally. The 
majority of colleges are Catholic and in them Hindu students outnumber 
Catholic students. Unfortunately, Hindus attending these schools are 
often subtly weakened in their beliefs.

Having failed to change the Goan psyche, the Portuguese developed a 
paranoia for appearance. In the 1700s Captain Alexander Hamilton 
counted eighty churches in the capital alone, and 30,000 priests. 
"Each church's bells," he wrote, "continually rang with a peculiar 
power to drive away all evil spirits except poverty in the laity and 
pride in the clergy." Today, there are 6-700 priests, many churches 
are closed except for festivals, and old chapels are in disuse.

In contrast, Hindu temples are flourishing. The Bhahujan Samaj, 
disadvantaged until 1962, is socially and politically powerful. They 
have established a non-brahmin prelate at the Haturli Mutt 
(monastery), and the temple under construction there may be worth Rs. 
ten million (US$290,000) by completion. Other thriving mutts are 
Partagal and Kavalem. Modern Hindus feel duty-bound to restore their 
heritage, exemplified by Damodar Narcinva Naik who owns Goa's largest 
car dealership. Besides starting a movement to popularize Sanskrit, he 
had the Veling temple and Partagal Mutt rebuilt according to old Hindu 
architectural norms. And Dattaraj Salgaonkar, a young entrepreneur who 
recently helped restore the Margao Mutt in South Goa says, "This mutt 
was demolished by invaders in order to exterminate the Saraswat 
community and eliminate its influence over many followers."

Curiously, when Goans part company with friends or relatives we say 
"Yetam," which means "I'll come back," not as elsewhere, "Vetam," "I'm 
going." It's our way of expressing hope and optimism.