Bardeskars Part I, Catholics from Goa's Bardez taluka settled in Kolhapur, Sawantwadi and Belgaum districts in 18th century

Two articles about the Bardeskar Community (Goan Catholics from Bardez taluka settled in border areas of Maharashtra and Karnataka in the late 18^th century) published in Sunday supplement of The Navhind Times, Panaji, Goa, on 23 August and 30 June, 1985. Bardeskars 23 June 1985

Bardeskar Community, June 23, 1985, The Navhind Times 

By Camil Parkhe 

A lot has been written about the Goans who despite settling in Mumbai and Gulf countries have preserved a distinct identity of their culture. Majority of them have continued their close ties with their motherland, a fact which has been a matter of pride for their kiths and kins residing in Goa. However one is hardly aware of a large section of Goan Catholic community who has settled only about 200 kms away from Goa, in the border areas of Maharashtra and Karnataka states about two centuries ago. Though having lesser contacts with their motherland for a long span of time, they have preserved their culture, language and religion in a most unique way while intermingling in their new places and acquiring a respectable position there.

The Bardeskars, as these people settled in the border areas of the neighbouing states have come to be recognised due to their origin of Bardez taluka in Goa, provide an interesting topic for researchers in the fields of history, sociology, religion as well philology, due to their peculiar transitional period of over last 200 years and the position they enjoy at present. The Bardeskars represent tremendous amalgamation of two distinct cultures – one of their original places, the other of their new settled areas.
The Bardeskars have settled in groups mainly in Sawantwadi, Ratnagiri, Vengurla in Konkan area, Gadhinglanj, Ajra and Chandgad talukas of Kolhapur district in western Maharashtra, and Chikkodi, Kukeri and Khanapur talukas of Belgaum district of Karnataka. Ironically, there are gross misunderstandings about these migrated Goans in Goan society due to their food habits, eloquence in the language of their new areas and sometimes even way of worshiping despite the fact that all these migrated Goans have remained hardcore Catholics to this date. No only that a few of these Bardeskars who have returned to their home land after the liberalisatioon of Goa from the Portuguese regime are considered as aliens in their own villages and are sometimes derogatorily referred to as 'Ghatis' (people from the ghats) despite their typical Goan Catholic names like D'Souza, Fernandes, Costa and so on. Only a glance at the historical events in Goa beginning with the end of the 18^th century, the subsequent migration of the Bardeskars to other states and their life afterwards can throw light on the present status of the Bardeskars in the border areas of Maharashtra and Karnataka.
Though it is certain that these Goan Catholics migrated en block at the end of the 18^th century, historians are not unanimous about the exact cause of their migration. According to one version, the migration can be traced to a political cause. Accordingly, it is said that the British, then ruling only in some parts of India, had planned to conquer Goa from the Portuguese with the help of the Ranes of Satari. The Portuguese, in retaliation, captured the lower class Goans who sided with the British and established a reign of terror by exhibiting the cut up dead bodies. This reign of terror is said to have led to the Bardeskars fleeing from the Portuguese colony and taking refuge in Kolhapur, Sawantwadi and Belgaum areas.
However the version is not fully satisfactory as the migrated people are only from the Catholic community and it does not consist of the lower class alone.
A popular version attributes the migration to the inquisition campaign- a fanatic religious movement which originated in Catholic western European nations and echoes of which were strongly felt in Portuguese Goa too. According to this belief, the Portuguese who had converted a large number of populace to Christianity, now forcibly tried to westernise the neo-Catholics while wrongly identifying tenets of Christian religion with the westernised culture. The harassment of the native Christians reached its zenith when the Portuguese rulers with their dictum, 'Aqui e Portugal' (here is Portugal!) sought to interfere in the daily lives of the neo-Christians, originally hailing from higher as well as lower Hindu castes. The westernisation campaign included accepting clothes in western style, food habits including beef eating – an idea which the native Christians could not digest very easily due to their umbilical cords with Hinduism. The popular version also says that a Catholic bishop, believed to be of Brahmin origin, was expelled from Goa and laid his life during his exile in British India.
Horrified by the sudden spurt of inquisition, a large number of Goan Catholic families especially from Bardez taluka and belonging to the cross sections of classes are said to have migrated en block between 1761 and 1780 to these border areas in British India.
What transitions this migrated Goan Catholic community has gone through during the last 200 years? And what are the things which enabled them to maintain contacts with their homeland, its culture despite the rulers in Goa being hostile towards them due to their migration into British India? It is said that despite the ban on entry of 'foreign nationals' from British India into Portuguese India, many of the Bardeskars continued to visit their villages in Goa as well as to pay homage to the 'Goenchea Saiba' (St Francis Xavier) on his December 3 feast day annually. The history of the Bardeskars, right from their forced migration to this date provides an interesting reading as it invokes admiration for this community which despite the hardships at the initial stages struggled to achieve its respectable position in their new places.
In these new places – which have become their homes in a true sense as majority of them have acquired agricultural lands and some are even running their own businesses – the Bardeskars have acquired fluency in local languages, Marathi in western Maharashtra and Kannada in Belgaum district in Karnataka. Yet Konkani, their mother tongue, is preserved by all of them, scattered in various villages in spite of having almost no contact with Goa. Like the Catholic community in Vasai in Thane district in Maharashtra, the women from the Bardeskars community have taken up the trade of selling fish- fresh and dry – which is supplied from Vengurla on bazaar days. In contrast to Goa, where the Hindu community is referred to as 'Konkano' by their Christian brethren, Bardeskars are referred to by the other local communities as 'Konkani' due to the Konkani language spoken among the Bardeskars.
The most amazing fact about the Bardeskar community is that Christianity - a religion which believes in regular community services and administration of sacraments at various stages of life – was preserved by the community in the absence of priests for many decades. The community followed the religion of its ancestors from Goa even without any knowledge of its theological position while continuing with the religious family services like rosary and litany. St Francis Xavier was, of course, their patron saint and it was only at later stages that priests from Goa were asked to nurture the faith of Bardeskars by visiting them periodically. Until the liberalisation of Goa from the Portuguese rule in 1961, the Sawantwadi and Kolhapur areas were a part of the Goa archdiocese and it was only after Goa's Liberation that these areas joined the Pune diocese. The preservation of the Christian faith by the community without the most essential guidance either by the clergy or the catechists has continued to baffle the Church authorities even to this date. While fresh efforts are being made by the Jesuits who took over the mission work from the diocesan priests very recently to imbibe the tenets and principles of Christianity among the younger generation of the Bardeskar community.
The community though having Christianity as religion of its ancestors is very receptive to the modern trends in the Christian religion due to the dark span of about two centuries in its history as far as religion is concerned. Consequently, while inculturation is almost well accepted fact among these Catholics, the priests have also been successful in introducing various reforms which are slowly showing some positive effects on the social and economic status of the Bardeskars.