Christians in Pune to form united front to express concerns, issues

Christians in city to form united front to express concerns, issues

Reporters Name | CAMIL PARKHE | Tuesday, 17 February 2015 AT 12:05 PM IST

    

Church attacks, Ghar Wapsi, Pune, Christians, united front, express concern,

http://www.sakaaltimes.com/NewsDetails.aspx?NewsId=4940465140058935219&SectionId=5171561142064258099&SectionName=Pune&NewsDate=20150217&NewsTitle=Christians%20in%20city%20to%20form%20united%20front%20to%20express%20concerns,%20issues

Pune: In an unprecedented move, leaders of the mainline and other churches belonging to various denominations met here on Monday and resolved to form a united front of all Christian sects to register their strong concern against the increasing cases of attacks on churches and the ‘Ghar Wapsi’ campaign.

Pune Bishop Thomas Dabre, CNI Bishop Andrew Rathod and Bishop Naresh Ambala were present on the occasion.

Bishop Dabre said that while registering the protest against attacks on churches, Christians should also pray for the persecutors.

The meeting held at St Patrick’s Cathedral campus was attended by religious leaders including Catholic priests, Protestant pastors, social activists, lawyers and others.

Prominent among the speakers were Madhya Pradesh’s former director general of police T Correa, Mozes Kalkutti, Judith Menezes and Fr Denis Joseph.

The speakers at the meeting expressed their concern at the series of attacks against churches in Delhi and the inaction of authorities in curbing these incidents.

These attacks had threatened the secular fabric of the country and created a sense of insecurity among the members of the minority communities, the speakers said.

The speakers regretted that the Christian community was divided into various religious sects and came together only when there were attacks against churches, schools or religious personalities. They also lamented the fact that presently there are no  prominent political leaders representing the Christian community in state assemblies or the Parliament.

Pune diocese Vicar General Fr Malcolm Sequeira said that a committee representing the all-denominations will be formed to hold regular meetings and follow up with the authorities. 

Pune Pimpri Chinchwad Cemeteries - too small, too few, too far

Cemeteries - too small, too few, too far

 Sakal Times

CAMIL PARKHE

The number of cemeteries for the Christian community in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad have remained the same although the population of Christians in the city has increased during the past few decades. This has posed a problem for the members of the community who are forced to travel long distances to bury their dear ones.

Dapodi is the only burial ground available to the sizable Christian community in Pimpri Chinchwad and Khadki.

The other burial grounds are located at Hadapsar, Yerawada, and near the Holkar Bridge. Farther away, there is one more Christian cemetery in the jurisdiction of the Dehu Road Cantonment Board.

There is another cemetery – the War Cemetery in Khadki, but no fresh burials are allowed here. It was created to bury the remains of mostly Allied army combatants killed during the second World War and is more of a memorial.

All the cemeteries in Pune and Pimpri Chinchwad, barring the City Church cemetery at Nanapeth, are open to all Christians - Catholics as well as Protestants.

The burial grounds in Dapodi and Hadapsar have been existing since the British days and today these lands are owned by the civic bodies. These cemeteries are managed by committees having representatives of various Christian sects.

The permission for burial at the various cemeteries is given only on presentation of the death certificate issued by civic bodies and a letter from the representative of the church to which the deceased person belonged.

Due to the space crunch, the practice of selling land for construction of a tomb over the grave has been discontinued at all the cemeteries.

Encroachments on the periphery of burial grounds is another problem faced by almost all cemeteries as there are no resident care takers at these sites.

The area of the Dapodi cemetery shrunk a couple of years back when a portion of the graveyard was acquired for the widening of the Pune-Mumbai highway.

Fr Clement Raj, parish priest of St Ignatius Church in Khadki, said that Dapodi cemetery had also lost some land due to encroachments.

Unlike all other cemeteries, the City Church cemetery is used to bury only those belonging to the City Church parish and also Goans belonging to any parish in the city.

Explaining this peculiarity, City Church parish priets Fr Joe D’Souza said that the City Church, built in 1852, is the oldest church in the city and it also happens to be the only church in Maharashtra which came under the jurisdiction of the Goa diocese.

The cemetery was the property of the City Church and its parishioners were all Goans and therefore, for over a century, only Goans were buried there. In the recent past, this custom had created a conflict among the Goan and non-Goan parishioners of the church and therefore the cemetery was thrown open to all those belonging to this church.

Fr D’Souza said that due to the shrinking space at the burial ground, the church no longer permits permanent graves at the cemetery.

“The problem has become so acute that we do not allow anyone to build a permanent tomb even if the person is willing to offer Rs 50,000,” said the parish priest.

For the past few years, the City Church cemetery has been forced to follow the practice of using graves that are more than three years old for fresh burials. However, some very old tombs continue to exist in the cemetery. “It is difficult for the Church administration to seek removal of these very old graves as it is a sensitive issue,” said Fr D’Souza.

A Christian cemetery on an acre of land near Vadgaonsheri, given by the Pune Municipal Corporation, was dedicated by the Bishop of Pune on November 2, All Souls Day. The land on the banks of the Mula-Mutha was earmarked for cemetery for the past many years but no burials had taken place there due to some pending disputes, said Joe Kasbe, a local Christian leader.

Church welcomes cremation too

-Fr Joe Abraham, Chancellor of Pune diocese, said that the Catholic Church has no objection to people preferring cremation to burial as this solves the problem of space at the cemetery.

- There is no theological issue involved in this, Fr Abraham said, adding that “after cremation, the remains of the departed persons can be kept in niches on the compound walls of the cemetery.”

- Fr Abraham informed that at least three Catholics were cremated in Pune during the past decade. “The custom of cremation has been accepted more by Catholics in Mumbai,” he added.

Bardeskars Part II , Goan Catholics settled in Maharashtra and Karnataka in 18th century

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

The Bardeskars Part II – June 30, 1985

The Bardeskar community, the Goan Catholics scattered in border districts of Maharashtra and Karnataka, has maintained an unique social, cultural and religious set up there, akin to that of Catholics in Goa despite their migration two centuries back. Ppreservation of their mother tongue Konkani and lack of inter-religious marriages have been the major components enabling them to have a distinct identity of their own. Yet the community has never considered nor is considered by others as an 'alien' to the culture of their new homeland.

The last many generations of these Bardeskars have remained Goan Catholics only in their homes, often residing in the same areas in a village but still intermingling with the rest of the communities. They are typical Marathi people in the Konkan and Kolhapur regions of Maharashtra and Kannadigas in Belgaum district of Karnataka .

Konkani language, like their Roman Catholic religion, is an important factor maintaining their umbilical cords with their ancestral land, Goa. Obviously with the passage of time since their forced migration, Konkani language of Bardeskars has undergone tremendous changes when new words from either Marathi or Kannada were incorporated in it. Despite this, it is likely that many of the Konkani words used during old times and now almost extinct in Goa might be used by the Bardeskars even now. Besides, several of the old Konkani folksongs meant for various social occasions like marriages, ordinations and other religious services are still widely used by the community. Those studying the development of Konkani language will find ample subject matter for their research in the Konkani language spoken by the Bardeskars. There is a urgent need to collect the Konkani folksongs for posterity, lest they are wiped out in the passage of time.

Even to this date, Konkani language is widely used by Bardeskars in religious services like mass, rosary and litany. The liturgy utilised for religious services is in Roman script, the same script also used in Goa. However in spite of widespread use of Konkani in daily life, the Konkani literature movement has not yet reached to these regions while a few of the Bardeskar Jesuit priests like Fr Prabhudhar, editor of Marathi monthly 'Niropya', and Fr Caridade Drago, have carved a niche for themselves in Marathi literature, having a few literary works to their credit.

Another interesting factor about the Bardeskars is that despite having almost very less contacts with Goa for two centuries, they have not surrendered their rights over their properties in their original homeland. It is amazing that though the foreign rulers in Goa were always apprehensive of anyone entering the territory from the British India border, the Bardeskars having brought up and spent many years in Konkan,Kolhapur and Belgaum districts, stakes their claim on the 'Zonn' of the comunidade of the areas of their forefathers and continue to do so upto this date. During my stay in western Maharashtra and some parts of Belgaum district, I met many Bardeskars who introduced themselves as 'Gaonkars' of Aldona, Siolim, para, Tivim and other places in Bardez taluka.

It is said that the ancestors of these Bardeskars faithfully registered the names of their children in the records of their respective communidades (cooperatives) in their villages in Goa and that many of them managed to take the Zonn (share) from these communidades whenever they visited Goa, no matter how small the Zonn was. In the later stages when the Portuguese rulers took strong action against any 'foreigners' entering into the Goan territory, many of the Bardeskars are said to have come to Goa either to pay homage to their patron St Francis Xavier or for some other works through unguarded border villages.

Till recently before the Catholic parishes from Kolhapur and Konkan region were bifurcated from Goa archdiocese and linked to Pune diocese, all the records of the churches in these areas, dealing with baptism, marriages, deaths, etc were in Portuguese. The records giving vital information of the forefathers of the Bardeskars are still available in Ajra, Halkarni and other church parishes in Kolhapur districts .
The passage of time has failed to severe the Bardeskars from their past and they have often faithfully, sometimes rigidly, preserved it. The resistance to change according to new times, I think, is not so much due to the rationalisation but merely due to keep up the convention. For example, many young Bardeskars do not know the exact reasons behind some dos and donts in their community although they are willing to abide by it.
Consequently, marriages are not so common in the Bardeskar community between its various groups, belonging to different Hindu castes before their conversion to Christianity. The scourge of casteism – a practice which is officially banned by the Catholic Church and still prevalent in Goa - was carried by them to their places outside Goa. Various efforts are being made by the Jesuit priests who also belong to the Bardeskar community to eradicate the practice of casteism and as a result, some 'inter-caste' marriages within the Bardeskar community have taken place during the past few years. Some of the groups of Bardeskars are still averse to beef eating – a fact hinting at their high caste origin in Hinduism in Goa.
The celebration of annual feast is held even to this date at various chapels and churches in these areas as per the tradition of their ancestors in various villages in Goa. Thus, the Bardeskar community hailing from Siolim near Mapusa and settled in Adkur village in Chandgad taluka of Kolhapur district celebrates the feast of St Anthony. Two years back when a chapel was constructed there, it was dedicated to St Anthony of Padua, as is the case in Siolim.
Like Goan villages, here too one finds 'Confraria', the laymen hierarchy in church affairs and the distinction between the Gaonkars and non-Gaonkars. However fortunately there were no disputes experienced on the style of the recent Cuncolim controversy in the past over this issue.. The Church authorities here are making efforts to establish equality among all in the Catholic Church all over the world.
Thus having nursed and safely preserved their language, religion and culture, these Goans in neighbouring states have never faced the crisis of loss of identity in their new homes as they have firmly established their roots there.
Many of the Bardeskars have found jobs in the mills in Pune, Kolhapur and Mumbai while a few of them are teaching in educational institutions or running their own business.

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.

Pune churches to join June 2 prayers to set world record

Pune churches to join June 2 prayers to set world record
- CAMIL PARKHE Saturday, 1 June 2013 - 11:09 AM IST Sakal Times, Pune
Tags: prayer, Bishop, catholics, christian community, Corpus Christi, world record, Pune Camil Parkhe

PUNE: Bishop Thomas Dabre will lead Catholics in Pune diocese in prayers on the feast of Corpus Christi on June 2, as a part of the simultaneous global prayers to be presided over by Pope Francis at the Vatican. The feat is likely to create a world record.

Parishes in Pune and Pimpri-Chinchwad, along with parishes all over the world, are slated to simultaneously hold prayers on that day.

Pope Francis will lead the prayers to mark the feast of the body and blood of Christ at St Peter's Basilica in the Vatican on Sunday evening. In India, churches have been asked to join the prayers on Sunday at 8.30 pm to coincide with the Roman clock (5 pm local time).

Bishop Dabre will celebrate a mass at St Xavier's Church in Pune Camp on June 2 at 5.30 pm, followed by an adoration service at St Anthony's Shrine.

Catholic Bishops Conference of India (CBCI) president, Mumbai's Cardinal Oswald Gracias has appealed to Catholics in the country to join in the prayers. The global prayer is also being held to celebrate the ongoing Year of Faith and the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council which introduced many reforms in the 2000 year-old church.

The Feast of the Corpus Christi is observed to commemorate Jesus Christ's suffering with bread and wine that symbolise his body and blood.