Articles on Bardeskars, Goan Catholics from Bardez
taluka settled in border areas of Maharashtra and Karnataka in the
late 18th 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.
The maverick politician and activist Subramaniam Swamy has come full circle with his decision to merge his Janata party into the Bharatiya Janata Party. It was through the erstwhile Jana Sangh that this longtime Harvard teacher had entered Parliament for the first time in early 1970s and since then has hogged the media limelight for the past four decades. He had fled India to evade arrest when Indira Gandhi declared Emergency in the country. I remember Swamy had become an instant hero when he quietly entered India, surfaced in Parliament all of sudden and later disappeared into thin air, giving the police a slip. Incidentally, lawyer Ram Jethmalani was another vocal opponent of the Emergency who too had managed to evade arrest by fleeing to Canada at that time. Incidentally, both these heroes were richly rewarded with victory in Lok Sabha seats from Mumbai in the post-Emergency polls.
Subramaniam Swamy again made headlines in the print media of those days when he decided to keep floating Janata Party – the legacy of Emergency heroes like Jayprakash Narayan. As the president of this party which never had presence at national level nor in his Tamilnadu home state, Swamy has continued to rake up various controversies like the issue of foreign origin of Sonia Gandhi and file legal suits, winning him accolades and also brickbats. The talented politician had been Union minister of commerce and law for a brief period in the short lived government of Chandrasekhar. 'Ekla Chalo Re' has always been his dictum and as is the wont of Ram Jethmalani, has often invited ire of those to whom he has been affiliated.
“There is a snake ahead on the road,” a woman told me as she passed by me during my morning walk today. It took a few seconds for me to register what she had said and by that time I was in front of a small snake wriggling right on the middle of the road. I was pleasantly surprised the woman had alerted me about the snake without even raising an alarm or creating panic as most people would have done. I halted to watch the snake and that drew attention of another morning walker to the snake. His immediate reaction was to call to out to a labourer at the under-construction building there, to warn him of the snake moving slowly towards that building.
Pune: Church leaders in the city have paid rich tributes to Emeritus Cardinal Simon Pimenta, the first Marathi-speaking clergy to be elevated to the rank of cardinal, whose funeral will take place in Mumbai on Tuesday.
PIMPRI: The state-of-the-art Traffic Park in Pimpri Chinchwad New Township Development Authority (PCNTDA) is receiving good response since its inauguration in February this year.
PIMPRI: Pimpri Chinchwad Municipal Corporations's (PCMC) Science Centre has received an overwhelming response and a total of 91,000 children and adults have visited the Centre since it was inaugurated five months ago.