“I DON’T THINK THE COMMUNITY FEELS THREATENED BUT A CERTAIN ELEMENT OF TRUST THAT PREVAILED HAS BEEN LOST”
Kanekar, “both direct like the new beef bans outside Goa (which resulted in a severe shortfall in beef supply in Goan markets), and indirect, like the false portrayal of Goan culture and history as Hindu and Brahminical. Catholic culture is portrayed as foreign, while Muslim culture (including Goa’s own Islamic past and culture) is ignored.” According to the 2011 Census, the number of Christians in Goa is 25.1 per cent of the population. Muslims account for eight per cent and Hindus comprise 66.08 per cent of the population.
Goa has a history of religion-based politics. “After Goa’s liberation from Portuguese rule in 1961 we had the United Goans Party (UGP) which mostly enjoyed support of the Catholics and Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) which was a Hindu-majority party. While the UGP wanted Goa to be a separate state, MGP wanted it to be merged with Maharashtra. But one’s political views never influenced social relations between the communities,” says writer Damodar Mauzo. The writer remembers how he was once breast-fed by the late Goan musician Anthony Gonsalves’ mother because his own was too ill to feed him.
Goans, Hindus and Catholics, repeatedly talk of this bond, of a shared living and role in each other’s lives. But now, says Timble, the situation is not as comfortable as before. “There is a feeling among a few in the majority community that they are tolerating the minorities.” The number of gumtis, or small Hindu places of worship, has gone up, say some. “There are many crosses across Goa where even Hindus pray. Now tulsi manches have come up alongside some of them,” says Timble. The competition over religious display means more crosses are also being erected to keep up with the gumtis , points out Freddie Fernandes. And an effort has begun to institutionalise Hindu practices. “The Sanstha people tell us to worship together, rather than do our individual pujas at home. At any village fair now, you will find their stalls,” says a Goan. Dadu Mandrekar, a Dalit activist, rues the RSS’s growing influence in the Bahujan community. The underlying tensions sometimes spill out in social media, where a local says, “Goan Catholics are sometimes being portrayed as anti-national and pro-Portuguese”.
Last Sunday the Catholic Association of Goa and the All India Catholic Union held a meeting to discuss the Sadhvi’s speech. All-religion peace meets have been organised to dispel tensions, if any. Father Savio and Shaikh Bashir Ahmed, president of the Association of All Goa Muslim Jamaats also issued a joint statement last month against the targeting of minorities. All this is new for Goa. “I don’t think the community feels threatened but a certain element of trust, that prevailed has been lost,” says writer Maria Aurora Couto.
Most Goans feel that the Goan tradition of peace and communal harmony will win the day. “Goans of all communities are peaceful by nature and even those who have come and settled here get moulded in its culture. It’s the outside forces who are trying to disrupt the peace. Not just the minorities, even the majority is disturbed by this. But these forces won’t be able to disrupt the harmony here,” says Lobo. His conviction does not seem misplaced. At Da Silva’s – Panjim’s popular cutlet joint – a woman in a salwar kameez and mangalsutra comes for a snack with a young girl in jeans. She orders a chicken cutlet for herself, but nods encouragingly at her young companion who orders a beef cutlet. Da Silva does brisk business in both.
CAN GOAN SOLIDARITY LAST IN