CATHOLIC LIFE IN GOA

Book Review from JIVAN September-October 1998

[CONVERSION, CONTINUITY AND CHANGE: Lived Christianity in Southern Goa. By Rowena Robinson. SAGE Publications India, 1998. M32 Market, Greater Kailash I, New Delhi 110048. Pages 236. Price Rs 375 (cloth)]

A RECENT PUBLICATION by Joseph Velinkar presents the Salcete/Goa story from the time of the Portuguese conquest (1510-1571), focussing on its cultural history. *Conversion, Continuity and Change* has a different focus.

"... What I am analyzing therefore is: what are the patterns of persistence and transformation that can be discerned in the socio-religious practices of contemporary Catholics in relation to the wider Hindu society within which they are located" (p9). Robinson's book based on her doctoral dissertation (Cambridge, UK) studies the impact of the implantation of Christianity on Goa.

The (Portuguese) Goa of the 16th-17th century was the name of Tisvadi taluka of today. Today's Goa comprises 11 talukas, Tisvadi being perhaps the smallest after Mormugao.

Robinson explores the before-and-after of the appearance of Dom Afonso de Albuquerque's fleet of conquest at the mouth of the Mandovi river. The cultural and religious impact of the village community's sense of solidarity and harmony is looked into, and positive as well as negative aspects among the converts noted.

Our sub-continent has been invaded since long past for plunder, but some invaders stayed on and their influence has brought about an India rich in culture, philosophy and religion. The arrival of the Portuguese Vasco da Gama's fleet at Calicut in 1498 opened up a new sea-route from Europe to the East. The original intention of trade and commerce gave way to plunder and conquest in his successor Albuquerque.

Robinson's study is admirable. It uncovers the fact that at the beginning of Portuguese rule there was a prolonged critical period of adjustment, with a good measure of inter-religious peace and harmony -- but it is well known that this ended with the politicization of Goan life after December 1961.

Salcete, prior to the arrival of the Portuguese, was successively under Kadamba, Vijayanagar, and Bijapur rule whose Muslim Adil Shahi rulers concentrated on exploitation of land and people, leaving the vedic-brahmanical religious scene undisturbed. But the Portuguese came as conquerors, colonists, exploiters and disturbers of the peace.

The author is not too familiar with Goa. her mother is Goa-born. But Robinson was educated in north India and the UK, had teaching experience at Delhi University, and at present lectures in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, IIT, Powai, Mumbai Email:rw@hss.iitb.ernet.in

Her academic research has been wide, and includes material collected on the spot, on the lived reality of Christianity's impact on a village she calls Santosgaon, which she did while living with a family there.

The book seems to be meant mainly for academics for in practically every chapter theories formulated by psychologists, anthropologists, etc, are discussed in order to throw light on the motives, dynamics, effects of conversion. The general reader might want to skip these academic discussions.

Chapter 1 is introductory, touching on the location, life, brief history of Salcete and the Catholics of Santosgaon. Readers are given adequate information about the people, their language; the Church and its organization and rituals; Hindu and non-Hindu communities; caste; how conversions came about; the nature of Christianity's impact on the religious scene. All this is treated in some detail in the remaining six chapters. The post-1961 scene is very briefly described.

Chapter 2 focuses on the conversion to Christianity, missionary activity, and the socio-cultural reconstruction of people's lives before and after Liberation (1961). Chapter 3 goes into the four- century-old Catholic life of Santosgaon as it is lived today. Caste, among the converted, mentioned throughout the book, is in this chapter thoroughly discussed (pp.76 ff).

Chapter 4 is a beautiful piece of writing on the religious rituals of the village community. The inclusion of Hindu festivals throws light on Hinduism as surviving and thriving in the Goan countryside, and not only in Santosgaon -- no village in Goa today is 100% Catholic or 100% Hindu. Again, in this chapter, the matter of caste among Catholics is discussed as it affects church life at festival time, and the problems arising out of rivalries.

Chapter 5 is on the rites of passage; the material here is well researched and portrayed, except that the categorical statement appearing on page 176: "... the church cannot obtain an income by allowing these strategies to succeed..." can be questioned on the grounds of inadequate evidence.. Non-Goan readers may find some or even most customs quite strange, but perhaps not when seen from the point of view of true inculturation (existing since the earlier days).

Chapter 6 dwells on what may be called the ugly side of what is otherwise a fine example of the Christian life. Mention is made of the Charismatic Movement and its impact on the villagers who belong to different castes, bringing new life as well as divisive conflict.

Chapter 7 concludes the study. And on page 214 there appears this very keen overall observation: "It would be grossly simplistic to maintain that Hindu practices remain among Catholics merely as a 'vestige' of their past or, conversely, that the Catholics are 'basically Hindu' maintaining only a 'veneer' of their adopted faith. Rather, one may wish to say that the faith itself European in origin, seems to have been indigenized, incorporated into and adapted to the existing socio-ritual order and pattern of hierarchy and privilege. The religion that the converters brought over four centuries ago has been 'familiarized', accepted and configured in terms of the local matrix."

The book therefore has much to offer to the Church in India today, particularly in the area of inculturation, through which she is trying really to belong, discarding all semblances of foreigness.

Well printed and bound, the b/w photos and maps, fine index and glossary of local words add to the overall excellence of the book. The extensive references and bibliography will be found useful by scholars and students of history. -- LOUIS MENEZES.

JIVAN Email:xavier@giasbm01.vsnl.net.in is the periodical published by the Jesuits of South Asia, from Bombay.