By Rajan Narayan

IT is not only the Konkani script which divides Catholic and Hindu Goa. The harsh reality is that Catholics have been traditionally using the Romi script to read and write Konkani. Unfortunately, at the instance of a small group of Marathiwadis, Konkani in the Devanagiri script was adopted as the official language. Neither the Church nor the large population of Catholics in Goa have accepted the official language in the Devanagiri script.
Indeed, there has been a revival of the movement demanding acceptance of the Romi script too for the official language of Goa, along with Devanagiri Konkani.
But the cultural divide between Goan Hindus and Catholics goes much deeper. The lifestyle and culture of the two communities have been very divergent. Just to take an example, the majority Hindu community patronises “natak” which is primarily in Marathi. Most natak or drama deals with family issues of love, marriage and “dokha” — just like Konkani tiatr do.

TIATR VERSUS NATAK
THE exception is the grand historical plays like “Janata Raja” which is based on the life and times of Shivaji Maharaj. “Janata Raja” is a grand play involving elephants, horses and armies in a grand setting. The irony of it is very few Catholics have seen “Janata Raja” or any natak. Perhaps if the natak had been in Konkani they would have attracted a large audience.
But conversely, we do not know of any Goan Hindus who attend every new tiatr coming out. Tiatr which was born in Mumbai is an operatic drama form where the theme is enriched by songs detailing contemporary situations. Tiatr have often displayed a sharp political edge. They have been used to attack corruption not only in government but in Church matters to highlight the social issues of the day.
Goan Hindu natak in Marathi or Goan Catholic tiatr in Romi Konkani remain very popular – but Hindus don’t attend or enjoy tiatr and Catholics stay away from natak.
Generation X (born between 1960s and early 1980s) and generation Z (born between 1997 and 2012) among the Goan Hindu population does not seem to have any interest in the exposition of the relics of St Francis Xavier. It is an experience that generation X, Goans now in their 70s, are far more integrated culturally than generation Z which comprises Goans in their 20s.
A young Goan Hindu lady asked me recently what the exposition is all about. In all innocence what is being exposed? The word “expose” historically has had negative connotations. The media has converted the world’s exposures to mean revealing scandals and scams of public life. Like, for instance, the cash-for-jobs scam is being exposed.
In criminal procedure code “expose” is describes offensive acts by men who expose their body parts to women. The exposition of the relics of St Francis Xavier is so called the “miracle” relics of St Francis Xavier kept for worshipping at ground level every ten years. The legend goes that the body of St Francis Xavier did not turn into dust but remained pure for more than 400 years. Even now the outline of his skeleton and body are visible. This is considered the miracle which attracts Catholics from the world over.
Just as Lourdes in Portugal attracts a large number of Catholics as also Velankanni in Tamil Nadu. Both are pilgrimage towns. The attraction is because the common belief of the faithful is that sincere worshipping of the saint results in miracles. Indeed, the whole rationale of canonizing a saint is based on a proven track record of miracles attributed to him or her. It is the hope of a miracle cure that attracts lakhs of people to the decennial exposition of the relics of St Francis Xavier at old Goa. Regrettably, it’s not true that members of the majority community, at least Generation Z, visit the exposition in large numbers.
But quite besides the differences in script and drama forms like tiatr and natak, there are other sharp differences. This extends to the entire lifestyle of Hindu Goans and Catholic Goans. While no doubt everyone wears Western attire for convenience, the fact remains that both communities adopt traditional attire when visiting their places of worship.
The Hindus would never go to the Mangeshi or Shanta Durga temple attired in jeans and tops. Similarly, few Catholics except in the villages go to church attired in saree or salwar-kameez. By and large the Catholic community is more Westernized than the Hindu community in Goa. This is primarily due to historical colonial era’s Portuguese influence. Young people in the Catholic community tend to interact with on another more than in the Hindu community. Interestingly, both Catholics and Hindus prefer arranged marriages to love marriages.
For the Hindu Goan marriage is a very traditional affair and celebrated in temples. Catholic weddings though solemnized in church are inevitably followed by a grand reception, with liberal wining and dining and of course, the Western forms of dancing. Understandably, while most Catholic young women know the formal Western dance forms, few Hindu couples learn the jive or waltz or salsa (although in modern times this is changing).
This is also more or less true of music. The people of the majority community are trained in traditional Indian classical music with the dance forms of Bharat Natyam or Kuchipudi, etc. In Goan Catholic families great pride is taken if children learn the piano at an early age, or the violin or at least the guitar. The church choirs which make up part of the prayer services tend to tend to expose young women and men to western-styled gospel music and hymns to do with the Catholic faith.
I am in little shock that there is very little interest in western classical music amongst the Goan Hindu majority. But conversely there is not much interest in Hindustani classical music among Catholic musicians. Last week Goa’s own choir group Stuti performed a concert of the composition of very famous Italian composer Rossini. I could not persuade my Hindu friends to attend the concert which seemed to be a very vibrant cultural experience but for whom?
The strange part is that both Hindus and Catholics, and even rich Hindus, Catholics and Muslims, are willing to pay thousands of rupees to watch a performance by the Western band “Cold Play.” The ticket for the Cold Play concert in performance in Ahmedabad was completely sold out even though it was performed in the one lakh capacity cricket stadium. There was a rush for air tickets and hotel accommodation and young urbanites the country wanted to make it to the concert.
There is also a major culinary divide between Catholics and Hindus. All Goans whether Hindu or Catholic or Muslim, young or old, rich or poor, are united in their love for xitt-kodi. But Goa’s upper crusts Hindus will of course not touch beef and Goan Catholics avoid vegetarian food like it is poison maybe.
Though they may not admit it both Goan Hindus and Catholics enjoy choris-pav while Muslims consider the pig meat as impure. Except during the Hindu sacred month of Shravan, when some Catholics patronize the Shravan vegetarian thali meals offered in well-known restaurants, there is a complete divide in the eating habits of Hindus and Catholics.
During my 40 years and more of life and times in Goa as a vegetarian, I always found it very difficult to find anything vegetarian to eat at the Catholic marriage receptions I was invited for and had to make a meal at the desserts table only.
There are of course points of fusion between Goan Hindu and Catholic communities. Mother Mary in Goa is referred to as “Saibin.” As part of the tradition of bringing Mother Mary closer to the community, the churches organize visits of Mother Mary to respective Catholic homes for blessings of the household. When I asked a young Catholic friend if she was seeing films at IFFI, she told me for that day that day she was skipping films for she was busy organizing for “our Mother Mary’s visit” to their building homes and members of the parish committee would be there. In this traditional home visits a statue of Mother Mary’s is carried in a procession to each Catholic home for blessings. The family welcomes “Saibin” who stays overnight and neighbors are invited for a special mass arranged by the local parish.
In the villages even Hindu neighbors participate in the visit of Saibin. The transformation of Mother Mary to “Saibin” is part of the Goan syncretisation of two faiths. In Goa there is the legend of the seven sisters to do with the Church of Milagres church in Mapusa and the Hindu goddess Lairai at Assonora in Shrigao. Several deities in Goa are women goddesses. So steeped in fusion tradition is female goddess worship that the church promoted the cult of Saibin.
We may remember that Catholics of Goa were once from Hindu backgrounds and converted into Christianity when the Portuguese conquered Goa 514 years ago on November 24, 1510. The feast of St Francis Xavier is part of the colonial legacy of Goa. It is not at all surprising that Goa’s Catholics observe a lot of Hindu customs and conventions.

SYNCRETIZATION OF FAITHS
HOWEVER, amongst the worst aspects of the Hindu tradition followed by Catholic converts is the caste factor. Saraswat Catholic converts will only marry into other Catholic Saraswat families. In the early stages of the church in Goa the backward class converts had to stand outside the church. Even after the conversions original Gaonkars still retain rights in Hindu temples in Goa.
In Fatorpa for instance the Catholic Chardos have priority in worship even over Hindus. At Milagres church in Mapusa the very Hindu tradition of anointing the image of goddess Lairai with oil is observed. At the Siolim Zagor which is a Hindu festival a Catholic is the main celebrant.
Unfortunately, Goa’s tradition of communal religious fusion is not understood or respected by generation X. The two groups seem to be moving outwards and not making an effort to understand their very own historical traditions. Both Hindus and Catholics in Goa may adopt western lifestyles superficially but they are still very conscious of the historical traditions they hail from at home.
Alas, the politics of polarization by the BJP has made matters worse. It is necessary that all Goans irrespective of caste or community promote respect for each other’s religious beliefs and culture. That is the only way to peace and harmony in a world increasingly being polarized anew along narrow religious and political lines.