The Cross: Contestation and Transformation of a Religious Symbol in Southern Goa

Author(s): Rowena Robinson

Source: Economic and Political Weekly, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Jan. 15, 1994), pp. 94-98
Published by: Economic and Political Weekly
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PERSPECTIVES

The Cross: Contestation and ATansformationof

a Religious Symbol in Southern Goa
Rowena Robinson

A socio-historical analysis of the way the symbolof the cross has been
assimilatedby the convertedCatholicsin a village in Goa, the
transformationit undergoesand the mannerin which it can becomethte
focus of keen contestationbetweendifferentsocial groups brings out how
it is hardlypossible to continueto speakof an. 'alien' religion 'imposed'

on-apeople.
IN the last few decades there has been a
growinginterestin the anthropologicalstudy
of the symbols andritualpracticesof Christianity. This is a welcome development, for
now we move from an overwhelming emphasis on the study of 'primitive' religions
to the study of a world religion that many
anthropologists themselves profess. This
sorely needed to be commenced in a serious
way.

suchcontexts.TheEuropeanwhoconquered
broughtwith him a religion specific to the
socio-hisvorir;al?eriodin which he came. A
degree of discruninationhas to be shown
whendealing withimplantedreligious symbols and practices. Far from being universal, they came bearingtheirown historicity
and still retain it. An awareness of this
dimension has not always been shown by
those who have analysed them.

The result of anthropologists'new interest in Christianityhas led to a large number

of studies which have broughtto our attention the importanceof locating the symbols
and practices of a 'universal' religion in
their specific 'local' social and historical
contexts [Zimmerman 1963; Turner and
Turner 1978; Stirrat 1977, 1981; Nutini
1988; Newman 1981, 1987; Godwin 1972;
Christian 1972]. Nevertheless the debate
continues thatlocal practicesareonly variations of some supposedly 'true' religion
[Southwold 1983; Nutini 1988; Tambiah
1984]. I will argue, in this paper, that this
debate has value only if it is reformulated.
Priests and religious elites do like to promote the idea that 'true' religion consists in
certainrigidly defined beliefs andrituals.It
is for them, and not for the anthropologist,
thatlocal practices, inasmuch as they differ
from an ideal, constitute a 'problem'. They
have to constantly shepherd their flocks
onto the right track.As this paper hopes to
demonstrate,for anthropologytheremay be
far greaterpotential in postulating that the
meanings of religious symbols arenot to be
taken to be fixed or unchanging. This will
enable us to enquire specifically into the
question of the manner in which they are
transformed and contested by different
groups in the social contexts in wlhichthey
are found.
Most of the studies 1 have referred to
concern themselves with converted groups
in regions such as Africa, AmericaandAsia,
where Christianitywas implantedby European conquest and colonisation. There is a
special dimension in the study of religion in

There is another point that needs.to be

made. The nature of the relationship between materialarrangementsand symbolic
representationshas always been a source of
conflict among theorists. I will argue for a
viewpoint thatacknowledgesthe reciprocal
influence between the variouselements. As
HoutartandLemercinier(1981) argue,ideas
are a necessarypartof the constructionand
reproductionof social andmaterialarrangements, but these processes are themselves
dependenton materialconditions.
This paper attempts a socio-historical
analysis of the symbol of the cross among
Catholicsin a village in Goa, on the western
coast of India,wherethe Portuguesebrought
about large-scale conversions in the 16th
century.' The paper begins by asking what
the cross meant to the Portuguesewho set
out upon theirconquestsof the period bearing it as theirstandard.An analysiswill then
be attemptedof the way in which this symbol has been assimilated by the converted
Catholics, the transformationit undergoes
and the mannerin which it can become the
focus of keen contestation between different social groups.
In early Christianhistory the cross appears as the symbol of the sufferingChrist.
Paul, for example, spoke often to the early
Christiancommunitiesof Christ'ssuffering
on the cross for the sins of man. The fourth
centurysaw Constantinemakingthe Roman
Empire Christian.Battles followed for the
conversion of Europe to Christianity and
Charlemagneemerged, among other figures, as anemperorwho conqueredwith the
cross. The cross was thustransformedinto a

94

militant symbol which came to represent

Christtheconqueror.The Crusadersrealised
with full force the potential of this symbol,
when ChristiansbattledMoors for the control of Palestine.
The Portuguese,who were among the first
Europeansto set out on voyages of discovery, described their overseas missions with
the word 'conquista'. The cross was for
them the symbol of the fatherland,accompanying them on theirsearchfor 'Christians
and spices'. It is described as the
"companheiroinseparaveldos portugueses
das descobertas e das conquistas" [Anon
1935: 39]. The Portuguese overseas missions may be viewed as an extension of the
Crusades.The Moors constituted both their
main commercial rivals in the spice trade
and their hated religious enemies. Consequently their battles against them for the
controlof the traderoutes were fought in the
name of religion. Such a collapse between
religion, politics and economics was inevitableconsideringthefeudalethosfromwhich
the Portugueseemerged.In the feudalworldview, religion (Catholicism) was the dominantforceandpolitics, kinship andeconomics all found their place in relation to it.2
It is no wonder,then, thatwhen Afonso de
Albuquerqueentered Goa in 1510, among
his first acts was a massacre of the Muslims.
This is described in a letter he wrote to his
king, ManuelI: "I setfire totheicity andput
them all to the sword, and for four whole
days your soldiers caused carnage among
them; no Moor was left alive wherever he
happened to be found; the mosques were
filled with them and set fire to" (quoted in
D'Costa 1962: 162). To protect their trade
routes the Portugueseneeded the control of
key posts where they could establish military and political rule. Goa was one such
post, hence the importance of its capture.
Establishingpolitical rule in such remote,
barelyknown regions involved coming into
contact with the local populations and getting their support. The Portuguese, who
stepped out with the world-view of feudal
Catholicism, could only see the people of
the territoriesnewly discovered by them as
being the opposite of themselves-pagans
or infidels. The Moors were their arch religious enemy and the manner in which they
were to be dealt with (demonstrated so
forcefullyby Albuquerque)hadalreadybeen
established historically by Europe's role in
the Crusades. Clearly, then, this attack on
the Muslims in Goa can be understoodonly
when we locate the Portuguese conquerors
within their socio-historical context.
Far more importantly,however, the Portuguese in Indiacame into contact also with
thelocal Hindus.At first theirreaction to the
religion and customs of the Hindus was one

Economic and Political Weekly

January 15, 1994

of sheerincomprehension.This is exemplified by theirmistakingtemples for churches

of a primitivetype and Hindugoddesses for
variationsof the Virgin Mary.3Wbile the
Hindus were not traditionalenemies to be
massacred,they too were pagans and idolaters.Coming to termswith them, interacting
with them over a long period and ensuring
their supportnecessitated their conversion
to Catholicism.
Creating allies was an important social
function of conversion [Houtart and
Lemercinier1981]. From the start the Portugueseused methods to create andset apart
from the Hindus a Catholic community on
whose supportthey could depend.While the
open practice of Hinduism was rendered
increasingly difficult, the Catholics who
converted were offered a variety of incentives-such as remunerative posts and offices-as rewards for their action [Boxer
1973; D'Costa 1965; Pereira 1978].
The pace of conversions by such methods
remainedslow, however, and even in 1548
only 300 baptisms could be boasted of
[D'Costa 1965:49]. It was aroundthis time
that the method of bringing about conversions underwent a change. Entire villages
were taken over, their centres of worship
destroyed and the cross implanted instead
[Boxer 1973: 721.
In a village of 16th-century Goa the
economy depended on land, which was
owned in common by lineages of gauncars,
whowere thedescendantsin the male line of
the original inhabitants.A village community(comunidade)consisted of thegauncars
and the service castes attachedto them, and
was administered by the former. The
gauncars wereresponsiblefor providingfor
the needs of the villagers, protecting the
fields from inundationby sea water, opening andmaintainingpublicroads,demarcating places for common use and wards for
servants and artisans. They also looked to
the digging of wells, to the allocation of
rights of use of waterwaysand to the maintenanceof irrigationfacilities [Pereira1978;
D'Costa 1964].
Agriculturewas the main occupation,and
the soil and the tropical monsoon climate
was ideal for the cultivation of paddy, the
main crop. In coastal areas such as the
location of the village understudy, the land
clos'eto the sea would be sandy andits yield
fairly poor. On the other side, however,
where the river flows, the lands could give
yields up to 60-fold [Kosambi 19621. In
suchcoastal areas,moreover,anothersource
of income was coconuts and these, in the
same way as certainother items such as salt,
formed an item of exchange from early on
[Kosambi 1956].
Cultivablelandwas leased out by auction,
usually forthreeyears;butthe landsnearthe
riversandcreeks-called khazanlands-were
leased for nine years at a time. Gaulncars

Economic and Political Weekly

were privileged in biddingat these auctions

of the land which they jointly owned. Neither women nor non-residentsof a village
could bid.
In the village under study, the gauncars
had such surnames as Gadd and Porto
[Pissurlencar1934:5]. Theywould, according to Pissurlencar,belong to theMarathaor
Vani caste.4They were served by a variety
of service castes whose occupations were
hereditaryand whose paymentconsisted of
a sharein the harvest.Thegauncarspaidthe
taxes owed to the rulers,administeredother
village expenses, and divided the surplus
among themselves.
In almost every village the main temple
had been established by the comuinidade,
and the gauncars were its mahajans. The
comunidaderetainedsome of the best land
in the village for the maintenanceof the
temple and paid for its servants such as
bhats, carpenters,washermen,ironsmiths,
potters, barbers and mahars. Social life
centred on land, and the symbolic cycle
followed the agriculturalcycle andthe celebration of the harvest. The high-caste
brahminor Chardomahajanscontrolledthe
main templecult; andthe lowest castes such
as the barberand the maharwould have no
access to theirservices.5Inevery village the
gauncars enjoyed certain ritual privileges
in the cycle of festivals.
Politically, the villages came under different regimes at different points of time.
The Portuguesetook over the region from
the.Adil Shahi dynasty. It had earlier been
partof theVijayanagarempire,underwhose
century-longrulelandrevenuehadamounted
to one-fifth of the gross income of the
village. For palm groves revenue was assessed at the rateof five tangasbrancas6per
year per 100 trees [De Souza 1979: 7E!.
Under Muslim rule two new taxes had
been introduced.Tne godde varado was a
tax imposed to supportthe Muslim cavalry.
Further, an additional land revenue was
imposed, called the khoshi varado.7These
additionaltaxes placed a heavy burdenon
thevillagecommunities.BeforeVijayanagar
rule, at the time whenthe regioncame under
the Kadambas, a number of the village
comunidadeshadbeenforcedto issue shares
(tangas) in returnforloans becausethey had
to beara greatdeal of expense arisingfrom
the wars between their rulers and Muslim
invaders. These shares were restricted to
gauncars and to those residentin a village.
They conferred the privilege of participation in the incomebutnot the administration
of the contunidade.
Prior to the Portuguese, Muslim rulers
had initiated a process of feudalisation in
Goa.Theirmilitarymen-thedessais---tended
to treatcommunallaindas feudalandforced
people to work as menials in their households (Kosambi1962:1l59].Theirrule,however, did not last longjenoughto changeland

January 15, 1994

relationsfundamentally.They weredefeated
by the Portuguese and, in order to gain the
supportof the Hlindus,Albuquerque-though
he retained all the taxes of the previous
regime-invited the Hindustocultivate their
lands in peace [De Souza 1979: 71].
Tlle Portuguese brought out in 1526 a
code which laid out the customary laws of
the people. Thoughthe assurancewas given
that these would not be interfered with,
conversion necessarily involves social
change. It was not merely a matter of the
destructionof the village temples and their
replacementwith churchesand the Catholic
cult of the period. Rather,the hegemony of
the churchchanged, in significant ways, the
social organisation of the village, which
now came to be centred aroundit. What the
Portuguese found when they came were
largely autonomous villages administered
by gauncars, who paid tributeto the rulers
butcontrolledthemainresource-land-and
were responsible for its management and
for the administration of justice. This is
what Kosambi (1956) refers to as
feudalisation from above. The policies of
the Portuguesehad the ambiguouseffect of
consolidating the position of the gauncars
in some respects and undermining it in
others.
Under Portuguese rule private property
was introducedand shares in comunidade
property,till theninalienable,became transferablein the f 7th century.Privateproperty,
in most cases, came to be held by rich
gauncars.Thetransferabilityof sharesmeant
thatpeopleresidentoutside the village could
now hold them and be entitled to incomes.
Yet until the last decades of Portugueserule
administrative control remained with the
gauncars alone. Such control could have
very far-reaching consquences. The
comunidades had the right to give their
lands to whomsoever they considered fit,
either free of charge or on lease, and could
levy and collect taxes on the private property in the villages. Immovable property
could not be sold without the consent of the
comunidade. Outsiders could bid for the
lease of paddyfields only throughthe agency
of gauncars, and persons intending to bid
forland in auctionshadto furnishsecurities.
In most cases, therefore, only wealthy
gauncars and otherpersons with the necessaryresourcescould bid for land. This led to
a situation in whicb individual gauncars
leased large areas which they then sublet to
tenants(mundcars)for cultivation. Manyof
the traditional privileges of the gauncars
were codified and had the sanction of law
behind them.
Gauncars were privileged in churchrituals and management.In 1567 the gauncars
were made to render to the churchcs the
lands and incomes of the temples that had
been destroyed [Pereira 1978:11]. 'These
landsthenbecamethe propertyof thechurch

95

authorities, but the celebration of certain

feasts and rituals important in the church
calendarwas assigned to the gauncars. One
of the most important feasts of the preconversion period had been the celebration
of the harvest. When Catholicism estabiisbod its hegemony, this festival became
part of the calendar of the local churches8
and the gauncars retained theirprivilege of
celebrating it. The focal ritual event in the
churchcalendar stressed by the Jesuit missionaries of the late Middle Ages was the
death and Passion of Christ. A strong emphasis was placed in this period on the
emotional content of the scripturalevent. In
every village of southernGoa the celebration of the passe, as it is called, is the
exclusive privilege of the gauncars. All this
had the effect of strengtheningthe position
of the gauncars in relation to the service
castes and tenants below them, who had no
access tothesocio-economic andritualprivileges now ratified by law and having the
might of the state behind them.
It should be said, though,thateven while
thecomunidadeswere, in theory,still said to
retaincontrolof their lands,in practicetheir
autonomy was eroded. They lost large portionsoftheirlands to the government,which
often leased land by force andwhich sometimes used the take-over of comunidade
rights as,a,means of punishing rebellious
ril'lages,or instance, the lands of the
com fdades of Assolna, Velim ?tnd
Cu,*,6lim, among others in southernGoa,
pasAedinto Portuguese hands as a punitive
ni:asure against the revolt of these villages
gainst the conversionpolicies df the Portuguese. In sum, it may be said thatif whatthe
/Portuguesefoundon theirarrivalwas a form
of feudalism from above, theirrule consolidated it. Political unity ensured economic
Iins and this was achieved through relious conformity backed by armed might.
In such a situation conversion was inevitable because the existing belief system, in
its unchangedform, could not meaningfully
representthese changes. And yet the 'converted' did not just passively adapt to the
new situation. My argumentpoints fundamentally to the fact that they themselves
mouldedittocopewiththechanges-creating,
as a result, new symbolic models.9
The village under study may be located
within this picture. Records for Santosgaon
show considerable shifts in the number of
shares held by the gauncars. In 1857 the
gauncars got 71 per cent of the income of
the comunidade. Non-gauncars got 22 per
cent, while 7 per cent went to the church.In
the 1880s, of the 6,300 shares of the
comunidade, more than 60 per cent were
held by non-gauncars.This was reduced to
57 per cent by the turnof the century.Suclh
a situation, where there are a large number
of outsiders with the righltto participateinl
the income of the co,nuJnidade
butnot in its

96

administration,could lead to great tension.

We have'norecordsspecific to the village,
but the literaturespeaks often of such conflicts in the region.WhenGoabecamea part
of India in 1961 the administrativepowers
of the conunidades were greatly reduced.
These passed to the elected panchayatsof
each village. However, as in Santosgaon,
the land recordsafter 1961 show gauncars
owning large areasof privateproperty.For
the lower castes who had little access to
land, the last few decades have seen the
opening up of a variety of other economic
options. Jobs outside Goa and abroadprovided an easy means to make quick money.
With theirgreateraccess to resources,these
groupsnow come into sharperconflict with
the gauncars. This has culminatedin contestationat a symbolic level, sharplyillustratedin this village in the celebrationof the
crucifixion.
The cross becomes the dominantfocus of
church-centredritual during Holy Week.
The Catholic ritual cycle focuses on the
birth,life anddeathof Christ.I was told that
therewas muchchurch-centredactivityduring this week becausethe "deathandcrucifixion of Christ is central to a Christian's
to a
life" (female Chardoinformanifmarried
gauncar).Ontheeveningof Holy Thursday,
after service, the bells toll and the altar
cloths are removed. The altar is shorn and
stood to one side. The churchis "in mourning"; "She is naked". The doors areclosed

andevery cross is covered with purple.The

churchis like a tomb awaiting the death and
the body of Clrist.
On Friday at noon, the crucifixion takes
place. The scene is the altar but now, with
the table removed, our attention is focused
on the uncoveredpit. We standin this tomblike church, our attention on this veritable
'sacrificial pit'. The high castes (Chardo
gauncars) alone can enact this ritual sacrifice. Others "cannot touch" the image or
approachthis sacred space. Women are not
permittedeither to participateor to observe
and I was allowed in, with some difficulty,
only on condition of secrecy.
The crucifixion is literally what the word
implies-the re-enactment and celebration
of thePassionof theLord.Themalegauricars
of the village carry a huge cross into the
church. They mount on it a life-size image
of Christ which they first bathe with wine.
The cross is then mounted in the pit which
lies below the altar table and is covered at'
othertimes. They literally 'carrythe cross':
and this is no mean thing, for it is huge and
extremely heavy and needs no less than a
dozen men to lift or move it. In doing so,
they become associated with Christ- with
his suffering and his symbols, the cross and
the wine.10
The priest plays a very minimal role in
this rite. I was told thatI need not botherto
ask him if I could attend. "It is thegauncars
alone who object to everything". The priest

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January 15, 1994

stcod to one side and was asked to say two

shortprayers-tbe first when the cross was
mountedin the pit and the second (tbe litany
in Latin) when the image was raised. The
first prayer he said was: "Today we are
epacting the scene which took place 2,000
years ago on Mount Calvary. You gave this
cross to us as a sign of humility and meekness. You said, dear Jesus, ' If you want to
follow me, take up your cross and come'.
Through this cross which we are about to
raise now we prayto you to make us humble
andmeek to accept thecrosses in ourlives. "
It says much for the collusion of the
church with the socially dominant group
thatpriest andgauncar become one here by
the use of the pronoun"we". In the priest's
discourse

the role of the gauncars

is

legitimised and takenup or incorporatedby

the church.Again, while in following Christ
one becomes like Christ in "humility and
meekness", the gauncars in being identified with Christappropriateonly his power,
not his humility andmeekness. The priest's
discourse operates at yet anotherlevel. We
know thatthe celebrationof the crucifLxion
is the fiercely protectedright of one group
and is contested by others. Yet here it becomes associatedwith "humility andmeekness" . In otherwords,onepossible interpretation (the currentofficial interpretationof
the Passion-suffering in meekness with
Christ)is hereput forwardas the interpretation of what we are seeing. Ibus, oddly
enough, the power of the gauncars is legitimatedby making them appearhumble.This
aspect alsoappearstojustify theirrole in the
eyes of the non-participatinglower castes.
77ey ought to submit to the powerful because they are thesuffering,meek images of
the Lord. The discourse of the priest thus
appearsto mediatethedominantsymbol-the
cross-allowing it to speak two different
languages: to justify both the power of the
dominant and the submission of the subordinated.
The crucifixion is conducted with much
secrecy behind closed doors. "The high
castes conduct the sacrifice". The "people
only participatein the service held in the
evening" . The wine used towash the bodyis
distributed by the gauncars to the people
who use it, perhapsto miraculouseffect, at
times of illness or suffering.After the crucifcixiona curtainis drawnbeforethecross and
it is concealed. Evening service is conducted in front of the curtain at an altar to
one side. At this ceremony a small cross,
about 31/2feet high, is lheldup by two altar
boys to be kissed by the people who come
up to the altarsteps barefootandkneel at the
foot of the cross. Tshisservice is conducted
by the priests in front of the main altarand
the cross used is much smaller thanthe one
we have seen raised above. The mainiritual
space has been given over to the gauncars.
The people do not approacheven this far.

Economic and Political Weekly

They barelycome up to the lowest altarstep

andlater,'when the main image is revealed
and may be kissed, access to it is regulated
by the gauncars. At a certain point before
the sermon, the curtain is opened and the
image revealedto the laity. Laterthereis the
kissing of the body, which is dramatically
lowered afterthe sermonin full view of the
huge audience which 'watches in awed silence.
This was the crucifixionas I witnessedit,
but it has not always been this way. It was
rathermoreelaboratein thepast.Earlier,the
gauncars used to take the large cross in
processiop-aroundthe church wearing the
red capes that were their exclusive. privilege. They were met by the male representatives of the lower castes-the Sudrasand
the Chardo moradores-who carried the
image of Maryandwore the blue capes that
were allotted to them.t The biblical scene
described by John between Christ on the
cross andhis motherwould then be enacted.
In the late 1960s, however, this became the
focus of much. conflict. A serious fight
broke out between the gauncars apd the
othercastes over who shouldcarrythdcross.
The Sudras and moradores came up to attack the gauncars and lunged at the-cross,
attemptingto take'it by force. They were
stopped with difficulty and the celebration
could not proceed that year. Now that dissent had come out in the open, other issues
were taken up. The Sudras and noradores
not only wanted the privilege of handling
the.cross, they also wanted to wear the red
capes thatdistinguishedthegauncars andto
join their confraternity-the Confratemity
de Santissimoe Nossa SenhoradeSocorro.'2
The conflict was broughtto the attention
of the Archbishopandthechurch,in the new
times more acutelysensitive to any accusation of fosteringcaste, stoppedthe wearing
of red capes andthe carryingof the cross in
procession. The conflict died down but
eruptedagainover a differentissuosome ten
years ago. The possibility of greater tensions in the future is not to be dismissed.
Most priests today regard such conflicts
over churchritualsas "behaviourunsoemly
of Christians".They view these manifestationsof caste as "remnants"of old beliefsof
which the Catholic community must be
purged.A numberof parishpriests express
the view thatthepasse shouldbe discontinued, as it finds no place in the Good Friday
liturgy as set down by the church.They feel
that attentionis divertedfrom the essential
lessons of theday withtheover-emphasison
"dramatisation".
What is quite clearly of significance in
this is the manner in which the cross has
been transformedby variousgroupsinto an
important symbolic resource (Bourdieu's
"symbolic capital") the contest for whose
control is worththeir while. Here the cross
is clearly partof a very importantCathlolic

Januarv 15, 19'8'

ritual,yet this ritualhas been assimilated by

the community in a manner that permits
different groups to use it symbolically to
assert their social status in a changing rural
context. When the gauncars were all-powerful theirprivilege of conducting thepasse
made them the 'lords' of the village. The
Portuguese brought a militant, powerful
cross, and by consolidating the position of
thegauncars gave themaccess to some ofits
power. This is what thepasse signified. In a
post-independen,cecontext, however, the
superiorityof the gauncars has come under
dispute. Theystill wield considerablesocioeconomic power, but now the other castes,
with the new economic opportunitiesavailable to them, are more serious rivals.
The gauncars appropriatedthe symbol of
the cross, which constitutedfor them a form
of "enduring symbolic capital". It is this
symboliccontrolthatwas so strongly(ought:
the conflict was not merely a matterof who
may conduct a particularritual.The cross is
transformed by its use as a symbolic resourceof the dominantgroupin.the agrarian
economy and by the contestation of that
dominance. It is hardly possible, in this
context, to continue to speak of an 'alien'
religion 'imposed'on apeople. The 'agency'
of the people transforms and moulds the
'imposed' symbol to make sense of social
relations and representthem in a changing
universe.In the uncertaingroundof conversion the potential of a dynamic view of
religious symbols is realised in its making
possible the construction atd ltnalysis of
such changes.

Notes
[The materialon which this paper is based was
collected during the course of fieldwork conducted between April 1992 and May 1993 in t
village in southernGoa which I shall refer to as
Santosgaon. I thank the Cambridge CommonwealthTrust,the Smuts Fundand TrinityCollege
for providing the funds for the research, which
was conductedfor my ongoing doctoralstudies at
the Departmentof Social Anthropology, Cambridge University. I am grateful to William da
Silva of the Goa University, whose ideas most
generouslysharedinspiredmetolook moreclosely
at the symbols and practices of Catholicism. I
thankmy husbandMukulfor his help and support
at the variousstages in the writing of this paper.)
1 The areain northernGoa called lihas, consisting of Tiswadi,Chorao,Divar,Juaand Vamsi,
was conquerfd in 1510. Bardez, Salcette
(wherethe village understudy is located),and
Ponda came underthe effective controlof the
Portuguesein 1543 [D'Costa 1962:161l.
2 It is true that in the late 15th and early 16th
centuries,the period we are dealing with, Europe was in a phase of transition and great
changes were taking place. Portugal's colonial ventures showed an advance towards
mercantilecapitalisnm,
buttheystill functioned
withina politicalorganisationthatwas cast in
a feudal mould.
3 Vascoda Gama,for instance,who firstlanded

97

at Calicut, thought that the Malabaresewere

Christians.He and his men offered prayersto
the image of 'Mary' in Hindutemples. It was
some while before the mistakewas discovered
[Gazetteer19791.
4 Today the converted Catholic Chardos of
Santosgaonreferto themselves as Kshatriyas.
However, Pissurlencar(1934) holds that this
caste has little in common with the Hindu
'varna' of that name. The Chardos would
really be the descendants of Vanis and
Marathas.
5 The caste system was a source of endless
controversy anmongthe Portuguese missionaries. It is not possible here to go into all
aspects of the issue. Much was made in early
missionary documents of the difference between the inegalitarianHinduorderand their
own presumably egalitarian one-although
the Portuguese, emerging from feudal Catholicism, would have been familiar with a
hierarchical church structure. At any rate,
they cannot be accused of having changed
the social order drastically in that period.
Caste remained among the converted Hindus as a markerof social status. As I hope to
show later, Catholic rites and symbols themselves often became the area of contest between different castes.
6 One tanga branca was equal to 60 reis. According to my rough estimate it would be
equal to about Rs 3, or a little more than 6
pence.
7 Manyauthorshave takenthis tobe a voluntary
contributionmadeby the villages to the political regime for its protection.They see it as a
combinationofthewords'khoshi'and 'varado'
which in Konkanimean 'wish' and 'contribution' respectively. However, De Souza
(1979:67) finds this a simplistic explanation.
He sees it as a tax on grasslandsand forests. It
could also referto the source of iticomefor the
public treasury('kusa').
8 See D'Costa (1965) for a fascinatingaccount
of how this happened. The mannerin which
the calendarof the churchcut across the local
symbolic and agriculturalcalendar is a very
interesting subject of study which I cannot,
unfortunately,enter in any detail here. I will
admit,however, thata study of it is vital if we
wish to obtaina completepictureof thechanges
that conversion broughtabout.
9 My argument is based on the work done by
Houtartand Lemercinier(1981). The attempt
to analysethe conversion of Goa by the Portuguese within this framework was made in a
paperentitled 'Discover to Conquer:Towards
a Sociology of Conversion', presented by
Williamda Silva and me at the Xavier Centre
of HistoricalResearchseminaron 'Discoveries, Missionary Expansion and Asian Cultures', held in Goa in 1992.
10 Interestingly, the association with the Jews
who nailed Christ to the cross is neatly sidestepped: "All thathas passed", I was told.
11 The Chardo moradores are of the Chardo
caste but non-gauncars, people who reside in
the village but do not belong to it.
12 Confraternities (confrarias) were medieval
Portuguese Catholic associations, essentially
of lay persons. They were religious in character. They had cultic and ceremonial aims
centred particularlyaroundCorpusChristior
Holy Week celebrations. In Goa these were

98

establishedby the missionaries,and thoughin

theory they were open to all, they came to be
divided on caste lines. Thus each caste had its
separateconfraternityandcelebratedthe feast
of its patron.They had differentcapes to distinguishthem-red for the higherand blue for
the lower confraternityin each village.

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