Goans (Romi Konkani: , ) is the demonym used to describe the people native to Goa, India, formerly part of Portuguese India ( Estado Português da Índia). They form an ethno-linguistic group resulting from the assimilation of Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Luso-Indian, Proto-Australoid ethnic and/or linguistic ancestries.
Language
Goans are generally multilingual, but mainly speak the
Konkani language, a
Prakrit based language belonging to the Southern group of Indo-Aryan Languages. Various dialects of Konkani spoken by the Goans include
Bardezkari,
Saxtti,
Pednekari and Antruz. The Konkani spoken by the Catholics is notably different from those of the Hindus, since it has a lot of Portuguese influence in its vocabulary.
Konkani was suppressed for official documentation use only not for unofficial use under the Portuguese India, playing a minor part in education of the past generations. All Goans were educated in Portuguese in the past when Goa was an overseas province of Portugal. A small minority of Goans are descendants of the Portuguese (Luso-Indian ethnicity) and speak Portuguese.
Goans use Devanagari (official) and Latin script (liturgical and historical) for education as well as communication (personal, formal and religious). However the entire liturgy of the Catholic Church is solely in the Latin script, having been influenced by the Portuguese colonial rule. In the past other scripts such as Goykanadi, Modi script, Kannada and Persian script were also used, but later fell into disuse owing to many social, political and religious reasons.
Portuguese is still spoken as a first language by a number of Goans, though it is mainly restricted to upper-class Catholic families and the older generation. However, the annual number of Goans learning Portuguese as a second language has been continuously increasing in the 21st century through introduction in schools and the opening of Instituto Camões.
The Marathi language language has played a significant role for Hindus near the northern borders of Goa close to Maharashtra and parts of Novas Conquistas (lit. new conquests). This is due to the influx of ethnic Marathi people since the 20th century.
Religion
Ethnic Goans are predominantly
Catholic Church followed by
Hindus and a tiny
Goan Muslims community.
As per the 1909 statistics, the Catholic population stood at 293,628 out of a total population 365,291 (80.33%).
Within Goa, there has been a steady decline of Christianity as a percentage of the total population due to Goan emigration to other Indian cities (especially Mumbai) and foreign countries,[Rajesh Ghadge (2015). The story of Goan Migration.] Religious conversion seems to play little role in the demographic change.
According to the 2011 census, out of the Indian population residing in Goa (1,458,545 persons), 66.1% were Hindu, 25.1% were Christians, 8.32% were Muslim, and 0.1% were Sikh.
Christianity
The
Goan Catholics display Portuguese influence, due to over 451 years of direct rule and interaction with the Portuguese people as an overseas province.
are common among the Goan Catholics.
A variation of the
Caste is followed, but not rigidly due to Portuguese efforts to abolish caste discrimination among the local converts and homogenise them into a single entity.
There are some distinct
Bamonn, Chardó, Gauddo and
Sudir communities in Goa that are mainly
Endogamy.
Most Catholic families also share
Luso-Asians ancestry, and some openly count themselves as '
mestiço' (lit. mixed-race).
Hinduism
Goan Hindus refer to themselves as "
Konkane" (
Devanagari: कोंकणे), meaning the residents of an area broadly identified as
Konkan.
Hindus in Goa are divided into many different castes and sub-castes, known as
Jatis. They use their village names to identify their clans, some of them use titles. Some are known by the occupation their ancestors have been practising;
Nayak, Borkar, Raikar, Keni, Prabhu, Kamat, Lotlikar, Chodankar, Mandrekar, Naik, Bhat, Tari, Gaude are some examples.
Islam
Only a small number of native Muslims remain and are known as
Goan Muslims, the word is derived from the Portuguese
Mouro, which means
Moors. Muçulmano was the word later used in Portuguese to identify them, which is still the world used in today's Portuguese.
Geographical distribution
Goans have been migrating all along the
Konkan and across the
Anglosphere, Lusosphere and Persian Gulf countries for the last six centuries because of socio-religious and economic reasons. The Indian diaspora have been assimilated with other
Konkani people of
Maharashtra,
Karnataka and
Kerala. Goans across the globe refer to the publication,
Goan Voice for news about members from their community.
Many overseas Goans have settled in the erstwhile British Empire and the United Kingdom mainly in south-west town of Swindon, Leicester in the East Midlands and in London (especially Wembley and Southall).
Many Goans have also chosen to migrate to the former Portuguese territories (especially Mozambique) and to Portugal itself.
Pre-Portuguese migrations
There are no definitive records of Goan migration prior to the Portuguese conquests in the region corresponding to nowadays Goa. One reason being that the Goan people were not a distinct ethnic group as yet.
Migrations from 1510–1700s (first phase)
The first recorded instances of significant emigrations of Goans could be traced back to the Portuguese conquest of Goa in 1510 and the subsequent flight of the surviving Muslim residents to the territories ruled by the Sultanate of Bijapur.
Sizable numbers of Hindus also later fled to
Mangalore and
Kanara during the 16th–17th centuries due to the increasing Christianization of Goa. They were soon followed by some newly-converted Catholics, who fled the
Goa Inquisition.
There were also emigrations from Goa to Kanara to escape the War of the League of the Indies, the Dutch–Portuguese War, the Maratha Invasion of Goa (1683), taxation as well as epidemics during the same time period.
Goan Catholics also started traveling overseas during the latter part of this time period. There were migrations of Goan Catholics to other parts of the global Portuguese Empire, such as
Portugal,
Mozambique,
,
Muscat,
Portuguese Timor,
Colonial Brazil, Malaca, Pegu, and Colombo. 48 Goan Catholics permanently migrated to Portugal during the 18th century.
Goan involvement in Portuguese trade around the Indian Ocean involved both Hindu and Catholic Goan communities.
[
] However, upper-caste Goan Hindus did not travel to foreign countries due to the religious prohibition imposed by the Dharmaśāstras, which states that crossing salt water would corrupt oneself.
Migrations from 1800s–1950s (second phase)
During the
Napoleonic Wars Goa was occupied by the
British Empire, and many of their vessels were anchored in the Morumugão harbour.
These ships were serviced by native Goans, who then left for
British Raj once the ships had moved on.
The Anglo-Portuguese Treaty of 1878 played an important role in speeding the emigration of Goans in the latter half of the 19th Century, since it gave the British the authority to construct the West of India Portuguese Railway, which connected the Velhas Conquistas to the Bombay Presidency. They primarily moved to the cities of Bombay (now
Mumbai), Poona (now
Pune), Calcutta (now
Kolkata)
and
Karachi.
Goans who moved to mainland India were of both, Christian as well as Hindu, origin.
A small number of Goans moved to Burma, to join the already established community in Pegu (now Bago). Another destination for mainly the Catholic community, was Africa. Most of the emigrants hailed from the province of Bardez, due to their high literacy rate, and the Velhas Conquistas region in general.
In 1880, there were already 29,216 Goans living outside of Goa. By 1954, the number had risen to 180,000.
Migration from 1960s–present (current phase)
After the Annexation of Goa in 1961 by the
India, there has been a steep rise in the number of emigrants of Goan origin. Many had applied and were granted Portuguese passports in order to obtain a European residence. The educated class found it difficult to get jobs within Goa due to the high influx of non-Goans into Goa, and this encouraged many of them to move to the Gulf states.
Until the early 1970s there were substantial populations of Goans in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. There have also, historically, been Goans in former British colonies of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, and Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola. The end of colonial rule brought a subsequent process of Africanization and a wave of expulsion of South Asians from Uganda (1972) and Malawi (1974) forced the community to migrate elsewhere.
In 2000, it was estimated that there are around 600,000 Goans living outside India.
Professions
Since the Second Phase of migrations, Goans have had a variety of professions. In British India they were personal butlers or physicians to the
English people and
Parsis elite in India. On the Ships and Cruise liners they were sailors, stewards, chefs, musicians and dancers. Many have also been working on oil rigs. Many Goan doctors worked in African colonies of Portugal, as well as being also active in British India.
Notes
See also
