G'BYE GOA:GOAN EMIGRATION by Valmiki Faleiro,

G’BYE GOA: GOAN EMIGRATION.

By Valmiki Faleiro.

Goan paradoxes will never cease to fascinate. If she got populated through a series of waves of in-migrations at different points of time in her history, beginning from about 4,000-3,000 BC, Goa also got depopulated through an almost equal and reverse process of out-migrations. The idea that emigration was largely forced and occurred only during the Portuguese era is, as I wrote last Sunday, entirely erroneous. Goan émigrés are almost as old as Goa herself.

Panna, a Goan Saraswat from Ambaulim-Quepem, migrated to Sopara, traded in things like sandalwood and areca,with as distant places as Mudguiri and Tibet, then turned into a disciple of Buddha,returned to Goa to spread the faith, and died at age 80 – all in the pre-Christian(forget Portuguese!) era. Panna is the first famous Goan expatriate. There could have been others before. Down history, Goans – Saraswats and Vanis in particular – moved outside Goa for better economic opportunity. Save during the Kadamba and Portuguese epochs, Goa witnessed political vicissitudes. New rulers or kingdoms generally brought with them new economic opportunity. And fresh waves of out-migration.

The Shenvis of Cortalim, rated intellectually the most ‘superior’ of Salcete Saraswats,were known across ages to have migrated to neighbouring kingdoms. They worked as teachers and accountants, may have depleted treasuries at their workplace, but dutifully returned to hearth-‘n’-home, built new temples or added to existing ones, or bought properties and bequeathed them to temples, to perpetuate their memory! All these, remember, were voluntary – not forced – emigrations. Down the wavers of history, finally arrived the Muslims. Many Goans fled during the invasions of Mallik Kafur and Ghazni Mohammed. Then came the Portuguese. And,soon, a mass Goan exodus. One arose from socio-religious bigotry. The other, from fresh economic opportunity outside Goa (and later, the lack of any within Goa.) The former was not restricted to Hindus alone, as wrongly believed, but covered Catholics as well – who, running the risk of being reported to the ‘Holy Office’ of the Inquisition, fled to coastal Karnataka and elsewhere.

New economic opportunities took Goans to places as afar as Cochin, San Thome(Chennai), Bassein (Vasai), Gujarat, and Chittagong/Ungolim (Hoogly) in Bengal. Many prospered – as did Sir Roger Faria, from Panjim, who dumped opium on Chinaby the shipload, from his bases in Calcutta, Bombay and Macau, but in latter times. Colonialism was a drain on the Goan economy. Locals were taxed to fund colonial wars with neighbouring kingdoms and missionary activities in India. Bulk of Goa’s land was owned by a few ‘ganvkars.’

For the common Goan, subsistence farming was the only way to keep body and soul together. In this grim scenario came the decline of the Portuguese in the East. Goa, by the last quarter of the 16th century, was engulfed in all round Portuguese profligacy, venality and corruption. Lassitude reigned supreme, and the Dutch struck. With their frequent naval blockades from 1603 to 1644, the Dutch starved an already languishing Goa. Economic decline led to the per force emigration. This time largely of Goan Catholics,by now the vast majority of Goa’s populace (then comprising of only the three Old Conquest talukas of Bardez, Tiswadi and Salcete.) This wave of ‘per force’ migration gradually began from the 17th century. It arose purely from economic realities, and survives to this day, encompassing the wider boundaries of modern Goa – despite the fact that we have held our destiny in our hands now close to fifty years.

By the early 1700s, Portuguese historian Vitorino Magalhaes Godinho estimated that Bengal alone had between 20,000 to 34,000 Goan emigrants. Things got worse locally with Portugal’s new found interest in sugarcane-rich Brazil. Vitorino summed it succinctly: the Luso Empire thrived on West African gold in the 15th century, on Oriental pepper in the 16th and on Brazilian sugar in the 17th century. By the 18th century, helpless Goans had to fend for themselves – beyond Goa.

PS: Internet trivia: the total solar eclipse July 22, at 6.26-6.30am, will be the last in our lifetime. It’ll next occur over India on June 3, 2114! (ENDS.)

The Valmiki Faleiro weekly.