Beyond Beach And Feni

Maria Aurora Couto, who has taught English Literature all her life, turns to history and theology to map anelaborate canvas of 450 years of Portuguese rule in Goa and its repercussions on the present. Thenear-compulsive paeans to the Saraswat Brahmin community and the often numbing repetitions aside, this is amonumental work of sensitive, if on occasion selective, scholarship, backed by industrious research. Couto,with an encompassing eye, examines the forced conversions and the notorious Order of the Inquisition, thedepredations against the Hindu community and the native language of Goa, Konkani, the alleviations offered bythe reforms of Marquez de Pombal and the fostering of liberal laws in the late 19th century and then the slideback into despair and smouldering silence under the 46-year reign of the despot Antonio de Oliveira Salazar.

Of particular importance is Couto's emphasis on the draconian and malevolent Edict of 1736 through whichthe Portuguese tried to curb the converts' adherence to old rituals and customs by replacing Hindu rites andsymbols with Christian ones, and substituting Hindu feasts with Catholic liturgical ceremonies and feastscommemorating Christian saints. Already bent over double, the Edict brought the Hindu community down to itsknees and forced the Christians to adopt this 'new religion'.

Couto also does well to remind us that the conquest of Goa in 1510 by Afonso de Albuquerque came about incollusion with powerful Hindu chieftains after they appealed to him to defend their trade against the dominantMuslim forces of Adil Shah. That the Portuguese stayed on for another four-and-a-half centuries was not partof the plan. Of such vagaries is history made.

Couto's sources are many and diverse. Recoveries from old newspapers and letters, family memorabilia,drawing room conversations, paintings and music score sheets are often turned into lucid discoveries. As inall small communities, there is a tendency to elevate the fair and good to the realms of brilliance andgreatness. The book abounds with 'great' writers and administrators and 'brilliant' civil servants. Thepoetaster ManoharRai SarDessai is thus magnanimously labelled as 'a great poet' whose 'poetic vision expressesthe cultural breadth and depth of Goan experience'. (Such malarkey from an Eng Lit teacher!) And Remo isproclaimed as 'the idol of millions for three decades' (Really?). But to use Couto's favourite and somewhatimperious phrase, 'be that as it may', the book examines a Goa far beyond the stereotypes of feni and Raveparties and is both an intelligent and heartfelt eulogy on a tolerant and pluralistic society. While it singsaves to the resilience, cunning and courage of the beleaguered Hindu community who in the end, defied thePortuguese onslaught, and kept their gods and traditions alive, it also chants bhajans to the Catholics, whorefused, at least in an atavistic sense, to sell their Hindu souls.

But the preoccupation with the 'refinement' and 'decorum' of the Saraswat Brahmins papers over their moreunseemly side. Many of them-both Hindus and Christians-were outright stooges of the Portuguese. The author, inthis passage, hints at a darker side, but does not go much further: '..the social graces, as against financialpower, acquired by my community led to delusions of power, and, worse, a sense of superiority.'

Given this sensibility, it is significant that in all the pages devoted to the liberation struggle nomention is made of the militant freedom fighters of the Azad Gomantak Dal, some of whom, like Prabhakar VSinari, are very much alive today. As a corollary to this, there is no word on the sadistic mestico AgenteCasimiro Monteiro of the dreaded PIDE (the Portuguese secret service) who tortured and maimed several freedomfighters in Goa, and gained lasting notoriety in Portugal after he assassinated General Humberto Delgado, thena palpable challenge and threat to Salazar's dictatorship.

Despite the polished prose, and the rousing hosannas from every quarter, the book is not an easy read. Inthe main this is because Doctor Couto the academic far overshadows Dona Aurora the memoirist. While the authoris touchingly transparent on the life of her father, Chico, a gifted musician who died prematurely ofalcoholism, there is not much else, apart from her husband and her mother, an exemplary woman whosingle-handedly brought up Aurora and her six siblings. But the inclusion of intimate autobiographicalmaterial may well be perceived as a cynical ruse to hike the sales of the book. For here in Goa many Goanshave bought the book with the vicarious anticipation of seeing their own names or of those known to them inprint. I get the uneasy feeling that, having checked that out, many will skim through or skip the rest.

A shorter version of this review appeared in the print magazine.