Despite they being notified as Scheduled Tribes (ST) the Gaudis, Velips and the Kunbis continue to be harassed, persecuted and oppressed by all sections of society. The time has come to give them their legitimate due. We focus on these original tribes in the context of the by-elections in Poinguinim scheduled for October 13 th . The constituency has a substantial ST population. By ANITA HALADI.

THEY ARE known as Mull Goenkar - literally, ‘Root Goans’. They are ubiquitous in Goa, wherever one sees manual labour going on - be it in the fields, on road construction sites, in quarries or in the janitors and load-carrying ‘departments’ of private com­mercial firms. They are cannon fodder for politicians across the spec­trum, trucked like cattle to rallies and paraded as ‘strength’ in morchas. And though they are the ‘root’ or original Goans, they are the most wretched of the Goan earth.

Dispossessed of land centuries ago, they lived as bonded labour and serfs well into the twentieth century. After the Liberation of Goa, the Tenancy Act gave them the right to land they tilled, but their lack of resources soon made cultivation impossible. After 33 years of democracy, though 30 percent of the population according to their own estimates and 20 by the government’s, basic demands raised decades ago are yet to be met. Most indicative of their ‘democratic strength’, of course, is their representation in the State Legislature: a mere ten percent after the November 1989 elections and twelve and a half after the recent November 1994 polls.

The Origin
It has now been conclusively established that the Gavde were the first settlers in Goa. Explanations about their origins are varied. According to one, the name Gavda derives from their place of origin ­Gavda Desh in East Bengal. The etymology of the name-word, accord­ing to others - in particular, some linguists - can be traced to the word ‘Ganv’, which means village. Yet another ascribes the source to a colloquial language once spoken by this community which is now extinct. (The Gavde in Goa speak Konkani.)

FIELD WORK: Gavde and Kunbis lived as bonded labour well into the 20th century.

The Gavde now, are divided into three main sub-groups: the Hindu, the Nav-Hindu, and the Christian. After the invasion by Ary­ans, they adopted Hinduism as their religion, but continued their own forms of worship and religious rituals and never really adopted idol worship. During the Portuguese regime in Goa, some of them, as the Gazetteer notes, were forcibly converted to Christianity in the 17th Century. Subsequently, in 1928, some of them were reconverted to Hinduism by a religious leader called Masurker Maharaj. These reconvertees, not accepted by either the Hindus or the Christians, maintain a separate identity and are called Nav-Hindu Gavde.

These people, approximately 300,000 by our estimates, are di­vided thus: (a) the Hindu Gavde, dispersed in the Nova Conquistas, a predominately Hindu area; (b) the Nav-Hindu Gavde, who as a re­sult of non-acceptance, stay in separate areas called mands; and (c) the Christian Gavde, who are dispersed in the Velhas Conquistas, a predominantly Christian area. The Christian Gavde are also known as Kunbi. The Gavde, spread over remote villages, earlier lived in relative isolation. However, rapid urbanisation has led to some amount of inter-mingling between the Gavde and the other commu­nities. Yet, the Gavde continue to stay together, segregated from the rest of society, and maintain a distinct identity.

Struggle for Recognition
In the post-Liberation period, these communities have been making attempts to get themselves recognised by the Government of India as Scheduled Tribes, and thus to avail of benefits safeguarded by the country’s Constitution for tribals. Their attempts aim at mak­ing the Indian Union aware of their plight and to convince it that the socio-economic amelioration of the community depends on their statu­tory recognition as tribals.

Though the Gavde have been struggling to get themselves no­tified as Scheduled Tribes, the Government of Goa issued a notifica­tion in 1980 declaring four communities-the Gavde and Kunbi, be­sides Velip and Dhangar as “Other Backward Classes” (OBCs). The government estimated the total population of these communities to be around 2,00,000. These communities have been notified OBCs on the criterion of overall socio-economic backwardness.

In many other Indian states, the Scheduled Caste and Sched­uled Tribe population comprises nearly 20 percent of the total population. However, in Goa their population is as low as around two percent, whereas that of the OBCs is 20 percent.

When the first post-Liberation advisory council to the Union government was formed, the Gavde were not represented. They made an appeal to the authorities, demanding their inclusion, but failed to gain attention.

Associations such as Gomantak Gavda Yuvak Parishad, Gavda Vikas Mandai, etc., were formed to organise the Gavde in order to address the problem. Subsequently, several memorandums were sub­mitted, but failed to create the necessary impact. In 1963, some con­tractors belonging to the same community, made counter represen­tations which were challenged by a mammoth gathering of 8,000 Gavde from all over Goa. The associations demanded that the Gavde/ Kunbi (and Velips) be declared as a tribe and all the benefits pro­vided by the Constitution be made available to them. However, the Constitution states that a community which either practices or preaches Christianity cannot be declared as a tribe and the Gavde failed to get themselves notified as tribes under the Constitution. The Gavde do not consider this ruling fair as they maintain that they are neither Hindus or Christians and that the government should con­sider their socio-economic backwardness as a criterion for declaring them a tribe.

In October 1973, the Gomantak Gavda Yuvak Sangh, under the leadership of Guru Shirodkar submitted a memorandum to the then chief minister, Shashikala Kakod-kar, for immediate notification of the community as a Scheduled Tribe. In January 1975, the Study Group of the Parliamentary Committee for Scheduled Castes and Tribes visited Goa, and a memorandum was submitted to Morarji Desai (when he was the prime minister) and to Jagjivan Ram, but no action was taken.

In 1979, the Gavda/ Kunbi/Velip/Dhangar (GKVD) Federation was formed in order to co-ordinate the efforts of all the associations fighting for the rights of the Gavde. (They also included the Velip and Dhangar communities which were facing similar problems.) Under the guidance of Fr Joaquim Fernandes, they managed to bring together most of the groups which were earlier divided on religious grounds. Realising that a consolidation of efforts was necessary to solve their common problems, the Federation has held several meetings and seminars in order to sensitise the community and to organise them.

In 1980, a memorandum was given to the Mandal Commission for consideration. The late B.P. Mandal regretted the plight of the Gavde following which, the Goa government issued the earlier men­tioned notification declaring the community as an ‘Other Backward Class’. The government has since then reserved two percent posts in government offices and has declared a five percent reservation in all technical and professional educational institutions for them.

The GKVD Federation has not yet succeeded in uniting the Gavde. The main reason for their disunity stems from religious and communal differences-factors that have also been used by the poli­ticians to sharpen divisions among them. The federation, in an at­tempt to wipe out religious differences, formed an action committee which has representatives from all the groups, but unity still seems a distant goal. The federation has also been making attempts to draw the government’s attention to the problems of the community.

The V.P. Gaonkar Commission
In the face of continuing agitation by the Gavde, the Goa government appointed the Vasu Paik Gaonkar Committee in 1986, to review the situation and suggest measures for their socio-economic amelioration. The committee visited the states of West Bengal, Bihar and Rajasthan and studied the nature and extent of benefits offered to the OBCs there. Based on these observations, the committee for­mulated a report containing suggestions for Goa. This report was submitted in 1987.

No Solutions in Sight
The legislative assembly elected for the term 1989-94 saw two members of the Gavda-Kunbi community in the State Cabinet dur­ing the Progressive Democratic Front’s regime. One, Kashinath Jhalmi, was a powerful minister handling important portfolios and the other, Luis Alex Cardozo looked after social welfare. Yet neither did much for or moved the government towards alleviating the prob­lems of the Gavde-Kunbi-Velip till the ill-fated government collapsed.

After the several changes that took place and Wilfred de Souza became the chief minister, Vassu Paik Gaonkar, author of the V.P. Gaonkar Commission Report became not only minister holding the welfare portfolio but also, for almost one year, de facto No.2 in the State Cabinet. But he too was unable or unwilling to push the cause of the Gavde-Kunbi-Velip.

Prior to the November 1994 elections, the GKVD leadership threw in its lot with the North Indian Bahujan Samaj Party, but came a cropper in the polls. Gaonkar himself lost his seat, end­ing a long but virtually useless tenure in the legislature. Antonio Gaonkar, leader of the Mull Goenkarancho Ekvott toppled the Chris­tian Brahmin stalwart, Francisco Sardinha in the Gavda-dominated Curtorim constituency.

Things in ‘the world above’ change, but the plight of the Gavde, the original Goans seems ever to remain the same...

Courtesy:The transforming of Goa.

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