The Gaunkaries are village communities which later on came to be called “The Communidades.” They existed for more than 450 years since the Portuguese rule in Goa. It is not known when exactly these Village Communities/Comunidades came into existence, but in the 16th century they came to be recognised by an Order of the King of Portugal. Gaunkaries of Goa are unique in their functioning in village governance and are perhaps the only institutions in the world. Under this system, they functioned in an orderly manner through the village community office called the Chavdi. The Regidor was the village head who settled all village disputes and the Escrivao (secretary) looked after the village administration. The Serula Comunidade escrivao, in those good old days, came in a boil gaddi pulled by a pair of bullocks (a unique mode of transport then which consisted of a wooden box with a door, side windows and a pair of benches). Sadly, this chavdi is in ruins today demanding the gaunkars attention to respect their ancestors’ memory.
The Escrivao looked after the village administration. The fields were let out to the villagers for cultivation for which they paid ‘xidav’ , the hills were given for harvesting on a payment of ‘forro’ on yearly payment. Whatever revenue the comunidades received, the same was utilised for maintaining the bunds, sluice gates, the vhall (storm water drains) and the hoi (rain water drains) in the villages. The village elders met at the comunidade office to discuss village welfare. They were honest, sincere and dedicatedly worked in the best interest of their villages. Village life was peaceful, orderly and the villagers were happy.
Come liberation, with the change of time, the whole community life changed. Political interference brought in corruption, looting and grabbing of land, more for vested interest than protecting the comunidade land. With the phasing out of the old generation of ganvkars, the functioning of the Gaunkaries took a beating depleting village governance of its uniqueness; so much so, the ancient institutions have come on the verge of extinction and the honourable Goenkars will soon go into oblivion with their Goenkarponn never to be known again.
There’s an urgent need to revive these Gaunkaries if Goa is to be saved for posterity. Our uniqueness, Goenkarponn and Goa will only then be known as land of the Comunidades giving due respect to our ancestors and cherishing their memory; our future generations too will remember and thank us for having preserved and passed on to them this unique self-governing Communities(Gaunkaries).
