THURSDAY, MAY 09, 2024
ANIL SINGH
The clergy’s push for cultivation in Goa seems to be resonating in Mumbai which is showing a renewed interest in Agera, the harvest festival of East Indians, the indigenous people native to the Mumbai region. Till the sixties, the community celebrated this festival as a thanksgiving to God for blessing the family and the village with a good harvest.
Unlike in Goa, priests in Mumbai are not leading youngsters to paddy fields, demonstrating mechanised paddy planting or taking the lead in contract farming, they simply encourage the celebration of Agera which dropped off the cultural calendar after the paddy fields gave way to high-rises.
A decade ago, Agera was a forgotten tradition in many parishes. Today, freshly harvested paddy is brought to many churches in suburban Mumbai and blessed by the priest. In Orlem and in the extended suburbs of Vasai-Virar, hymns are sung in Marathi and celebrations include processions by brass bands and folk dances.
While Goans celebrate Konsachem Fest from August, Agera is held on the first Sunday of October, when the grain is almost ready for harvest. Till the sixties Agera would commence with the priest going down to the fields to bless the newly harvested crop and thanking God. After coming together in prayer, the community would celebrate with food, singing and dance.
Helping the church revive the harvest festival is the Mobai Gaothan Panchayat, a voluntary organisation. Just as in Goa, rice fields in the Mumbai region are vanishing but the church and local groups such as the Panchayat are using Agera for community bonding and to enkindle a spirit of hope in a fast changing world.The Archdiocese in recent times has gone back to celebrating Agera as “Thanksgiving Day”.
“Concrete buildings keep coming up and our old lifestyles are changing but the community spirit should remain strong and positive as we face the future,” says Gleason Baretto of the Panchayat.
“We begin by taking the paddy (procured by the MGP) in decorated bullock carts from the Holy Cross in the ‘gaothans’ to the church,” says Murzello Walter, MGP member from Orlem.
According to journalist Ashley D’Mello, part of the appeal of Agera for the younger generation is to connect with nature and Mother Earth as the provider.
Processions, cultural shows, East Indian Marathi Mass, harvest-themed refreshments after the service, traditional attire and gaily decorated bullock carts are superb content for social media. To remind the faithful, the MGP circulates a set of guidelines for Agera which includes dressing in traditional attire to distribute the paddy after the mass.
While the Goan priests’ call to take an interest in farming comes against the backdrop of a real estate boom and shrinking paddy fields, the farms of the East Indians in Mumbai are history. The only remnants of that era are ‘gaothans’, the cluster of dwellings. Bandra, which has the costliest real estate, has several of them; Ranwar, Waroda, Pali, Sherly, Malla, Rajan, Kantwady and Chuim.
Another remnant of the era when there were paddy fields in suburban Mumbai is the roadside holy crosses. Local historians say these crosses dotting the path helped villagers traversing long stretches of fields on foot overcome their fear of evil spirits. Communications consultant Roger Pereira whose ancestral village is Ranvar, behind Mehboob studios, says those crosses outside the ‘gaothan’ were meant to protect the villages from the 1897 plague. He now lives in Churchgate and has faint childhood memories of Agera.
(Anil Singh is an independent journalist based in Mumbai.)
