Divine Cult or Divine Solution?
In 1940, the Church regained its rights to administer its associations and funds, states TEOTÓNIO R. DE SOUZA
The Governor José Ferreira Pestana authorized the Goan administrator-historian Felippe Nery Xavier in 1847 to consult any non-confidential official documentation he might require to write the history of the Goan village communities. Those interested in the subject are grateful to him for the sources and information he made available through his various publications. Admittedly, as State functionary he could not be critical of many situations he observed and studied, but left for posterity, valuable documentation that is difficult to find today. He may be considered a true precursor of the modern historiography of rural Goa, anteceding the praiseworthy contribution of the Portuguese administrator-historian J.H. da Cunha Rivara, whose position as General Secretary of the Portuguese State of India gave him a privileged status and power that permitted him to leave his mark on the political and cultural history of Goa.
In his Bosquejo Histórico das Communidades (Nova Goa, Imprensa Nacional, 1852) , F. N. Xavier provides quantified data in a way that only in more recent times historians have learned to appreciate and practise. Part II of that study contains many details village-wise about their churches, including when and how they were built, repaired, enlarged and maintained. It is curious to note that when Archbishop Fr. A. Brandão sought to take over the jurisdiction of the Salcete churches from the Jesuits in the latter half of the 17th century, they appealed to the king to intervene in his capacity of Grand-Master of the Order of Christ with privileges conceded by the Popes to look after the Church at home and overseas in the Portuguese-controlled domains.
The kings seized this occasion, and ever since there were recurrent cases of royal intervention, leading to almost a total take-over of the economic administration and supervision of the confrarias and fábricas in the course of the 18th century. The conflict between the Archbishop Fr. Inacio de S. Teresa and the Jesuits was a repeat of the Brandão scene in the 1720s. This time the archbishop went about inquiring into the personal scandals of the Jesuit parish priests in Salcete. He got women to confess their clandestine relations with some of those priests. However, the Archbishop did not get on famously with the State authorities as well. Under Pombaline regime, the Jesuits were sacked, but the Archbishops too had their wings clipped. The situation of liberal politics was no better for the Church, particularly since 1834. The policy continued under the republican regime since 1910. It was only in 1940, by the Acordo Missionário of the Salazar regime, that the Church regained the rights to administer the pious associations and their funds.
Leopoldo da Rocha, a former priest and professor at the Rachol seminary, presently in Portugal, is the author of one of the best studies that we know of the Church confraternities in Goa. His doctoral thesis in canon law titled As Confrarias de Goa, was published in Lisbon in 1973. It would be worthwhile to publish an English edition of this study based on a thorough archival research. Only those who are ignorant of the history of the confraternities and fábricas of the Churches in Goa, can today resent the suggestions of Government intervention in regulating their functioning.
Leopoldo da Rocha’s research reveals how the State intervention and legislation was greatly beneficial to checking the gross mismanagement of Church funds, despite the dedicated efforts of some archbishops, like D. António de Neiva Brum e Silveira, and especially Fr. Manoel de Santa Catarina, to reduce the frauds and misappropriations. It was not uncommon to find debtors to the Churches as treasurers of their fábricas and confraternities. A decree of February 24 , 1788 sought to put an end to this abuse. But all the decrees of the archbishop had produced little tangible results.
It is against this background that one should seek to explain how and why the grand church buildings, new or rebuilt, could mushroom all over the Old Conquests in Goa through the 18th until mid 19th centuries. Some Portuguese art historians on look-out for green pastures have been throwing-up wild suggestions to explain the grandeur of the Church architecture and paintings in Goa in order to emphasize the uniqueness of the so-called “Indo-Portuguese art”. The growing influence of the native clergy in the 18th and 19th centuries and their inter-caste rivalries have been high in the order of such explanations, forgetting that there could be situations of common interest wherein caste rivalries could be forgotten.
It is generally forgotten that in 1738 the Marathas mounted a major military offensive against Goa and several churches were raided and burnt in that occasion. It came to be known later that it was a diversionary strategy of Chimaji Appa, whose main target was Bassein. The Portuguese authorities in Goa were running for funds to meet the threat. The village communities of Goa were called upon to contribute fixed amounts in two installments. The Church confraternities were invited to loan their silverware to the Mint for coining. Interestingly, the State Council decided that all able-bodied servants / slaves should be recruited for defence, and each of the five major religious orders should provide companies of 50 religious each for assisting in the trenches and fortified outposts that were clearly identified in the same Council proceedings. They were to operate in day and night shifts. The natives were to be watched closely for their usual unwillingness to fight.
Such situations of crises and fresh demands for funds had made the village communities the milching cows of the colonial state. F.N. Xavier provides detailed tables of the moneys paid by each village of the Old Conquests during 1780-1839. They were always called euphemistically «donativos», suggesting that they were willing contributions. The provinces of Salcete, Bardez and Ilhas paid in proportion of 3:2:1. One can see there clearly how much was extracted from each village for the purpose of cult, and other expenses, including the construction of the proposed new capital in Mormugão in 1776, a plan that was later abandoned in favour of Panjim or Nova Goa. But there is one feature in the State supervision of the village and Church funds.
That feature has not been noticed by researchers so far and could provide a clue for the surge of the church constructions or enlargements. A clue that may be well applicable till our own times! Unlike other expenses which required prior State permission, the funding of churches and cult required no such permission. The village headmen raised such funds with much enthusiasm, often in collusion with their respective parish priests and in fraudulent manner. Under the guise of divine cult much money was pocketed for private use (“para a sombra delle converterem as mesmas fintas para os seus usos particulares”). It is not surprising if this was a loophole that the Goan natives had discovered to meet the ongoing crisis of the colonial regime and its habit to impose fresh taxes upon the native population.
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Is Goa A Safe Place?
By Adelmo Fernandes
Is Goa a safe place to live in? Well that is the big question on everybody’s mind. A recent survey conducted by ‘Tripadvisor’ showed that Delhi was the most unsafe city in the country. The national capital is followed by our very own peaceful(?) Goa. In fact Goa has even beaten Mumbai to the third place as the most unsafe tourist destination in the country. Interestingly the survey also showed that Baga beach is the third dirtiest beach in the country. The dirtiest being Juhu beach in Mumbai followed by the Marina beach in Chennai. What should really bother our politicians is the fact that even though tourism is the bread and butter of Goa’s economy, the State is being seen as an unsafe tourist destination. But then does it really bother our politicians? Hardly. Our politicians still keep on harping that Goa is a safe place for tourists, even though there have been several assaults on foreigners. Be that as it may. How many Goans feel safe living in Goa? A survey in this regard carried out among Goans would probably throw up some startling facts. The older generations always keep talking about those-good-old-days when they would sleep in their homes with their windows open. Mind you during those days, window grills were unheard of. Now we are not safe in our homes even when our doors and windows are fortified with iron grills. Our women are not safe. We have our very own version of a serial killer and ‘Jack the Ripper’. We have our own brand of rapists who seem to have a liking for white skin. Some of our politicians are known to have spent time behind bars. The one who has not, is on the run. This very politician had the audacity to say that Goa is the “rape capital” of the country. He was probably right in saying so. But then it was his sacred duty to make Goa a safe place for the women-folk. He failed in his duties quite miserably. How safe are our roads? Many lives have been lost because of the pathetic conditions of our roads. A light shower and the potholes on our roads open up like festering wounds. There seems to be no remedy for the malady. It pays to say a small prayer before hitting the road on your vehicle. For even if you obey all the traffic rules there could be someone out there driving like hell. He is probably high on the bottle that cheers, or could be having a heated discussion on his cell-phone. Can the food we consume be considered safe? In the past we have heard of adulterated food. We probably thought that fruits were the safest food we could consume. Unfortunately artificial ripening of fruits has been the order of the day. We could probably end up with cancer by consuming those artificially ripened mangoes. We are in the midst of the South West Monsoon. The roads have already started flooding and the water keeps entering our homes. The hills which have been cut to make way for mega housing projects have caused land-slides burying the old houses on the way. Electric poles uproot leading to unscheduled power shut-down. Indeed in Goa it is not only the tourists who feel unsafe, probably every Goan feels the same way too. It is only the Almighty God who sees that no harm comes to us. Our politicians are more concerned about keeping their position and their seat of power safe. May God keep us safe.
