One cause theory for the migration of the Konkani people (the then Goans) into coastal Karnataka and even into Kerala is suspect. Unfortunately, this one cause theory is a metanarrative often used by the upper caste to invent a shared victimhood. Such a self-perceived victimhood emerges in a context of intractable conflicts that usually affect the collective memory of people. A new Konkani movie Osmitay is basing itself into this metanarrative that belongs to the invented tradition of a shared victimhood that finds its roots in the supposed wrong doings of the Inquisition.
The oversimplification of a complex history of migrations out of the then region that we call Goa today is once again given new lease of life by the movie Osmitay which otherwise is a good art production of Konkani diaspora. The acting and the display of Konkani culture is mind blowing to say the least. While appreciating the strengths of the movie, let us examine its one migration and it one cause that is grounding the narrative plot of the said movie. One migration and its one cause echoes the right wing ideology. Hence, it is important to critically examine this thesis of the movie. This analysis is required as it will manifest how it is aligned to the right wing agenda that is detrimental to the interest of the minorities in our country. The fact that the movie is being produced by Christians also makes this analysis necessary to unmask its pretention of innocence and expose its political agenda.
There are several waves of migrations of Konkani speaking people out of a region that we now know as Goa. Some of the migrations predate the arrival of the Portuguese. The region was yet to become Goa and even then we can still find that some of the people from there had already migrated in search of better pastures down south. Hence, to put together all these migrations into a single exodus triggered by the atrocities of the Inquisition is against the facts of history. Historians such as K M Panikkar say that there were Konkani speaking people in Kerala and Karnataka even before the coming of the Portuguese to India. Hence, a singular linear narrative that bundles all migrations into a singular one is highly questionable.
Such a singularization appears to be at the service of an invented tradition of a shared victimhood of the upper caste. This invented tradition falls apart if we consider the caste geographies of the upper caste in Cochin and even in Mangalore. Both the Ports were under the Portuguese administration for some time. If Portuguese used Inquisition against the upper caste Hindus, how could we can find there Konkani settlements in Cochin near the fort which was controlled by the Portuguese? Likewise, we may have to question the same in Mangalore which is also a port town and was under Portuguese at one time. If the Portuguese Inquisition had led these upper caste Konkani speakers to move out of Goa than why they were they allowed to peacefully settle and flourish in Cochin or Mangalore Port areas? This fact itself deconstructs the thesis that it is only the Inquisition that led to the exodus of all Konkani speakers to the south. The one cause metanarrative also depicts Konkani as the language of upper caste that belonged to the Saraswati civilisation. Again a natural calamity is depicted as a cause of the settlement of the Konkani speakers into Goa. This one cause theory of migration once again portrays the then region that we know today as Goa as blank slate which was then populated by the migrants from Saraswati civilization only to be displaced again by the Portuguese.
The plot of the movie thus appears to be used to reinforce the sense of a shared victimhood and is probably directed to cover or mask the good relations that upper caste enjoyed with the Portuguese. Unfortunately, the Movie Osmitay blindly submits to this agenda and thus, allows Konkani mai to be made maid servant of that sinister agenda. The invented tradition of victimhood aligns with Hindutva ideology today and is in danger of committing the same crimes that it is accusing the Portuguese by deflecting its thus derived anger and subsequent quest for justice on innocent Christians of today whose ancestors where the actual victims of the said Inquisition. If at all if any community is the real victim of Inquisition, it is the Catholic community along with other Christians from other countries. We know the case of Dr Dellon, who was a Frenchman and was brought under the Inquisition while he was in Daman and whose picture of the workings of Inquisition is an exaggerated attempt of revenge.
The upper caste Hindus have the burden of being the collaborators of the Portuguese. It is they who had invited the Portuguese to rule over Goa. Even in the inquisition building, the entire ground floor was used by them to conduct business. This is why by portraying the upper castes as victims of Inquisition, the producers of the movie have not just insulted the ancestors of present Christians but also have given power to those who wish to construct the Christians of today as the villains of so called invented victimhood of the past. Hence, by supporting the invented tradition, the movie is victimizing the Christians by converting them as a villains of the past where they themselves were its victims.
The movie unfortunately, lends its hands to the politics that want to construct Christians as monsters of the colonial past. It is to this end that the movie is made to serve while pretending to serve the interest of Konkani mai and its people. Konkani mai and Konkani culture is thus employed to victimize the Christians of today. In fact, the movie does what Inquisition did. Like the Inquisition, it also punishes innocent Christians of today by joining hands with the right wing Hindutva lobby that is happy to propagate one migration and its one cause theory of Christians and the Konkonas (other Konkani speakers) into Karnataka and Kerala. It is almost a case of being stabbed like Ceaser by our very own Brutus. The plight of the Christians is akin to Fyodor Dostoevsky’s Crime and Punishment, which says ‘The whole question here is, am I a monster?, or am I a victim? And what if I am a victim?’
(Fr Victor Ferrao is an independent researcher attached to St Francis Xavier Church, Borim, Ponda)
