The Rev. Fr. Mousinho de Athaide taught me at Sunday Catechism class in the Panjim church in my childhood. I therefore was particularly disappointed to read his piece titled ‘Brahmino-phobia” in your paper dated 28 August 2015.
As followers of Christ, are we not expected to regard ourselves and others as equal in the eyes of God? This and only this can give us empathy for our neighbour, our fellow human beings. So what is this spurious pride in one’s “origins” and “community” that Fr Athaide refers to, terms which are but euphemisms for caste location, whose very acknowledgment also endorses the acceptance of the contemptible ‘hierarchy’ that the notion of casteism is based upon? Not only does this go against the core tenets of Christianity, but it is also unconstitutional.
Yet, Fr Athaide disturbingly finds “nothing wrong” in such pride. Pride in any caste location implies a belief in perpetuating and justifying segregation of people within a rigidly layered, compartmentalized society. Rajdeep Sardessai is unable to see this, and neither is Fr Athaide. The ‘belittling’ that Fr Athaide speaks of is therefore all too often implied, even when not articulated in so many words. The very word ‘caste’ encapsulates this, coming as it does from the Latin root ‘castus’ meaning ‘pure’. What purity? Are we not all ‘pure’? How can one group of human beings be superior in any way to others? It is a scientifically ridiculous concept.
To be critical of the abominable caste system is not a “phobia”. Fr Athaide ought to have enough knowledge of elementary Latin from his ecclesiastical studies to know this. On the contrary, through his piece, he himself betrays a sad caste-ophilia, which is in direct contradiction not only to the vows he took as a priest, but in his purported belief as a Christian. One cannot be Christian and also believe in caste. It is a contradiction in terms.
I am glad that I was also raised by the Salesian Fathers, who practised what they preached, in the belief that we are all created equal. Fr Athaide preached this to us in Catechism class, but obviously believes quite the opposite.
His misguided belief would not be as worrying, if he were not also a priest, and a spokesman of the BBSM, with the sinister implications its agenda has on the future of Goa’s children, especially the poorest of its poor.
