Fr.
Nascimento J. Mascarenhas is a very well known priest in Goa. Apart from being
a priest for many decades, he has also authored several books on the clergy of
Goa and is also intimately associated with the Archdiocesan bulletin Renovação. Fr. Nascimento was and is
actively involved in various online forums about the village of Saligão in
particular and online Goan forums in general. And through contributing
village-related articles and trivia on such forums, The Land of the Sal Tree was born, a book entirely devoted to the
myths, history and people of Saligão.
Fr. Nascimento’s project promises to
be a very novel one as all those quaint traditions, superstitions and trivia of
a uniquely Goan village are included in the book. This book – as the author is
humble enough to claim – is not an individual effort. Fr. Nascimento had the
earnest backing of many Saliganvkars,
chief among them being the Canada-based illustrator of the book Mel D’Souza and
Frederick Noronha. Mel D’Souza (who is also a journalist and author) is a
genius in drawing and sketching and his lines enliven the text and take the
reader to an altogether different experience. In Acknowledgements, we do find Fr. Nascimento honestly considering
Mel to be the co-author of the book, and Mel in his “trademark modesty” asking
his role to be “played down”.
The book introduces us to the
village of Saligão: its various wards or vaddes,
the prominent houses and monuments of the villages, the well-known as well as
the not-so-well-known village personalities and the various stories that Fr.
Nascimento as a young boy had heard and which stayed with him for the rest of
his life. Fr. Nascimento also reminisces about his boyhood that was spent in Saligão
and the various people who shaped his personality. The book is a remarkable
introduction to a small village of Goa and a project that has the potential for
emulation by other villages as well. Dr. Olivinho Gomes’ Village Goa, a book on the village of Chandor can be mentioned inthis context. Though academic, it can help in guiding such projects.
Fr. Nascimento’s account of the
construction of the Mae de Deus church is truly illuminating. He has dug out a
lot of facts from the archives. But the lengthy list of the costs and materials
incurred to build the church (pp. 104-112) could have been included as an
annexure as it mars the flow of the book. The
Land of the Sal Tree is not connected by a single large, unifying narrative.
It is rather a collection of diverse stories written with and viewed from the
eyes of passionate nostalgia (or should I say saudades?). It gives us an idealized picture of Sailigão; a picture
the younger generation will be in awe of, but one that they may not be able to
relate to. This book presents a rather fossilized picture of the past and it
seems to yearn for a veritable museum where all that was cherished will be
preserved as it is.
Amongst the many interesting stories
that Fr. Nascimento narrates, is one of a boy called Galdinho (related to Mel
D’Souza apparently) who climbed the steeple of the Saligão church in a bid to
impress a girl! But by far the most surprising and awesome story in the book is
of Anthony de Mello, one of the luminaries of Saligão. Anthony de Mello was a
great cricketer who put Indian cricket on the world map and was also instrumental
in establishing the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI). The words of
Vijay Merchant, another doyen of Indian cricket are produced here, as appearing
in the book: “For sheer cricket administration capability, confidence and
enthusiasm, there was never anyone to equal de Mello. He was the man who
organized the Board of Control for Cricket in India, was its first Honorary
Secretary, India’s cricket representative in international cricket conferences,
and, finally, its President…His trump card was his bowling and tremendous
enthusiasm…Anthony will always be remembered as the builder of stadiums without
having anything in the bank to his credit…there will never be another Anthony
de Mello in Indian cricket.” Surely now, Anthony de Mello rightfully deserves
one of the stadiums of the Goa Cricket Association to be named after him.
The book is neatly written with the
quality of the language standing as a salient feature. But the various articles
that have been collected in this book could have been edited further to avoid
repetition and to maintain the focus on the theme that is the village of
Saligão. Many of the traditions, superstitions and habits that are found in Saligão
are also found in rest of Goa, such as the traditional games that were played
and the way certain festivals are celebrated. Such commonly-occurring
traditions and customs should not have been singled out for elaborate
treatment.
In tracing the history of the
village and its people, Fr. Nascimento has done a commendable job. But one
can’t help but notice some very problematic statements being made in this
process. While categorically acknowledging that the legend of Parasurama “is
just a myth” Fr. Nascimento when speaking about the migration of non-indigenous
people states, “…the attractions of this land subjected it to an influx of
various races in the course of human migration, resulting in the establishment
of certain social patterns that evolved into a distinct Hindu culture. This
civilization prevailed for thousands of years until the late 15th
century when countries in Europe started seeking new lands to colonize or
expand trade.” The term “race” is very problematic as the boundaries defining
one “race” from another are vague and blurred due to miscegenation. Secondly,
Fr. Nascimento sees such migration of people culminating into a distinct Hindu
culture. This is not surprising as the colonial and the subsequent nationalist
historiography, on which Fr. Nascimento draws quite substantially, has tried to
conceptualize a pre-Portuguese past that is Hindu in its conception. But this is
not so. Muslim or what is known as Islamicate and other identities have also
shaped and influenced the culture of Goa and, sadly, they do not seem to have
been included in Fr. Nascimento’s analysis.
We all know how some Brahmin or “Indo-Aryan”
settlers came to Goa in the dim and distant past from north India. Apparently
many of them had settled in Saligão. Such families find mention in the book
along with their genealogies after conversion to Christianity. These families
had displaced the indigenous population. The way such a process is talked about
is a matter of concern. Ages ago, the “upper-caste settlers” pushed the indigenous
people to the fringes of Saligão and this is but a microcosmic reflection of
how in our society today such indigenous or low-caste people are kept on the
“fringes” and hence cannot be spoken in such idealized, conflict-free terms.
Here’s what Fr. Nascimento says, “When the Indo-Aryan clans arrived in Goa,
they took over the agricultural land and neighbourhoods from the indigenous
people who were moved to the fringe of the villages. They divided the territory
into malos (provinces), and
sub-divided the malos into gãos (villages).”
The Saligão project (if I may call this book) will
hopefully inspire many such books focusing on Goan villages produced by the
villagers themselves. But rather than the quaint and nostalgic account, we look
forward to more critical engagement that would promise to go beyond our ideas
of idealized pasts as well as saudades.
Land
of the Sal Tree, Stories of the history, legends and traditions of Saligão, a
typical Goan village by Fr. Nascimento J. Mascarenhas (Saligão,
Goa: Goa 1556), 2012; pp. xix+290, Rs. 350/- [ISBN: 978-93-80739-35-9]
(A version of this article appeared on Gomantak Times, dt: June 11, 2012)
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