05 Jul 2015  |   01:35am IST

Revisiting the 300-year old connection

‘Slaves of Sultans’, a book written by Alan Machado, documents the migration of Goans to Mangalore and the identity change that took place over the 300 years. The book’s author shares with Café his hopes to fill the knowledge-void regarding the community’s history, while Eric Ozario expresses his desire to build a cultural bridge between Mangalore and Goa

Dolcy D’Cruz

The story of migration is as old as time itself. Curiosity, growth, development, a thirst for adventure, listlessness are some of the reasons why people migrate, but the most common one, the one that common throughout history, is survival. Our neck of the woods too has been witness to mass migration. During the Portuguese Era, many families moved out of the state in fear of inquisition, among these were families which settled in Mangalore. Three hundred years is a very long time, and these people created an identity of their own over the span of these three centuries. While away from the place that was once home, without any link, the generations that followed had to bear witness to the domination of the Nacao Portuguese and Tipu Sultan’s regime. ‘Slaves of Sultans’ is a researched book written by Alan Machado that documents this journey while also clearing certain misconceptions.

Originally from Goa, Alan found his family’s roots as ‘Ganvkars’ from Aldona. “In becoming known as Mangalorean today, the community went through a series of traumatic crisis which tore it apart from its ancient roots. The first of these was the process of Christianisation which was far more than just religious in nature. Religious rites and practices are still extensively relied upon in agriculture, trade and every aspect of life, to seek divine help for success.  So having to give these up was perceived as threatening one’s livelihood. Replacing them with untested rites must have created their own traumas, as did developments that eventually forced a large section of the population to migrate in search of security and food,” says Alan about his inspiration to write the book.

He further adds, “The second great crisis resulted from inimical government policies towards agriculture and the failure to protect the country from the Dutch and Marathas over many decades. Just as the family was re-establishing new roots in Kanara, they were uprooted by Tipu and taken to Srirangapatna along with the entire Christian population. This was undoubtedly the most traumatic event in the history of the community. From my family, only Joao Macedo (Prabhu) returned from captivity in Srirangapatna. Very little of all this history is known and there are many misconceptions. I wanted to give as accurate and logical an account as possible, using all accessible sources. Apart from detailing and analysing the events and processes that created this history, ‘Slaves of Sultans’ also gives future historians a more authentic foundation to build upon.”  

Alan is also the author of ‘Shades within Shadows’ and ‘Sarasvati’s Children’ but hopes that ‘Slaves of Sultans’ contributes to the recording for posterity both the history and the traditions and customs of the Mangalorean community of Goan origin. For the research for the book, Alan had to go through works translated from Persian, Portuguese, French and Kannada.

Speaking about the current connect between the Mangalorean community and their Goan roots, Alan highlights, “While today’s community is largely descendant from Goan emigrants, they are composed of different castes and social segments. The emigrants from Goa came from Salcete, Tiswadi and Bardez, bringing their own distinct identities and divisions in dialects, customs and social taboos. The Mangalorean identity evolved only in the 20th century. However, the Goan connection lived on in oral tradition even after four generations, in common language, customs, cuisine, and religion. This is clearly visible in the singing of ‘vovios’, in the ‘Monte Saibiniche Fest’, and in other customs which the Inquisition banned in 1732 but still survive among Mangaloreans.”

The earliest written record of a family attempt to find old roots is that of the Vas-Naik family of Chorao. In 1881, George Vas visited Goa and re-established links with family members in Goa, both Catholic and non-Catholic. “In my own case, family tradition has it that we were ‘ganvkars’ from Aldona, with the pre-conversion name of Prabhu. Though we are now Machados, I found from old church records at Omzur and Mangalore, that we were originally Macedos with the name change occurring around 1880. This connects us to the 12th vangod of Aldona’s comunidade.”   

Eric Ozario, a Konkani activist from Mangalore, was actively involved in the formation of two important committees that bind Goa and Mangalore – All India Konkani Writer’s Organisation and Jagruti Konkani Samiti. Through his various programmes and workshops, Eric is working towards bringing the communities closer through Konkani.

“For 300 years, Mangaloreans were completely cut off from their motherland. In those days, there was no means for communication and the families didn’t travel back to Goa to bring about consciousness about their home. Some families were Christian and the others were Hindu, they could not relate to their own families. Though the inquisition is played down by the church, it was the main reason for migration,” says Eric.

From his years of experience with working with both the communities, Eric has noticed that the communities have strong attachments to their own lands. “Now Goans and Mangaloreans meet in Mumbai and the Gulf where they work together but they will hardly socialise. Though we have same ancestry, there is no awareness. I have organised 163 monthly programmes in Mangalore for plays, tiatrs, sangeets and folk arts and have invited at least 63 groups from Goa but we have never been invited to Goa to perform. We are trying our best as an organisation,” explains Eric. 

Eric is now conducting Roman script Konkani classes in Managalore as the children are showing more interest in the script. “Politics is being played on the script. I even went to High Court in Karnataka asking for equal rights for Romi with Kanada and Devnagiri script. We conduct camps for children in Mangalore and they are curious to learn the script,” concludes Eric with the hope to see more collaborations between the two communities.