SUSHILA SAWANT MENDES
Goa observed July 15 as the first National War Memorial day. This brings into focus a relatively unknown event that took place in Cuncolim in 1583. Most construe it as an uprising by the militant people of Cuncolim, which resulted in the killing of Jesuit priests. The political climate and dynamics of the event have been viewed from the perspective of those who wrote about it, both from the viewpoint of the Church and the Portuguese State as also the very patriotic bordering on jingoistic viewpoint of the people of Assolna, Velim and Cuncolim (AVC).
Geographically, these villages are isolated from the rest of Goa. On the eastern and southern side, they are separated from the Novas Conquistas, the Western Ghats and the lofty Prabhat hill. On the northern side, river Sal forms a barrier with Veroda and Ambelim, the other villages which form a part of this so-called trinity.
Blessed with fresh water from river Sal, Assolna had a customs house, a fortress, rich fertile land for rice and coconut cultivation, salt pans and a fishing industry. Cuncolim was prosperous in terms of agriculture, commerce, industry with its foundries, carpentry, pottery works, a popular market place with temple fairs and a trade route between the Ghats and the coast. Dr. Teotonio de Souza suggests that the local elite controlled the temple economy as well as the bazaar and therefore, had much to lose if the temple was replaced by the church. He evolved the idea that the elite may have instigated the locals to murder the priests, thus citing economic reason as the main cause of the revolt.
AVC is a tri-conglomerate aptly referred to as ‘the Punjab of Goa’. This phrase was coined by my late father Luis Mendes in an article. He often said, “Our people are Kshatriyas.” This brand name associated with a warrior caste motivated people of these villages to fight the colonisers.
Cuncolim is also referred to as the ‘land of freedom fighters’. It opposed everything Portuguese: religion, language and dress. Its people would wear kurta pyjama with a Gandhi cap, and women sari with flowers in their hair and kumkum on their forehead. In Roman Catholic society, this was considered rebellious behaviour as per the Alvará 2 and Edicts 3 passed by the Church as a part of the lusitanisation process. Being overtly unconventional was a rule for these fighters during Portuguese rule. They fearlessly wrote articles in newspapers. Some even refused to get married in the church as they identified it as a handmaid of Portuguese colonialism.
The background
Much before the advent of the Portuguese, the gãocars had served in Adil Shah’s army and had risen to high positions as they had distinguished themselves with their bravery and courage. Historian Ermelinda dos Stuarts Gomes in her book Sumário da História Geral da Índia – Portugueses na Índia (1926) says that the “army of Goa at that time was predominantly recruited from the villages of AVC and Canacona.”
The Portuguese policy of conquest and evangelisation was resisted by the people of AVC. They refused to cooperate with the Portuguese but worked with Adil Shah and the Nizam. Flaviano Dias has written that the people of AVC fought and suffered together. When a campaign was launched by the Jesuits during the time of Viceroy Don António de Noronha to destroy holy shrines, the chieftains of AVC would meet at a central place in Murida, Cuncolim, known as mand. Dr. Verissimo Coutinho, who had access to letters of the Jesuits, mentions that a priest Sebastião Gonsalves, in his letter to the Superior General, observed that the inhabitants of Cuncolim were all Hindus and were attached to their temples. He wrote that the villagers were very suspicious of the Portuguese and rebelled often against the State.
Délio de Mendonça mentions in his book that one of the reasons for the war in Salcette in 1577 was the ban on Hindu ceremonies and on building temples. Perhaps it is this stubborn resistance which was compounded by the wrath of the missionaries in their enthusiasm to spread Christianity in Salcete. Fr. Gomes Vaz, a priest has stated that the temple priest would cry loudly as though somebody very close or the king had died. For a Jesuit of the 16th century, any religion other than Christianity was ‘pagan’ and needed to be destroyed and replaced by Christianity, which to them was the true religion.
Luis de Guzman mentions that after the destruction of temples, during the time of Viceroy D. António de Noronha (1571-1573), the Hindus offered money to obtain permission to rebuild their temples. Jesuit priests objected to this, and these were the same priests who the Hindus held responsible for conversions and the destruction of their temples. The Portuguese raised taxes, mandating an amount twice the amount that was earlier paid to the Sultan of Bijapur. Inspired by the resistance of the people of Khola and the people of Chorão (1560), the AVC gãocars refused to pay taxes for eight years (1575-1583). Tax collector Estevão Rodrigues, appointed by Viceroy António Barreto, in Assolna was killed.
The new Viceroy Francisco Mascarenhas (1581-1584) ordered destruction of all temples. Extreme acts of fanaticism by soldiers like killing of cows, smearing temples with their blood and polluting the water tank with their carcass fuelled rumours in the villages. The people rebuilt their temples and conducted rituals and festivals publically without permission. Persuasive methods were tried as well: that Our Lady of Health was one of the seven sisters of Mhamai Saibin or Goddess Shantadurga.
The Viceroy ordered the Captain Major of the Coast of Malabar, Captain Gil Eanes Mascarenhas, along with the Captain of Rachol, Gomes Inez de Figueiredo, to attack Assolna and Cuncolim.
It was the people of AVC who led ‘a people’s war of independence’ or an armed action, between 1559 and 1583 and a struggle of non-cooperation with the Portuguese.
The event
On July 14, 1583, the elders of Cuncolim received a letter from Afonso Pacheco that a group of priests, along with lay men, would be visiting on July 15. The village leaders said it would not be convenient for them to receive the groups because of some disagreements among themselves. The priests could come if they wished since the village belonged to the King of Portugal.
No villagers came to welcome this entourage. A village gadhi (shaman) was inciting the crowds with loud cries. The people believed the priests had come to choose a site to build a church. This skirmish resulted in the death of five missionaries – Rodolfo Aquaviva, a learned Jesuit who had just returned from the Ibadat Khana of Mughal Emperor Akbar and a priest whom the Emperor respected, Afonso Pacheco, António Francisco from Coimbra, Pedro Berno and Francisco Aranha (all of whom belonged to aristocratic families of Europe). Three lay people also died with them, Alphonso da Costa, Francisco Rodrigues and Domingos Aguiar. Rowena Robinson discusses the fury of the chieftains: the locals cut the testicles and put them in the mouths of the priests. The bodies were dumped in a nearby well. Today, these mortal remains are at the Se
Cathedral, Old Goa.
The aftermath
The avenging of this massacre was carried out by Gomes Inez de Figueredo and Gil Eanes Mascarenhas. Many fled to neighbouring Bijapur to escape their wrath. The chieftains were called to the then fortress of the Church of Regina Martyrs for peace talks. The monument inaugurated in November 1999 at the site of the revolt in Tolleiband, Cuncolim, mentions the name of 16 tribal chieftains: Jay Naik, Bozno Naik, Emu Naik, Vithoba Naik, Jivlo Naik, Guno Naik, Shabu Naik,Calgo Naik, Polputo Naik, Topi Naik and Shanta Shet, among others.
The peace talks resulted in a bloodbath and a betrayal of the tribal chiefs. Oral history talks about how one of the chiefs, Calgo Naik, jumped in river Sal, swam to safety and lived to tell the tale. It is believed that the bodies of the chieftains were thrown to wild animals instead of being cremated.
What followed was military action. A flotilla was sent through river Sal to bombard the land on either side. Guerilla tactics of the locals were no match for the powerful Portuguese forces and they were forced to hide in the hills and the mountains. Following this rebellion, all the community lands were confiscated and were bequeathed to Don Pedro de Crasto and then acquired by the Jesuits. Later, these lands were gifted to João d’Silva, which he transferred to the Marqueés de Fronteria and Alorna.
The tradition continues
The gãocars of Cuncolim, who subsequently converted to Christianity, retain their hold over hereditary privileges in land and ritual. Not only do the they defend their officiating role in church rituals in face of rising challenge of the non-gãocars backed by the church authorities, they also defy the sovereignty of the church by paying annual visits to Goddess Shantadurga and participating in the festival of the sotrios.
Old surnames in Assolna were Naik and Kudau; in Ambelim Gaad and Naik; in Velim, Prabhu and Naik, and in Veroda, Poll and Porto. The people of Cuncolim had surnames like Naik and Prabhu. Till today, some people of these villages have retained their original surnames. My family has both the ancestral and the Portuguese surname–Sawant Mendes, complete lusitanisation was not possible in AVC. The bairos or wards are still known as Naik Vaddo, Porobos, Vaddo, etc.
The Velim Mell and the Cuncolim Sotrios in which the Catholics still maintain their rights to participate and hold the ceremonial umbrellas are examples of syncretism. Surprisingly, the Mells are often led with a tri-colour flag and each ward would light a big brass lamp accompanied by the sound of dhols and cymbals to welcome the members of the Mell from other wards into their ward.
Sotrios is a festival of umbrellas by the twelve vangodds (clans) of Cuncolim comprising both communities. Though there has been a change of religion, Christians participate in the throwing of the vermillion kumkum and the rose petals in the procession. The Aguairs of Cuncolim have built a special platform to rest the palanquin of the deity to allow the people to worship with agarbattis. Ten vangodds have Catholics and till today a priest of the Fatorpa temple collects coconuts from the houses of the gauncars in Cuncolim and he is called the Chakor.
The role of the people of AVC in the freedom struggle is legendary. As one enters Cuncolim, there is a board ‘Welcome to Cuncolim the land of freedom fighters’. The Club Juvenal was started by Dr. Julião Menezes as a forum for young people to join the struggle though the activities were related to sports. This club was declared as illegal by the Portuguese. The Gomantak Praja Mandal was founded by Menezes on the basis of the philosophy of Luis de Menezes Bragança. Many people were imprisoned after this movement.
Today it is evident that this marshal spirit still binds the people and is perceived as a nationalist spirit of the people of AVC. On November 27, 1999, this spirit came to the fore when the Chieftain’s Memorial was erected at the site of the 1583 massacre. July 15 is now observed as the National War Memorial day. This revolt can therefore be viewed as a microcosmic representation of the assertion by the people against the Portuguese State and
colonial rule in Goa.
The government’s recognition of this revolt is welcome. But it is not viewed in a proper and progressive perspective. It was indeed a revolt against the State. The State then was the King of Portugal. In fact, if the Viceroy’s Chair was vacant in an emergent situation the Archbishop simply took over. Today, the State is secular and in this paradigm shift religion has no role in State affairs. Thus the 1583 revolt cannot be viewed through the prism of
today’s times.
(The writer is an author and
a senior faculty of history)