Sacred Landscapes and Myths of Place: Negotiating Intersectionality in Colonial Goa

Nirmal Kulkarni
Department of Architecture (DARQ),
University of Coimbra, Portugal
nirmal.academics@gmail.com

Introduction

Descriptions of Goa as an “Indo-Portuguese” place abound in the travel circuit as well as promotions by the Tourism department of Goa, and various intellectual events led by societies.(1) This essay sets out to discover the veracity of this ‘myth of place’. Exploring the broad range of syncretism I ask, what new meanings were inscribed due to the intersectionality of cultures between Hindu and Catholic societies due to Portuguese colonization of Goa? The expression “Indo-Portuguese,” and its resultant syncretism is an accepted semantic compound, and is not critically debated sufficiently in academic inquiry. By situating the question within discourses of colonialism, it examines the construction of ideological narratives, while at the same time examining the ground realities. 

In 1510 the Portuguese conquered Goa, concentrating on the three islands bordering the Arabian sea, namely Tiswadi, Bardez and Salcete, and which later came to be known as the Old Conquests. From 1541, Portuguese colonial policies in Goa established laws and decrees that authorized physical and moral violence largely against Hindus, including coercive conversions, property confiscation, and temple destruction, by the policy of Christianization, effected by the tool of Inquisition.(2) The local religious geography (society and space) transformed radically.

Scholarship on interactions between Goa and Portugal is concentrated in Goa and Portugal and their reception is therefore limited. The intention here is elucidating the syncretism that emerged by concentrating on the interactions between the local populace and the Portuguese through the lens of intersectionality, especially in religious landscapes.(3) The essay reinterprets the meanings of ‘placemaking’ as a thoughtfully constructed exercise in addressing social inequalities, to ‘place’ as it got made by negotiations in contested spaces. It interrogates the layered syncretic expressions of the sacred and secular landscapes during colonization by focusing on social space, religious space, and architectural space. 

The research also reveals ‘myths’ as evolved in the process of the longest colonization in history. By presenting examples of unique cases the essay demonstrates how Hindu and Catholic cultures underwent long-term transformations and radically departed from well-known and accepted forms of social, religious, and architectural structures.

Socio-political Space: Negotiated Identities

Formation of urban Goa as a center of great prosperity was achieved by inscribing authority through architectural and institutional structures.(4) A global propaganda was created by the Portuguese to keep the myth of supremacy alive during the 16^th and 17^th centuries, and later of Goa as a “heritage asset.” In Walter Rossa’s words, “It was the century of mythical “Golden Goa” or “Rome of the East.”(5) By drawing comparisons between Lisbon and Goa, the Portuguese succeeded in projecting a glamorous image of Goa to the European world. The statement “He who has seen Goa need not see Lisbon” was globally circulated to give credence to Goa’s status as being the Rome of the East and inflated the degree of Portuguese conquests. Rossa goes on to deepen the analysis by adding that the rise and decline of the Portuguese establishment was also a part of the creation of the myth that erased “Old Goa and gave rise to Nova Goa,” or Panjim as the new capital center, and turned Old Goa into a center of cultural heritage alone. I argue that the genesis of Indo-Portuguese identity also lies in that myth which transformed over a long period of 461 years of occupation, not only to objects, but to cities even.(6) 

The hyped-up myths of Goa brought about change in the place narrative. Placemaking by domination transformed the agrarian landscapes to an urban center. Pre-Portuguese Goa was an agriculture-based economy and depended on rice cultivation, coconuts, salt panning and fishing. Land management of Goa was handled by a system of Gaunkaris(7) who were predominantly Brahmins. This community management system worked well for production and distribution of essential commodities and agricultural yield. 

The Christianization imposed upon Goa by the Portuguese religious orders, and sanctioned by the Portuguese Crown, brought about radical shifts in the composition of the societal structures; However, management of agricultural production in large parts of Goa did not change, and so did the khazan landscapes(8), that remain the same till today. The Gaunkaris who were primarily Hindu Brahmins converted to Catholicism and the system came to be known as Communidades, and remained under Portuguese administration until the annexation of Goa by India in 1961.(9) Some of the Brahmins(10) negotiated their identities and transformed to Catholicism, however at a cost to the colonizers, as the next section will reveal. Ultimately, Catholic traditions accommodated the place-making of Goa in terms of its management of agricultural production, but hegemonic control was established by conversions. 

Religious Space: Invented Identities and Rituals

Christianization in Goa affected caste-spatial boundaries in unprecedented ways, contorting religious space into an unrecognizable phenomenon that was unacceptable to Papal authorities. The Catholic-Brahmin was born. The new converts refused to forsake the age-old hierarchies of caste that projected the Brahmins at the top. Christian missionaries had no other alternative but to accept their demands to keep the newly formed society from fragmenting. However, all Brahmin sub-castes were brought together under a single umbrella, a caveat the Brahmins had to contend with and had to live with the title of Bammon.(11) Conversions of the Brahmins was important for the Portuguese for it made conversions of the other castes much easier. Negotiation and accommodation led to invention of new syncretic religious identities, and the codification of invented rites & rituals. This begs the question, is the Catholic-Brahmin an Indo-Portuguese product? I would argue not, because the resultant was rejected by both Hindu and Catholic purists.

Similarly, invented traditions are manifest in Hindu ritual festivals of homecoming of the deities.(12) The once evicted deities return to their original homes. This tradition begun in the early 20^th century would not have occurred had the rupture of Portuguese policies of religious intolerance not been enforced. On the other hand, Rowena Robinson talks about “Two Ritual Calendars in Southern Goa” where agrarian calendars of the western world were imposed upon the agrarian calendars of Goa, but these were recast by locals to suit contextual climatic schedules.(13) The celebrations involve a blend of Catholic and Hindu traditions, reinforcing the idea of manipulation of colonial pressures into locally suitable formats, displaying syncretism in Goan landscapes. When refracted from the framework of intersectionality, myriad meanings emerge.(14)

Architectural Space: Reconfigured Typologies and Landscapes

The transformed Catholic church-scape has been very well encapsulated by Paulo Varela Gomes who says “Goan churches are landscape monuments.”(15) I argue that the recreated social structures within Goan religious landscape facilitated the emergence of a hybrid architecture as the reflection of Goan society. The framework can be further extended to suggest that landscapes are an integral part of the architecture of religious edifices. Ownership of khazan landscapes was changed from Hindu temples to Christian churches.(16) This can be viewed as a transformation in not only the sociocultural landscape of Goa, but in the intentionality of its appropriated lands as well.(17) The reconfigured typologies can thus cover the entirety of architectural space. The mainland Ponda to where the GSBs moved with their deities, replicated the system of agricultural fields, only now the khazan typologies were not necessary since salt water ingress was no longer a geographical condition. However, agricultural fields remained an integral part of new temple landscapes, and very important for their subsistence.

The case of Hindu temples that emerged in the New Conquests of Portuguese dominion in the 19^th centuries is central to this discourse. The Portuguese policies of Christianization led to the displacement of Hindu deities and communities from coastal areas. As a result, many Hindu temples were relocated to the interior regions of Goa, beyond Portuguese jurisdiction. Significant rebuilding and reconstruction of temples occurred in the late 18^th and 19^th centuries after the Portuguese allowed temples to be rebuilt. However, as is evidenced, Hindu Goan temples began to incorporate syncretic elements from architectural language from the churches of Old Goa, such as the use of arches and domes, alongside structuring the functional ritualistic elements of the building plan to that of traditional Hindu architecture. This blending of styles resulted in a unique syncretic architecture which can only be defined as Goan architectural style, very different than any other hybrid architecture from all over India that is being defined as Indo-Saracenic or Indo-Islamic. The rebuilding of Hindu temples served as a means for the local Hindu community to preserve their cultural and religious identity in the face of colonial influence. The fusion also led to innovative architectural forms, demonstrating the resilience and adaptability of Goan culture. This unique cultural identity continues to influence Goa’s cultural and architectural heritage today.

Conclusion

The concept of intersectionality (taken out of context), runs like a thread through all these examples that tie the colonizers and the colonized in a continuous loop of interrelationships influenced by Christianity. The products of these negotiations lie heavily upon the degree of contestations that each can bring to the fore, establishing that colonization is not necessarily top-down, but a process of compromise and reciprocity. To conclude, I argue that the Goan landscape is riddled with richly layered complexities of hybrid syntheses in all aspects of human endeavor, that has recast the comprehensive identity of Goa, not as Indo-Portuguese, but that of a unique Goan phenomenon. Indo Portuguese as a label is therefore insufficient and flawed in many instances as the examples demonstrate.

Goa always remained Goan and never quite became fully “Portuguese” as the Portuguese sought to establish. To complete the imagination of the historical sketch of territorialization, what began as contested space for the indigenous populace, itself became contested space for Portugal as it turned out to be the last convoluted constructions of Goa as Portuguese. From 1947 when India got independence, till 1961 when Goa was annexed, the propagation of its myth as a ‘Portuguese place,’ continued only due to its territorial control as an overseas possession of Portugal, under the dictatorship of Salazar. However, ground realities were quite different. This is evident from the exchange of letters between the prime minster of the newly formed Indian Republic, Mr. Jawaharlal Nehru, and Salazar.

Ultimately, this research highlights the need for interdisciplinary approaches to understand the complexities of architectural history and cultural memory in post-colonial contexts, suggesting that the impact of social ruptures within societies is reflected onto the built environment, no matter what such societies project outwardly, warranting further theoretical and historical exploration.

Footnotes

1.  https://novaresearch.unl.pt/en/activities/xvi-international-seminar-on-indo-portuguese-history/ 
2.  Ângela Barreto Xavier, Religion and Empire in Portuguese India: Conversion, Resistance, and the Making of Goa, Hedgehog and Fox : History and Politics Series (Permanent Black in association with Ashoka University and Salgaocar Dattaraj, 2022), 91.
3.  Anjana Narayan et al., “Intersectionality,” in The Routledge Handbook of Research Methods in the Study of Religion (Routledge, 2021), 72.
4.  Pius Malekandathil, “City in Space and Metaphor: A Study on the Port-City of Goa, 1510–1700,” Studies in History 25, no. 1 (2009): 20, https://doi.org/10.1177/025764300902500102.
5.  WALTER ROSSA, “Myth as the Catalyst of a Cultural Heritage-Building Process: The Case of Goa,” Portuguese Literary and Cultural Studies, 2022, 82.
6.  Walter Rossa, Cidades indo-portuguesas: contribuições para o estudo do urbanismo português no Hindustão Ocidental = Indo-Portuguese cities: a contribution to the study of Portuguese urbanism in the Western Hindustan (Commissão Nacional para as Comemorações dos Descobrimentos Portugueses, 1997).
7.  Nagendra Rao, “The State, Village Communities and the Brahmanas in Goa (1000–1600 ce),” Indian Historical Review 49, no. 1 (2022): 51–68.
8.  Sangeeta M. Sonak, “An Introduction to Goa and Khazan Ecosystems,” in Khazan Ecosystems of Goa: Building on Indigenous Solutions to Cope with Global Environmental Change, ed. Sangeeta M. Sonak (Springer Netherlands, 2014). 
9.  Remy Antonio Dias, The Socio-Economic History of Goa with Special Reference to the Communidade System: 1750-1910, Goa University, 2004.
10.  For more on the caste system, check Mathieu Claveyrolas, Hinduism and Caste System, 2022.
11.  V.T. Gune, Gazetteer of the Union Territory: Goa, Daman and Diu District Gazetteer, Pt. I (Goa), I (The Government Printing Press, Panaji, Goa, 1979).
12.  Nirmal Kulkarni, Dynamics of Homecoming: Socio-Spatial Practices DefiningHindu Religious Geographies from Marcel, Goa, India, figshare, 2024, 3925390 Bytes, 3925390 Bytes, https://doi.org/10.6084/M9.FIGSHARE.25237543.V1.
13.  Rowena Robinson, “Two Ritual Calendars in Southern Goa,” Cambridge Anthropology, JSTOR, 1995, 25.
14.  Anjana Narayan et. All, in the chapter ‘Intersectionality,” demonstrate how intersectional methodologies, grounded in research challenge conventional approaches to studying religion. It provides theoretical context, methodological tools, and applied practices for analyzing lived religious experiences using intersectionality, in one particular instance.
15.  Paulo Varela Gomes, Whitewash, Red Stone: A History of Church Architecture in Goa (Yoda Press, 2011), 18.
16.  Varsha Vijayendra Kamat, “USURPATION OF FEUDAL RIGHTS BY THE COLONIAL STATE IN MEDIEVAL GOA,” Proceedings of the Indian History Congress 70 (2009): 365, JSTOR.
17.  Paul Axelrod and Michelle Fuerch, “Common Ground: Risk, Scarcity, and Shared Resources in Goan Agriculture,” Human Ecology 34, no. 1 (2006): 84, JSTOR.
18.  Dorothy E. McBride and Amy G. Mazur, “Women’s Movements, Feminism, and Feminist Movements,” in Politics, Gender, and Concepts, 1st ed., ed. Gary Goertz and Amy G. Mazur (Cambridge University Press, 2008), 193.
19.  “The study of Hinduism and Islam offer significant opportunities to question the knowledge structures that attempt to use the structures of religion—emanating from patterns and practices typical of different types of mainstream Christianity—to understand these two religions.” See footnote 10, chapter 1.5, Intersectionality.