Goa-Travellers.Pdf

Goa, Through the Traveller’s Lens

Nina Caldeira Editor

2019 Goa, Through the Traveller’s Lens 2019 Nina Caldeira, Ph.D. Copyright of individual chapters is vested in the respective authors. Copyright for the collection is vested in the editor.

The role of the Goa University in organising the event which generated the papers included in this book is gratefully acknowledged.

Front cover photo: Fontainhas by Bina Nayak, Road to Anjuna (front cover), mando group and temple (back cover) by Frederick Noronha.

First published in 2018 and reprinted in 2019 by

Goa,1556, Sonarbhat, Saligão 403511 Goa, India. http://goa1556.in, [email protected] +91-832-2409490

1098765432 Typeset in Saligão, Goa with LYX, http://www.lyx.org. Printed and bound in India by Brilliant Printers, Bengaluru www.brilliantprinters.com Text: Bitstream Charter, 9.7/12.8 pt.

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ISBN 9788193814093

2 Contents

Nina Caldeira 5 By way of an introduction

Isabel de Santa Rita Vás 12 As kingﬁshers catch ﬁre: scholarship as travel through inscape

Sushila Sawant Mendes 31 Assolna, Velim, Cuncolim: an insider’s view of Robert S. Newman’s oeuvre

Xavier M. Martins 45 Seventeenth-century maritime Goa as viewed by de Laval

Maria de Lourdes Bravo da Costa 52 French travellers on Goan food habits

Prema Rocha 60 Veni Vidi Amavi: writing Goa from the outside-in

Sunita Mesquita 68 Sifting sands: a search for stability and sustenance of Goan culture through travel narratives

Glenis Maria Mendonça 77 Goa through the prism of contemporary travel blogs

3 CONTENTS

Brian Mendonça 85 Through the eyes of a traveller-poet: Goa...

Irene Silveira 94 Goa through the lens of Europeans: a revisiting

Akshata Bhatt, Naﬁsa Oliveira 115 Reconstructing Goa through travel narratives: a study of select writings from Manohar Shetty’s Goa Travels

Natasha Maria Gomes 125 Anne Bonneau’s radio travelogues: A portrayal of the archetypal and stereotypical Goan

Palia Gaonkar 142 Footprints of the colonial past: Goa in V.S. Naipaul’s A Million Mutinies Now

Ambika Kamat 148 An object of the Occidental gaze: analyzing Tomé Pires’ description of Goa in Suma Oriental

Frederick Noronha 156 In fact, this is only ﬁction: unusual ‘visitors’ who came Goa’s way

4 By way of an introduction

NINA CALDEIRA1

RAVEL is a universal human experience. It is the innate nature of T man to explore new terrains. The exploration is most often followed by explication for, as the American author Pat Conroy affirms, “Once you have travelled, the voyage never ends, but is played out over and over again in the quietest chambers. The mind can never break off from the journey.” What is significant in this explication is the travel experience. In the wake of cultural studies, the contemporary world has seen a renewed interest in travel writing. Various factors have contributed to this awakening. Cultural encounters and the rise of postcolonial studies and globalisation gave an impetus to travel writing in relation to power. In addition, the fact that travel writing crosses not merely geographicaland cultural borders but, more importantly, disciplinary boundaries, got various disciplines interested. Historians, geographers, sociologists, littérateurs, all began to regard travel writing as the indispensable aid for their study. Moreover, as the very nature of travel writing draws from different writing styles and blends together descriptions, reflections, narrations, dialogues and arguments, travel writing began to draw attention. As such, its relevance began to be widened. The corpus of travel writing is extensive and its appeal ranges from an interest in interrogating imperial discourse to the colonial, racial and tourist gaze, to cross-cultural and transcultural analysis. Themes of multiculturalism, diaspora, hybridity, ethnography coupled with imaginative and hyper-real travel, make the genre of travel writing irresistibly fascinating. The chroniclingand exploration of travel have always been quite popular in historical writing. Merchants forged new routes and returned with reports about fantastic places and cultures. These early entrepreneurs propelled travellers to undertake a journey. The Venetian explorer Marco

1 Professor and Head of the Department of English, Goa University. nina@ unigoa.ac.in / [email protected] GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

Polo (1254-1324) spent many years travelling to China, India and the Middle East which is recorded in the thirteenth century travelogue The Travels of Marco Polo. The book got many Europeans interested in trading with China and the Middle East. The travelogue describes in great details the silk route and the great wealth and power of China. So fascinating was the travelogue that it propelled Europeans to visit China, India and the Middle East and to trade with these splendid places. The seventeenth-century Chinese Buddhist pilgrim Hiuen Tsang (Xuanzang) travelled to Central and South Asia, as recorded in his travel account Xiyu Ji. The history of seventh century Bengal can best be unfolded in the travelogue. Likewise, the Moroccan Islamic scholar Ibn Battuta often called the world’s greatest traveller, travelled the entire Islamic world for thirty years of his life. His travels are recorded in Rihla (The Journey). The period from mid-eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century can roughly be said to be the epoch of scientific voyages. During this period the European seafarers were able to plot longitude with accuracy and were able to locate the Pacific Islands. The British explorer and navigator Captain James Cook (1728-1779) remains the model and ideal for sailing expeditions. The expeditions or voyages of this period were patronised by monarchs and statesmen who invested much in the voyages. The possibility of wealth, coupled with the desire for power and knowledge, made voyaging and patronages of voyages very competitive. Travels of this period need to be situated in the economic and political history of the time, at times related to the political and economic expansion of Europe. As such, these travels had very serious socio-political consequences. The travellers of the period documented places, cultures and people, most often critiquing and categorising by European standards and in a position quite distanced from the cultures and lives of the people they described. In taking on the authoritarian position in describing ‘others’,travel writing of this period was complicit in the imperial project. New York University professor Mary Louise Pratt, in Imperial Eyes (1992), is interested in showing just how the European visual imagination fixed and subordinated non-European people. In fact, postcolonial studies influenced by Edward Said’s Orientalism often explores the relationship between travel writing and imperialism. Most of the travel writ-

6 By way of an introduction | Nina Caldeira ings of the mid-eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century are subject to a postcolonial enquiry as they construct a picture of the non-European world for the European readership. The end of Imperialismwould logicallyspell out the end of travel writing. However, the popularity of travel writings persists in the twenty-first century. It is observed that with increased communication and connectivity across the globe, travel has become the predicament of the twenty- first century and travel writing of the century has taken on a different tone from the conventional documentary writings of the eighteenth and nineteenth century. The focus has at this time shifted to the inward self from the earlier outward-looking travelogues. The subject positioning of the self vis-à-vis the outward geographical and cultural terrain is but the logical consequence of the contemporary focus on subjectivity and self- reflexivity. Travel writers of the twentieth and twenty-first centuries infuse in their writings their own dreams and memories alongside the geographical and historical data. This is not to state that the mid-eighteenth to mid-nineteenth century travelogues were purely objective observations for travel writing has always been a blend of fact and fiction. The focus might have changed. The travelogues of V.S. Naipaul are more a search for self-identity. However, Naipaul’s travelogues are also critiqued for their Orientalist leanings. Debbie Lisle politicises travelogues by revealing their connection to serious world affairs and their significance to the study and practice of global politics. She argues that the quasi-fictional genre of travel writing is at least as useful for understanding issues of international importance as policy documents, government press releases, parliamentary debates and media stories. Many critics find it difficult to place travel writing outside the frame of postcolonialism. Lisle interrogates the popularity of travel writing in present times, despite the decline of imperial rule. “If the Em- pire that sustained travel writing was dismantled with the various decol- onisation movements of the twentieth century, why hasn’t travel writing itself disappeared?” (Lisle 2). Lisle attributes the popularity of present day travel writing to the extension of the colonial vision in the more troub- ling cosmopolitan vision. She argues that contemporary travel writing en- gages most profoundly in the wider debates of global politics through its

7 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

structuring tension between colonial and cosmopolitan visions – “they reveal moments of empathy, recognition of difference, realisations of equality and insights into shared values” (4). However, at the heart of this relationship is the production of difference: “It requires the author to dis- criminate between what is familiar and what is exotic so that readers are satisfied that they are encountering people and places that are sufficiently foreign”(71) and “they smuggle in equally judgemental accounts of other- ness under the guise of equality, tolerance and respect for difference” (10). They actually form new forms of power. As such, the cosmopolitan vision is not really separated from the logic of Colonialism, Orientalism, or Empire. Hegemony is recast in the cosmopolitan vision of the globalised world. The collection of articles in this book reflects on various travelogues focussing on Goa from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries to the present times. Unfolding Goa through the centuries from the lens of the travellers therefore becomes a curious and fruitful activity. Isabel de Santa Rita Vás’ article sketches the quest of two travellers, Anabela Mendes and José Paz. While Anabela Mendes is in search of the travel writings of Gar- cia de Orta, the well known physician and botanist of the sixteenth century, José Paz’s love for the Portuguese language and the writings of the Indian polymath Rabindranath Tagore brings him to Goa. In speaking on the ‘writerly journeys’ of Anabela Mendes’ and José Paz’s travel writings on travel writings of two scholars, Santa Rita Vás in fact writes about four exciting journeys across the boundaries of disciplines. Sushila Mendes gives an insider’s view of Robert S. Newman’s oeuvre. The arguments in her paper are a dialogue between an insider andan outsider, unfolding the cultural patterns and spaces about the people and history of the Goan villages of Assolna, Velim and Cuncolim. Xavier Martins, in his article ‘François Pyrard de Laval: Observations of his India voyage’,talks of how the French navigator and traveller gives a vivid description of the seventeenth-century city of Goa. This also covers its people, the government, the ecclesiastical setup, the Portuguese naval organization, his observations on India voyage, the internal Portuguese naval setup, the voyages to ‘Cambaya’, ‘Surrate’, Malabar, China, Japan and so on.

8 By way of an introduction | Nina Caldeira

Maria de Lourdes Bravo da Costa attempts to understand the food history of Goa from the writings of François Pyrard de Laval and Denis Cot- tineau de Kloguen. She analyses and assesses the two French travellers’ reflections on food habits in Goa, which they visited at different points of time. While Pyrard de Laval visited Goa in its heydays from 1607-1610, Rev. Denis Cottineau de Kloguen visited Goa in 1827 when the Portuguese were in midway of decadence of their prosperous empire. In her analysis, Costa asks pertinent questions such as: What did they observe inthe food habits in Goa? Was there a change between the two visits? And how relevant is it to understand food history of Goa? Prema Rocha shifts the focus on Goa from the tourist idea of fish, feni and funto the accountsof travellerswho came to stay andmade Goa their home, in her in-depth analysis of Manohar Shetty’s Goa Travels and the chronicles from Inside/Out. Therefore, Rocha rightly titles her article as Veni, Vidi, Amavi (I came, I saw, I loved) instead of the colonialist dictum, Veni, Vidi, Vici (I came, I saw, I conquered). Sunita Mesquita searches for stability and sustenance of Goan culture through travel narratives and the need to correlate literature with culture as the vital fulcrum of its sustenance. She assesses how travel narratives have become veritable indicators of culture. Glenis Mendonça makes a concerted effort to closely examine some of the blogs written by travellers who have visited Goa. Mendonça offers a traveller’s insight into unvoiced ‘Goa-experiences’,adding a new dimension to the Goa-travel literary output as well as building awareness among theaverageGoan who isunawareof theinteresting thingsin his own backyard. Brian Mendonça, writing on his debut volume Last Bus to Vasco: Poems from Goa (2006), speaks about his sojourn as a traveller-poet. He documents the rapidly changing Goa, a landscape under erasure, and attempts to theorise Goa through the lens of the traveller-poet. Irene Silveira focuses on three rewritings of Goa by contemporary Europeans – Les Instantanés du Monde, Goa is not India, and Contacto Goa – with a view to examine articles, audio podcasts and film documentaries in the light of past travel writing and the current reality. Her aim is to revisit Goa from the Western standpoint to find answers to challenges

9 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

thrown up by cross-cultural contact. Akshata Bhatt and Nafisa Oliveira, working through the baseline of select writings from Goa Travels, study and analyse the reconstruction(s) of Goa through the travellers’ lens in view of Goa’s increasing tourist influx and visibility on the global map. They argue that the contemporary image of Goa – with its sun, sand and susegaado – can also neatly fit into it a fourth ‘s’ – ‘stereotype’. This popular paradigm, they note, fails to do justice to the inherent variegation and verve which is a part of Goa’s larger narrative – its diverse cultures, dialects, festivities, peoples and a systematic syncretism which is unique to a land that has endured dynamic dialectics. Natasha Maria Gomes opines that travelogues are a subjective appraisal of an objective reality. She explores French journalist’s Anne Bon- neau’s radio travelogues on Goa. Bonneau’s travelogues, Gomes asserts, are structured around the archetype of the musician, artist, local artisans and tribals; but the image of the Goan stereotype, the fun-loving susegaad Goan, is ever-present. Gomes points out that some Goans themselves perpetuate this stereotype in order to feed the tourist industry. Palia Gaonkar argues that there can be two impressions of a certain place – the tourist’s version, and the traveller’s version. Far from the tourist version, a traveller will make a learning experience out of his or her visit. Focussing on the few pages dedicated to Goa in V.S. Naipaul’s India: A Million Mutinies Now (1990), Gaonkar seems to agree with V.S. Naipaul’s observation that the “fracture in reality” of Goa is similar to any other In- dian land. Ambika Kamat analyses how Goa became an object of the Occidental Gaze in The Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires, so as to unravel how the Por- tuguese colony has been objectified in Pires’ account as a land yielding great revenue. Frederick Noronha critiques the image of Goa as a high profile tourist destination. He addresses the issue of the global understanding of this region, mostly from the information gathered from media images, while also addressing the local perception of the place. Drawing from various disciplines, the contributors to the book ap- ply themselves to a number of key questions pertaining to travel writing;

10 By way of an introduction | Nina Caldeira ranging from travel writing as an historian’s conventional documentary cache, to the interrogation and critiquing of the play of Orientalism and postcoloniality, to the forces of globalisation and all that the travellers collect in their travel box. Works Cited

Conroy, Pat. “20 Of The Best Travel Quotes Of All Time.” pinterest.com.au, written by Nadia Carriere, 12 Apr. 2013, https://www.pinterest.com.au /pin/522065781779700673/. Lisle, Debbie. The Global Politics of Contemporary Travel Writing. Cambridge University Press, 2006.

11 As kingﬁshers catch ﬁre: scholarship as travel through inscape

ISABEL DE SANTA RITA VÁS1

Writers and academicians who travel in the footsteps of other writers are unlike the tourists who move away from the familiar primarily veering towards an exotic other world. Scholars travel ﬁrstly in response to a deeply felt interior invitation to meet kindred spirits. We attempt to sketch the writerly journeys of two scholars: Portuguese researcher Anabela Mendes, whose initiative spurred writers and scholars to investigate the work of 16th century Portuguese botanist-physician, Garcia de Orta, who did pioneering work in Goa on tropical medicine. Researcher-educationist José Paz’s love of the Portuguese language and his passion for Rabindranath Tagore’s work brought him to Goa from Galicia, Spain. The writers they have researched, Garcia de Orta and Tagore are, incidentally, travellers themselves. These are four exciting writerly journeys across the boundaries of disciplines.

As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame; As tumbled over rim roundy wells Stones ring; like each tucked string tells, each hung bell’s Bow swing finds tongue to fling out broad its name; Each mortal thing does one thing and the same: Deals out that being indoors each one dwells; Selves – goes itself; myself it speaks and spells, Crying Whát I dó is me: for thatI came.

Gerald Manly Hopkins, “As Kingﬁshers Catch Fire.”

1 Guest-faculty at the Department of English of the Goa University, Goa. isabelsr- [email protected] Scholarship as travel... | Isabel de Santa Rita Vás

Introduction There are those who claim it is basically wanderlust. Individuals and groups travel widely across geo-political boundaries and cultures and seem to have always done so. Nomadic tribes have travelled as a way of life, individuals travel in search of greener pastures, for employment opportunities; entrepreneurs are driven by compulsions of trade; we set out on adventure trails; we escape from familiar settings; as pilgrims we journey in search of the sacred; as tourists we gaze at the novel and the unfamiliar; we ﬂee from natural calamities and persecution and migrate, sometimes en masse; in a globalised world we travel between our homes; often, we cross bridges visiting family or seeking kindred spirits. It is difﬁcult to imagine journeys that do not, in some way, effect change in the traveller, however transient. Travel writing is perhaps an attempt to pin down and transmit an evanescent experience. In contemporary times more and more persons who are writers and academicians travel across borders in the footsteps of other writers. Uni- versities and cultural organisations facilitate this process when they organize conferences or offer support for study. Literary festivals create a congenial atmosphere for writers and readers to dialogue. Goa has seen itsshareof scholarsandwriterswho undertaketo crossa variety of boundaries in the cherished hope of meaningful writerly encounters. The Goa Arts and Literature Festival, for instance, has been hosting writers from India and abroad, across languages, offering possibilities for mutually en- riching conversations.

The comings and goings of scholars Across the landscape of travel and travel writing, the comings and goings of scholars offer abundant scope for contemplation. Unlike the tourist who moves away from the familiar primarily veering towards an exotic other world, armed with carefully selected sites to see and informed about unmissable cultural and heritage practices to be experienced, scholars, we would suggest, travel ﬁrstly in response to a deeply felt interior invitation to meet kindred spirits, an invitation so germane to the scholars’ calling that it can be recognised to ﬂow from the inscape of their own being, from that distinctive design that constitutes the identity of a person. And

13 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

though the geographic and cultural landscapes may differ from those in their native lands, the scholars’ scrutiny reveals their inherent congenial- ity with their own selves. As Gerald Manley Hopkins indicates through the powerfully striking imagery in his poem “As Kingfishers Catch Fire”,the essence of the kingfisher is realised and revealed when its plumage blazes in the sunlightin its light- ning flight or the dragonfly shines like a blue flame, or a stone cast over a ‘roundy’ well rings, or the plucked musical string or bell singsoutthe truth that “What I do is me, for that I came.” Goa — a meeting place: Anabela Mendes meets Garcia de Orta; José Paz meets Rabindranath Tagore This paper will attempt to sketch the writerly journeys of two scholars: The first, Prof. Anabela Mendes, a Portuguese researcher whose eclectic interests have led her to organize international conferences, one of them in Goa. Her initiative spurred a number of writers and scholars across disciplines and continents to study the work of well-known Portuguese botanist and physician of the sixteenth century, Garcia de Orta, who didpion- eering work in Goa on tropical medicine. One outcome of that Goa event is the publication entitled Garcia de Orta and Alexander von Humboldt: Across the East and West.2 The second scholar is Prof. José Paz, a researcher and educationist from Galicia, Spain, whose love of the Portuguese language and his passion for Rabindranath Tagore and his work have brought him to Goa; his paper on “The Perception and Influence of Tagore in Goa and the Lusophone world” (Mendes 2013) is a valuable contribution to Tagore scholarship. The paper will treat these two writers, Mendes and Paz, as travellers within cultures; their writing describes no exotic dress or stunning slave trade or rare architectural practices, but indicates a shared womb and creates space for further encounters and conversations. The two writers that they have researched, Garcia de Orta and Rabindranath Tagore, incidentally, travellers themselves, combine with them to draw fascinating

2 The name Garcia de Orta has been variously spelt by scholars, vide Fialho (Garcia de Orta e o seu tempo), Markham (Colloquies on the simples and drugs of India by Gar- cia da Orta) and Boxer (Two Pioneers of Tropical Medicine: Garcia d’Orta and Nicolás Monardes).

14 Scholarship as travel... | Isabel de Santa Rita Vás maps of kingﬁshers catching ﬁre. These are four exciting writerly journeys across the boundaries of disciplines.

Anabela Mendes: she travels through the social sciences, the arts Doutora Anabela Mendes is Assistant Professor with tenure at the De- partment of German Studies of the Faculdade de Letras da Universidade de Lisboa; Investigator at the Universidade Católica Portuguesa; Scientist and Lecturer on Literature of German Expression, German Culture, Aes- thetics and Philosophy of Art, Theory and Aesthetics of Drama, and Soci- ology of the Arts. She has a large number of publicationsin these areas, in German, English and Portuguese and she also works as a translator, play- wright and theatre director. She has been the co-author of international scientific projects, as well as different presentations and publications on Literature and Science dedicated to the issues: Myth, Dream, Reason and Unconscious in Goethe’s and Pessoa’s Faustus; and Prometheus and Faus- tus in Goethe and Pessoa – Dialoguing Cartographies (2005-2006). To- gether with Gabriela Fragoso she was responsible for the concept and the organization of the international and interdisciplinary project entitled “Al- exander von Humboldt and Garcia de Orta – The scientific journey and dialogues among cultures (2006-2007)”. She organized the international and trans-disciplinary Conference entitled “Garcia de Orta and Alexander von Humboldt – across the East and West” (2008) in Goa. A more recent Conference at the Azores led to the publication of Long-distance Travels — Routes and Mappings (Mendes 2016), a volume that compiles a variety of papers on aspects of travel. In her essay “Were those the actual lands where Orta lived?” Mendes reflects on her visit to Goa for the Conference: “Hosted by the splendid city of Goa andits generouspeople,we feltasif we hadbeen assembled under the shield of a symbolic privilege – a privilege which concedes that one of its parts is willing to step back for the other (a likely sign of a future evidence, who knows) when someone ventures to become-with-the-other(s) a multiple completeness.” (Mendes Were those the actual lands... 4) Anabela Mendes can be viewed as both a trans-cultural traveller and an intra-cultural navigator, one who familiarly inhabits, in the view of this writer, a wide international cross-cultural space that invites conversation and collaboration.

15 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

Who was this Garcia de Orta and why was he such an inviting ﬁgure to Mendes and her fellow researchers?

Garcia de Orta: a 16th Century Portuguese physician in Goa In the year 1563, a Portuguese physician had a book published in Goa, Colóquios dos simples, e drogas he cousas medicinais da India, Goa, 1563. The book was in the formof a dialogue between two physicians, Garcia de Orta and an imaginary Spaniard, Ruano; a few other characters wander in and out of variousscenes. Orta often callsupon his slave-woman Antonia, to assist him. Interestingly, Benedito R. Ferrão, in his essay titled “Inquis- itive Legacies: Ecologies of Power and Goan Modernity”, suggests that “It is possible that this fictionalized character represents the locals, some of them perhaps medicine-women, who shared with the Portuguese physician their knowledge of the plants of the land.” This conversation is, in reality, a text on medicinal plants and remedies, the first of its kind. “In a period before botany and medicine were constituted in their modern forms, we can glimpse in Orta’s text his effort at building a revised “political ecology of knowledge”against the older pattern based on classical textual authorities in the hands of European-based institutions.(...) For Orta, to know the Asian materia medica, one had to observe closely in situ the texture of the “book of nature”, not the text of an authoritative book. It is the distance in space, in particular, and occasionally in time that creates or allows for mistakes, errors and falsifications”, writes Inês G. Županov (21). Garcia de Orta was the son of a Spanish Jewish convert to Christianity, who had settled in Portugal. He studied at the famous Spanish Univer- sities of Salamanca and Alcalá de Henares and returned to Portugal as a qualified physician. He practised medicine first in his hometown, Castelo de Vide and then in Lisbon. He was posted as a lecturer at the University of Lisbon for two years until he left for India as a physician to Martim Af- fonso de Sousa, the son of a good friend and patron. Affonso de Sousa commanded a fleet of five ships; Orta sailed for the Indies as the chief physician aboard the fleet in 1534. A major reason for his leaving Europe was probably the growing persecution in Europe of the Jewish converts, who were known as New Christians. Orta accompanied Martim Affonso de Sousa wherever he went on his military campaigns and had opportun-

16 Scholarship as travel... | Isabel de Santa Rita Vás ities to be in Bassein, Kathiawar, Ahmednagar, Diu, Cochin and Ceylon. From Bassein, where he resided for a while, Orta came to Goa in 1538, where he settled and had a very successful medical practice. He became the physician to various Indian rulers as well as Portuguese Governors and Vice-Roys. Garcia de Orta’s book,

was the third book ever printed in Asia, and the ﬁrst on a non- religious subject. It was the earliest foundation for the science of tropical medicine and materia medica, as taughtin Europeanuni- versities, where it continued to be used as an authoritative text for the next two or three centuries, and it long predated the important therapeutic advances made by illustrious members of the Brit- ish and French colonial medical services.(...) As personal physician to people high in Portuguese governmental and ecclesiastical hierarchies in Goa, da Orta remained protected from the clutches of the Goan branch of the Inquisition, which was suspicious and predatory toward “New Christians” as was its Iberian counterpart. However, a year after Garcia da Orta’s death, his sister Catarina was burnt at the stake “as an impenitent Jewess” and in 1580 da Orta’s own remains were exhumed and burnt in an auto da fé at Goa as a posthumous punishment for being a crypto-Jew during his life (Vas 66-68).

Commenting on Garcia de Orta’s book as a literary, medical and cultural text, Palmira Fontes da Costa points out that “The Colloquies on the Simples and Drugs of India (1563) were conceived and published at a sensitive moment, both in terms of the history of print culture and of European geographical expansion. They represented the culmination of a life-time project for their author Garcia de Orta who had lived for almost thirty years in Portuguese Goa.”

Mendes and Orta: distance meets distance Mendes and her team of researchers chose Goa as their destination for the Conference as a salute to this Portuguese man in the sixteenth century who “let himself become one with the lands of India to the point that he met his death there” (Mendes ‘Were those the actual lands...’ 10). She afﬁrms that as they headed towards the East, Garcia de Orta set the inspiring tone for the papers later published; they met enthusiastic researchers in India who did not hesitate to share with their European colleagues the knowledge these might not have been acquainted with.

17 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

The trans-disciplinary conference threw up lively papers and discussion and culminated in a published volume. Garcia de Orta and Alexander von Humboldt: Across the East and the West includes, among others, the following papers, a feast for the researcher and the general reader: “Botan- izing in Portuguese India: Between Errors and Certainties (16th-17thc.)” by Inês G. Županov; “Science of Nature: Garcia de Orta as a Philosopher of Science”, by Koshy Tharakan and Alito Siqueira; “Garcia de Orta and Gelásio Dalgado: two eminent botanists in Goa” by Newman Fernandes and Maria Araujo Fonseca; “Documenting the “Medico-Botanical Tra- ditions of India”: The Colóquios of Garcia de Orta”, by Sharon D’Cruz; “Portuguese Discoveries and Plants that Changed Goan Gastronomy”, by Maria de Lourdes da Costa; “The Awakening of Ayurvedic Wisdom: Les- sons from India”,by Ana Firmino; and “ThroughLong Ago Navigated Seas – Scenic Text for Two Actors and Four Musicians” by Anabela Mendes (trans. Sara de Melo): imaginative and diverse scholarly journeys with cultural and scientific significance. The last mentioned chapter contains the script for an innovative play that was staged in Goa on the occasion of the conference as a multilingual performance. It was authored by Mendes, and performed by Anju Sakhardande (trans. into Konkani), Prajal Sakhardande, Alexandre Pieroni Calado and Sandra Hung; the present writer was privileged to facilitate this performance in Goa; the musical performances, talks, a book launch, a workshop on Movement and Photography Exhibition, a poetry reading, it all flowed from a shared interest. Mendes believes that “for a few days we became a small trans-national, trans-curricular and trans-cultural community. The lands where Orta lived still move around within us because the combination of differences brought about complementarities” (Mendes ‘Were those the actual lands...’ 15). In this writer’s estimation, this theatrical production, trans-cultural in spirit, captures something of both Anabela Mendes, its author, and the scholar she investigated, Garcia de Orta. A rich and satisfying journey that has only begun.

Rabindranath Tagore: world traveller Rabindranath Tagore, Indian poet, educationist, painter, was also a great traveller. He ﬁrst crossed the oceans in 1878, to London through Paris. His aim was to continue his studies and he stayed in England for a year and

18 Scholarship as travel... | Isabel de Santa Rita Vás a half. But he was homesick and the experience seems to have put him off travelling for the next decade. In 1912, he fell ill and spent time on the river Padma to recover. This is the period when he translated his Gitanjali into English. When he went to England again later that year, he met other well-known writers, including W. B. Yeats, who became a great admirer and wrote a foreword to the book of poems when they were published. In later years Tagore visited the USA and Japan on a lecture tour. Then he headed for Mexico, Peru and then Argentina, where he met the Argentine writer Victoria Ocampo. He visited Italy. Later in life he went on a tour of Bali, Java, Kuala Lumpur, Malacca, Penang, Siam and Singapore– and he wrote about them in his travelogue Jatri. At the age of 69 he visited Europe and the USA once again, where he lectured and exhibited his artworks. He travelled to Germany, Switzerland, Denmark and Russia. His last trips were to Iran, followed by Iraq and Sri Lanka. He was always keenly interested in people, their lives and writing and philosophy and made friends with many great minds all over the globe. He writes: I have a home everywhere; my mission is to seek out that home. My native land is in every country and I shall seek it out with all my heart. Whenever I visit an alien land I feel as if I have a shelter there, I will have only to ﬁnd out the entrance. In every home live my near and dear ones and it is my task to go on searching till I ﬁnd them out.

Kumud Biswas notes: “This is the opening stanza of poem 14 of the collection Utsarga (Dedication) by Rabindranath Tagore.(...) He was restless by nature and could hardly stay at one place for a long stretch of time. He loved to travel. And he was destined to be a widely travelled man. He also wrote about his travels and became the author of perhaps the largest number of travelogues. Unfortunately today they appear to be his least

19 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

read books. Yet in this genre they are the best in Bengali literature and can compare with great travelogues of world literature. We travel for various purposes - for proﬁt and pleasure or for adventure and satisfaction of one’s curiosity. But our poet wanted to travel for something more as the above-quoted poem suggests” (Biswas). Tagorewas awareof a higher and inner journey.He writes to his friend C. F.Andrews: Pithapuram, 18th October 1918 Dear Friend, I am returning to Calcutta and from there to the ashram. It is not for me to travel about – to dissipate my attention – my mind sets forthon its true pilgrimage when it is at rest. Give my love to Mahatma. Affectionately yours, Rabindranath Tagore (Qtd. in Datta and Robinson)

As far as we know Rabindranath Tagore did not visit Goa. But his writings did. Prof. José Paz travelled from Spain and discovered Tagore’s admirers. José Paz: from Galicia to Shantiniketan to Goa Prof. José Paz is a Spanish educationist, who graduated in Education from the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. He earned his doctorate on the theme of “Tagore, Pioneer of the New Education.” He was a professor in the Faculty of Education at the University of Vigo, later the director of Escola Normal de Ourense. Paz writes extensively in Spanish, Portuguese and Bengali and has presented numerous papers at conferences on education and on Rabindranath Tagore, a writer he has been studying since 1966. He has what could probably be the best private collection of books on Tagore, over 30,000 volumes. He has donated this personal collection ofbooks, CDs and paintingson Rabindranath Tagoreto Casa de la Índiain the city of Valladolid, Spain. This collection includes rare ﬁrst editions of Tagore’sworks in Bengali as well as books on him in numerous languages, including Spanish and Portuguese. With this collection Casa de la Índia has proposed to set up a Rabindranath Tagore Centre in Spain. Paz has retired from his teaching career in his city of Ourense, and he now spends almost half of the year in India, and he resides at Shantiniketan, where he learns and teaches, and follows his passion of studying closely the great Indian educationist and poet, Tagore. Shantiniketan is a small town in

20 Scholarship as travel... | Isabel de Santa Rita Vás

West Bengal, developed by Maharshi Devendranath Tagore and later expanded by his son Rabindranath, whose vision led to the establishment of the Vishwa Bharati University in 1921. José Paz nurtures another great love, his language: Galician- Portuguese. Galicia, from which he hails, is situated to the north of Por- tugal and borders Spain to the north-west. It follows Spanish law, but its culture is very close to the Portuguese. In Galicia, the people speak Castilian, which is akin to Spanish, and Galician, which is closely akin to the Portuguese language, to which Paz feels strongly emotionally connected. Professor José Paz visited Goa for the first time in 2008. In Delhi, in- vited by the Instituto Cervantes to participate in a congress dedicated to Tagore at the Indian International Centre, Paz decided to visit Goa. He was very aware that this territory had been a colony of the Portuguese empire for over four centuries, and driven as he was by everything Lusophone, Professor Paz arrived in Goa. It was for him a moving experience,he found himself in a place so familiar that he felt he was home. “For a moment I rubbed my eyes and asked myself if I was dreaming or if what I was looking at was real. A Galician-Portuguese corner in In- dia! Even as I woke up in the morning and got up, I thought I might be in Oporto or in Recife in Brazil. Almost the entire zone of Fontainhas has houses built in the colonial style, and quite well preserved, too. With ver- andas, balconies and roofs like ours.(...) The words Rua (road) and casa (house) are continuously repeated. People who are over 50 years of ageall speak Galician-Portuguese. It is really delicious to be able to express myself inmy languageinthe very midst of India.Hereone really understands how false it is to say that Galician and Portuguese are different languages. What a big lie! (Paz “Goa, um Recanto...”)” Did Prof. José Paz come looking for Tagore in Goa? Perhaps he did. He was familiar with the translations of Tagore’sworks from Bengali into Por- tuguese by Telo de Mascarenhas, which he had discovered in old librar- ies in Oporto and Lisbon, published in the 1940s by the publishing house Inquérito de Lisboa. He writes, “Because the territory of Goa is situated in the Indian subcontinent and very near the city of Bombay (today officially called Mumbai), for the Goan writers and intellectuals the figure of

21 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

Tagore was already well known there from the beginning of the twentieth century, and even more since he was awarded the Nobel Prize for Liter- ature in 1913. There are subjects often echoed in the Goan media. Trans- lated into Portuguese by José F.Ferreira Martins, in 1914, the work Chitra (Chitrangoda) was published in Nova Goa, being the first book by Robin- dronath published in Portuguese on Indian land. Many Goans trained at the universities of the metropolis, particularly in the most famous, of Coimbra, were great Tagoreans, they admired his work and thought, and wrote many interesting books and articles and books about this figure” (Paz “Perception and Influence”). The Tagorean from Galicia was abso- lutely delighted to find other significant Tagoreans in Goa who wrote in the language he himself cherishes. Paz considers Telo de Mascarenhas (1899-1979), the well-known author, poet, journalist and freedom-fighter from Goa, to be “one of the most important Portuguese-speaking Tagoreans of the world, compar- able to any other Tagoreans of other nationalities and languages of the world” (Paz “Perception and Influence”). Mascarenhas is indeed close to Paz’s heart: “(...) as he was a fluent speaker of Bengali, he carried out beautiful translations into Portuguese of Tagorean works: The Home and the World (Ghore Baire), Boat Wreck (Noukadubi), The Four Voices (Cho- turongo), and an anthology of tales with the general title The Key to the Enigma and Other Tales. In 1943 he published in Oporto an interesting study entitled “Rabindranath Tagore e a sua mensagem espiritual” (Ra- bindranath Tagore and his spiritual message). In the same year he published the translation into Portuguese of Gandhi’s book Historia da Minha Vida (The Story of My Life)” (Paz “Perception and Influence”). Paz admires the fact that Mascarenhas fought against Portuguese colonialism, to the point that spent several years in jail in Lisbon, yet “he always deeply loved and defended the Portuguese language” (Paz “Perception and Influence”). Other Tagoreans from Goa became accessible to Prof. Paz through the Portuguese language: Adeodato Barreto (1905-1937), poet, teacher, journalist, author, lawyer, who was born in Margão and lived in Ajustrel, Portugal, for many years. Barreto was deeply concerned with pedagogy, taught for many years, laboured towards social justice for mine workers, and founded the Universidade Livre in Coimbra. Barreto died very

22 Scholarship as travel... | Isabel de Santa Rita Vás young in Portugal, but his writing expresses his great admiration for Tagore. Paz regrets vehemently the fact that Barreto’s “Ideias pedagógicas de Tagore”,a critical essay written in 1929-30 about Tagore’spedagogy, followed by an essay for the application to Portuguese schools of his fundamental principles, remain unpublished to this day (Paz “Perception and Influence”). Prof Paz also refers to the essay by Propércia Correia Afonso de Figueiredo (1882-1944) “Rabindranath Tagore, o Educador”,published in 1942, “a true marvel in which she shows her deep knowledge of Tagore and his educational model” (Paz “Perception and Influence”). Among the numerous other Tagoreans that Paz highlights we find Froilano de Melo (1887-1955), a doctor of renown, who wrote, with great sensitivity, a monograph entitled “O Cantico da Vida na Poesia Tagoreana” (“The Canticle of Life in Tagore’s Poetry”); Amâncio Gracias (1872-1950) analyses two important facets of Tagore’s life, the socio-political and the poetic, in his essay “Tagore, Político e Poeta”; Renato de Sá (1908-1981) published various texts of Tagore in his journal A Harpa Goesa; Mariano José de Saldanha (1878-1975), a doctor, teacher of Marathi, Konkani and Sanskrit visited Shantiniketan and wrote a study entitled “O Poeta duma Universidade e a Universidade de um Poeta ou Rabindranath Tagore e a sua Obra Literária e Pedagógica.” He delivered a lecture on this theme at the Faculdade de Letras at the University of Lisbon in 1943, preceded by an invocation in Sanskrit by Sudhindro M. Tagore, followed by the Bangla song “A lira do Universo” written and composed by Rabindranath Tagore. Prof. Ramchandra Naique delivered a lecture on “O Gurudeva de Shantiniketan” which was published in Heraldo in 1941. Sitarama Quercar published a biography of Tagore in 1915 in the magazine Luz do Oriente; Damodar B. Bounsuló, published a biography of the poet in 1950 in the magazine of the Liceu Nacional Afonso de Albuquerque; Áureo de Quad- ros published in 1996 his translation of Gitanjali into Portuguese. Repro- duced in O Heraldo in February 2011 is an article by Paraxurama Quensori on “Os dramas de Tagore” a critical essay on Tagore’s plays for theatre. Paz saw that the media in Portuguese in Goa featured Tagore frequently: articles have appeared in O Académico, O Ultramar, O Heraldo, He- raldo, Ressurge Goa!, Diário da Noite, Bharat, A Vida, and in publications like the Bulletin of Instituto Vasco da Gama and the Boletim Eclesiástico

23 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

da Arquediocese de Goa. It is of interest to know that a number of these writers wrote letters to Tagore (Telo de Mascarenhas; Adeodato Barreto, who received a reply from Tagore noting that the Indian Institute Barreto had founded in Coimbra had the same scope and aims as Vishwabharati at Shantinik- etan; Renato de Sá, to whom Tagore sent an autographed photo). In the town of Mapusa, there existed an institution devoted to Tagore, named the “Tagore Academic Association.” Paz notes, “I learnt of this important fact at Robindro-Bhovon in Shantiniketon, when finding scanned copies of two letters sent to Tagore by the secretary of that association, Caxinath Sar Dessai, dated the November 3 and December 7, 1937. On November 22 of the same year, Tagore’s secretary answered the first from Santinik- eton. We have photocopies of them and consider that it is very important to continue in the future to investigate the work of this Tagorean academy in Goa” (Paz “Perception and Influence”). An inquiry into the writings of Goans on Tagore in other languages would, of course, yield abundant additional material to this research. Renowned Goan writers have felt the fascination of the great Gurudev and have paid tribute to him in languages of their choosing. Among them we count some shiny names. B.B. Borkar (1910-1984) wrote on him in Marathi, “Anandyatri Ravindranath: Sanskar Ani Sadhana” (1964), and “Mahamanav Ravindranath” (1974). Author Ravindra Kelekar’s (1925- 2010) grandfather Lingubab’s pride in his native culture and literature led him to name his grandson ‘Ravindra’ after the great Bengali Rabindranath. Today, Poet Ramesh Veluskar is fluent in Bengali and has translated the Gitanjali into Konkani; Veluskar gives credit for much of his literary fin- esse to his experiences at Shantiniketan where he spent time in 1981 (Malkarnekar). The present writer was happy to present Dr. Paz with the script of her play on Tagore, “Rabindrababu at the Postoffice”, written in English and staged in Goa in 2011, a small contribution to his collection. The interest in Goa in the person and work of Tagore from the first decade of the twentieth century clearly points to the intellectual and emotional connection that the people here felt with some of the great figures from India. The political borders between “Portuguese India” and “Brit-

24 Scholarship as travel... | Isabel de Santa Rita Vás ish India” were porous in terms of trade and the movement of people out of Goa seeking higher education and employment opportunities. But we would do well to underline that the cultural bonds were also significant. It is well known that numerous persons from Goa who moved to neighbouring cities or towns contributed significantly to the cultural life of the larger India in various important areas of activity. We are aware, of course, that young painters fromGoa like Angelo da Fonseca lived and studied art at Shantiniketan and were deeply influenced by the Bengal Renaissance, of which Rabindranath and his brother Abhanindranath were strong pro- ponents. A similar impulse led Mariano José Saldanha to visit Shantinik- etan, Telo de Mascarenhas and others to learn Bengali, study Tagore’swrit- ing assiduously and translate it into Portuguese, as José F. Ferreira Mar- tins did in 1914 and Mascarenhas in the 1930s and 1940s. We note that Mascarenhas, Adeodato Barreto, Mariano Saldanha, Froilano de Melo and others carried their admiration of Tagore into Portugal and publicized his remarkable work in that country. It was not only Tagore, the poet who had been awarded the No- bel Prize, who charmed these writers. His politics drew the attention of writers like Amâncio Gracias and Adeodato Barreto. His views on religion were of interest to Fr. Altino Ribeiro Santana, who wrote “O ideal religioso de Tagore”, Fr. Carmo da Silva who authored “A mensagem de Tagore”and José da Conceição Sousa. His philosophy of education powerfully captured the imagination of Adeodato Barreto, the young doctor who worked selflessly to make education accessible to the working population in Ajustrel, a small mining district of Portugal; to Ramchandra Naique, the Director of the Escola Normal, the teacher-training institute in Goa, and Propércia Correia Afonso de Figueiredo, a well-respected teacher of the same institute. The romance between Tagoreans and the Portuguese language lasted well into the late twentieth century, when Áureo de Quadros was inspired to publish the Gitanjali in Portuguese. Quadros was in the colonial government service since 1939, under the Captain of Ports in Goa, Santos Cabral. The following note about his translation makes for absorbing reading: “Captain Santos Cabral, a littérateur himself, finding such interest in Áureo Quadros, gave him a book he had authored: it was a transla-

25 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

tion from German into Portuguese, narrating an episode from the First World War. He was to leave his post after the end of his tenure in Goa and Áureo de Quadros decided to present him with something of his own which would symbolize the Indian Culture (emphasis added). Having received blessings from Rabindranath Tagore, he went on translating into Portuguese the songs of Gitanjali (...)” (Tagore). The translation remained unpublished for want of funds. Decades later, to honour the memory of his young daughter Vania, who had suddenly passed away, Quadros had his translation published in 1995, including in it prints of two paintings by his daughter, inspired by Tagore. As suggested by Sovon Sanyal in his essay “Universalism of Tagore: The Speciﬁcities of Portuguese Reception”,

A general study reveals that translatingTagore as a literary agenda (whether collectively taken or not) is uniquely nationalistic and decidedly a dual process of cultural self-discovery and self-assertion of a colonised people. If we consider that translation results inevitably in establishing contacts between cultures, obviously it went against the culture policies of the colonial government of Portugal. Hence translating Tagore into Portuguese by Goans may be seen as passive resistance to the imperial design of denational- ising the people of Goa by the colonial administration. (...)

Portugal having been declared a Republic (1910), Goans took up the questions of civil rights in their land. This contributed to the Portuguese writings in Goa a new élan. A new phenomenon of translating modern Indian writings made the literary sphere more vibrant and enriched. Two Goan writer-intellectuals Adeod- ato Barreto (1904-1936) and Telo de Mascarenhas (1899–1979) can be seen as the two most important figures in this passive cultural resistance, while the former wrote on and spread the message of peace and universal brotherhood of Tagore in Portugal with his writings and lectures, the latter translated some of his major works into Portuguese. Thus Portuguese translations of Tagore’s works by Goans between 1910 and 1961 assumed a very special significance here. The process of translation is not independent of the cultural and the political systems, and so of history. If we inquire into the process of reception in Portuguese, it would definitely show that the process is an ideological act, than an aesthetic one. Thus a reverse trend starts, the East enlightens the West (San- yal).

26 Scholarship as travel... | Isabel de Santa Rita Vás

Perhaps this appreciation of Tagorebeyond national and cultural borders, whether in colonial or post-colonial times, indicates a global sensibility that the poet himself was known for. The movements of persons, languages and ideas across political boundaries over the past decades are food for rich discussion among social scientists.Within the scope of this paper is only to call attention to the way in which deep affinities have prompted exciting cultural journeys: an Anabela Mendes visiting Goa to study Garcia de Orta and enacting a multi-lingual theatre performance; a José Paz discovering Tagoreans in Goa writing in Portuguese; a Telo de Mascarenhas, freedom fighter, translating into Portuguese the works of Tagore on Portuguese soil, an Adeod- ato Barreto migrating to Portugal and making it his home, and corres- ponding with Tagore and Romain Rolland, an Áureo de Quadros wishing to offerto aPortugueseofficialinGoa incolonialtimes aworkof Tagoreas a symbol of his own Indianness, beyond his status as a citizen of Portugal Ultramarino, a Bakibab Borkar celebrating Tagore in Marathi, a Ramesh Veluskar translating the Gitanjali into Konkani. Conclusion Travel writers across the centuries have helped create maps of diverse kinds; some accounts have been based on empirical evidence and have paved the way for the dissemination of scientific knowledge; land and sea routes came to be explored; an impulse towards trade often followed in the wake of new-found information; travel writing has sometimes contributed to great poetry and prose; travellers have chronicled what are today precious historical records of social and economic life, and indicated the political milieux of the places they visited. About the visitors to Goa, Man- ohar Shetty remarks: “(...) the history of Goa is unique and far removed from the rest of the subcontinent. The vivid accounts left behind by these travellers and chroniclers over the centuries provide a telling testimony on both the glory of Goa during its high-water mark in the early sixteenth century, its rapidly fading allure as a jewel in the Portuguese crown, and its recent resurgence as a star attraction for travellers from around the globe.” The travellers discussed in this paper have added their own quite unique pen-strokes to the cultural and literary map of Goa; they have

27 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

done so as serious scholars and academicians drawn to the Goan landscape, enthused by themes very close to their own hearts. In her essay in Garcia de Orta and Alexander von Humboldt: Across the East and West, researcher Raquel Nobre Guerra de Oliveira writes about India in the life of the great Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa (1888-1935). Critic, publisher, translator and philosopher, Pessoa is considered to be one of the greatestpoetsin the Portuguese language anda significant literary figure in the twentieth century. Conscious of the multiplicity and com- plexity of his own being, Pessoa wrote under more than 75 pseudonyms, or heteronyms, as he named them. He never came to India, but he finds his quest for the East fulfilled in his very daily living, and he writes that “The Ganges also flows down the Rua dos Douradores”, he discovers the spiritual East at his own address (Oliveira 141). Travelling through the conversations of Anabela Mendes with Garcia de Orta and José Paz with Rabindranath Tagore, we reflect that Pessoa might perhaps not find fault with the image of the kingfisher that catches fire. A very different writer from the Jesuit Gerald Manley Hopkins who found that “Each mortal thing does one thing and the same,” Pessoa’s heteronyms may have led him, strangely, to a not too different realization, since he writes: “Travel is the traveller. What we see isn’t what we see but what we are” (290-291).

Works Cited

“Anandyatri Ravindranath: Sanskar Ani Sadhana" (1964), 2nd edition Suresh Agency (Pune) and "Mahamanav Ravindranath" (1974), Pune Univ. alchetron.com/Balakrishna-Bhagwant-Borkar-1362040-W Biswas, Kumud. Traveller Rabindranath-1. (2015) http://www.boloji.com /index.cfm?md=Blogs&sd=Blog&BlogID=1608 Boxer, C. R. Two pioneers of tropical medicine: Garcia d Orta and Nicolás Monardes. W. Heffer & Sons, 1963. da Costa, Palmira Fontes. “Geographical expansion and the re- conﬁguration of medical authority: Garcia de Orta’s Collo- quies on the Simples and Drugs of India (1563)” moodle. fct.unl.pt/pluginﬁle.php/210107/mod_resource/content/4/PFontes _daCosta_2012_Orta_Colloquies.pdf (Datta and Robinson 213) Datta, Krishna and Andrew Robinson (eds). Selected Letters of Rabindranath Tagore. Cambridge University Press Oriental Publications 53, 1997. (Letter

28 Scholarship as travel... | Isabel de Santa Rita Vás

134, p. 213. Source MS original at Rabindra Bhavan at Shantiniketan.) Ferrão, Benedito R. “Inquisitive Legacies: Ecologies of Power and Goan Modern- ity”, Places of Nature in Ecologies of Urbanism, ed. Rademacher, Anne and K. Sivaramakrishnan, Hong Kong University Press, Hong Kong, 2017. Ficalho, Francisco Manuel de Melo Breyner. Garcia de Orta e o seu tempo. Im- prensa Nacional, 1886. Hopkins, Gerald Manley. “As Kingfishers Catch Fire”, Poems and Prose. Penguin Classics, 1985. Malkarnekar, Gauree. The Poet Who Has Translated Them All - Times Of India. - timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/goa/The-poet-who-has-translated- them-all/articleshow/52594729.cms Markham, Clements. Colloquies on the simples and drugs of India: Orta, Garcia de, 16th cent. Internet Archive, London, H. Sotheran and Co., 1 Jan. 1970. 1913. archive.org/details/colloquiesonsimp00orta. Mendes, Anabela. Garcia de Orta and Alexander von Humboldt: across the East and West. Universidade Católica Editora, 2009. Mendes, Anabela. (Co-ord.) Long-distance Travels – Routes and Mappings. Uni- versidade Católica Editora, Lisboa, 2016. Mendes, Anabela (Co-ord). “Were those the actual lands where Orta lived?” Gar- cia de Orta and Alexander von Humboldt: Across the East and West. Univer- sidade Católica Editora, Lisboa, 2009. Oliveira, Raquel Nobre Guerra de. “From Ganges into Rua dos Douradores. In- dia in Fernando Pessoa-Bernardo Soares: The Intersticial Inroad.” Garcia de Orta and Alexander von Humboldt: Across the East and West. Anabela Mendes, Co-ord. Universidade Católica Editora, Lisboa, 2009. Orta, Garcia de. Colóquios dos simples, e drogas he cousas medicinais da Índia, Goa, 1563. (Facsimile edition by the Academia das Ciências de Lisboa), Lis- bon, 1963. Paz, José. “Goa, um Recanto Galego Português na India”, Shantiniketan, 26 Jan. 2017. Paz, José, “Perception and Influence of Tagore in Goa (and the rest of the Lusophone World).” Lecture at the Lusophone Society of Goa, Panjim, Goa, 4 Feb. 2013. lusophonegoa.org/en/2013/02/the-goan-telo- de-mascarenhas-is-considered-one-of-the-most-important- portuguese- speaking-tagoreans-of-the-world/ Pessoa, Fernando. The Book of Disquietude, trans. Richard Zenith. Carcanet Press, 1991. Sanyal, Sovon. Universalism of Tagore: The Specificities of Portuguese Recep- tion www.parabaas.com/rabindranath/articles/pSovon.html Shetty, Manohar. Goa Travels. xiv Introduction. Rupa Publications, New Delhi, 2014. Tagore, Rabindranath. Gitanjali. Trans. Quadros, Áureo. Rajhauns Vitaran, Goa, 1996.

29 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

Vas, Luís S.R., Veni, Vidi... Goa: Travellers’ Views of Goa, Ancient and Modern. Centro de Estudos Indo-Portugueses Voicuntrao Dempo, Goa, 2011. Županov, Inês G. “Botanizing in Portuguese India: Between Errors and Certain- ties (16th-17th c.).” Garcia de Orta and Alexander von Humboldt: Across the East and West, Anabela Mendes, Co-ord. Universidade Católica Edit- ora, Lisboa, 2009.

30 Assolna, Velim, Cuncolim: an insider’s view of Robert S. Newman’s oeuvre

SUSHILA SAWANT MENDES1

American anthropologist Robert S. Newman grew up in the New England coastal town of Marblehead, Massachusetts. In the mid- 1960s, at the age of twenty-one, while on a two-year US Peace Corps term in North India, he ﬁrst visited Goa as a tourist. Since then, he has written a voluminous amount of work on this small region. How does a resident of the ‘AVC’ (Assolna-Velim- Cuncolim) area which he studied respond to this body of work? Does he write as an ‘outsider’?

ELIM being my maternal home for close to thirty years, and Assolna V my marital since the past twenty-seven years, I have ‘eaten, drunk and slept’ the spirit and culture of the people of AVC. This essay examines Newman’s cultural encounters in these three villages, of Salcete, South Goa, which culminated in his anthropological study, Of Umbrellas, God- desses & Dreams: Essays on Goan culture and society. This title is representative of his essays on the Cuncolim sontrios (mul- ticoloured huge umbrellas, ceremoniously used in a religious procession once a year), goddess Shantadurga and a vision at Velim. He lived in As- solna and has painted in words the beauty of what its people believe as Osle na (Konkani for ‘nothing like this’). The arguments in this essay are a dialogue between an insider and an outsider, as it unfolds the cultural patterns and spaces about the people and history of AVC. It is also a narrative on how anthropology and history can together bring out different perspectives and evolve a richer understanding of a subject.

1 Head of the Department of History, Government College of Arts, Science & Com- merce, Quepem, Goa. [email protected] GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

Background: Newman and Goa

Robert S. Newman grew up in Marblehead, Massachusetts, a small New England coastal town. He had no connection with India or Goa for the first two decades of his life. By his own submission in the introduction his book, it was only in 1965, at the age of twenty-one, that he arrived in northern India to begin a two-year term of service with the American Peace Corps. It was during one of his vacations that he very casually decided to visit Goa for a week, purely as a tourist. He made certain observations about the Goa of those times. 1.Tourist facilities were almost nil. 2. He never met another tourist in Goa, Indian or foreign. 3. Restaurants were scarce. Souvenir shops were nonexistent. (Newman 2) After this week’s experience, ‘Goa fascinated him’ – ‘Its beauty and calm, its mix of Portuguese and Indian culture and cuisine, the petite and orderly people who were utterly different from the turbulent crowds of north India’ – that he decided that he would definitely have to come back. He wanted to learn more about what made ‘Goa tick’. Up north in Luc- know, he studied Hindi and Urdu, married a Hindu woman Sudha – his friend and wife, whom he publicly acknowledges in 2001, for ‘her patient encouragement, help and love over these years have kept me on the track’ (Newman 9). They are to celebrate their golden jubilee in 2018 (Newman personal interview). He returned to his hometown and, after a struggle as an unemployed Ph.D., he decided to leave America and emigrate to Aus- tralia. While in Australia, working as an academician, he decided that his future research should deal with a ‘multicultural, multilingual location’; that’s when Goa came immediately to his mind. In 1978, he had his first sabbatical for a five-month stay in Goa. To begin, he tried to search for anthropological literature on Goa. It was exceedingly thin. He soon realized that if there was going to be any modern anthropologicalliterature in Goa he would have to start writing it, himself. In the absence of written texts describing Goan culture, he took to anthropologist Clifford Geertz’s ideas about reading certain cultural events as texts which speak about the values, behaviour patterns and expecta- tions of life prevalent in a certain society. Using this as a tool, he tried to discover which events in Goan society might act as such texts, to give

32 AVC... Robert S Newman’s oeuvre | Sushila Sawant Mendes

Goans a particular set of appreciations or perceptions of the world around them. So he focused on religious festivals like zatras and feasts, as events of that type: He also studied changing Goan society since Liberation: the changes in gaunkari (village community organisations), ﬁshing, tourism and cultural expressions (Newman 4). He wrote many research papers on Goa, such as:

Goa: The Transformation of an Indian Region. Green Revolution – Blue Revolution: The Predicament of India’sTra- ditional Fishermen. Faith is All! Emotion and Devotion in a Goan Sect.

Aims and objectives:

To study the anthropological writings of Robert Newman on As- solna, Velim and Cuncolim. To analyse as an insider the views and perspectives of Newman.

Methodology The methodology I used for this study was the corroboratory approach, as it is based on oral interviews, as well as archival references both in Goa and Portugal, to reinforce my arguments in this paper. Robert S. New- man’s writings have helped in looking at the history of my villages and my people from a different perspective. As a resident of AVC and having lived here for more than forty years, I could vouch for smaller nuances and inner conflicts in the psyche and ethos of my people as an insider. As I am in the process of writing my second book on the history of AVC, I must admit I was inquisitive to study these writings. However, the more I read Newman, the more I realised the less I could criticizehim as an ‘outsider’. Newman’s agenda Newman stated that he developed a certain agenda and this he did in a series of articles over many years. His work also reflects his agenda: a) That much as the Portuguese had tried to convince Goans that they were not Indians, to insist that Goan culture was ‘completely different’ from Indian culture was political propaganda almost swallowed by both Goans and foreigners alike. Newman was determined to show that Goa was firmly rooted in Indian culture and that Goa was a part of India. Thus

33 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

establishing Goa as Indian, for readers outside Goa, became an important segment of his academic agenda. b) The second political point of view that underlies his work is his dislike of communalism, the distortions and corruption of communal politics and the hatred that such politics endangers. Newman observed that Goa in the late 1970s and 1980s was of politicians and people aspiringto social or political prominence.His writings, he says, are meant to be an antidote to the divisive tendencies of caste and religious differences followed by many Indian authors: that ‘Catholics are foreign elements; Hindus are all Maharashtrian and Muslims potential Pakistanis’. Goan culture to him ex- tends in greater or lesser degree to all the Goans, irrespective of caste or religion. (Newman 5).

The AVC connection

From 1982-1993, he visited Goa more frequently. During one such visit, he spent ﬁve months in the Banda ward of Assolna village in Salcete (and by this time nearing 40 years of age). As an outsider smitten by Goa, he began ‘a series of cultural encounters which culminated in a spate of scin- tillating essays on the Goa that no casual writer may ever see but which every true blooded Goan displays openly up his sleeve’. (Newman back cover) A thought inevitably occurs to an insider about how did Newman as an outsider capture ‘feelings, the ethos, events’ so beautifully just by observation and with his simple tools of anthropology namely: 1. Do not judge 2. Participate and live the moment. 3. Write down the truth as you see it. 4. Study the subalterns.

AVC’s strong Kshatriya underbelly

The Assolna, Velim and Cuncolim area – unlike other villages inGoa – has a strong underlying identity to the Kshatriya psyche. Most often it is rolled under the carpet of ‘caste is not spoken about in polite conversations’,but it shows its ugly head at regular intervals like at times of arranged marriages and even in some church ceremonies (Dias). During the freedom struggle, references were made to the Kshatriya pen being as sharp as the Kshatriya sword (Gomantak). The sword was a symbol of identity for the warrior caste and also was a part of the logo of the newspaper run some decades ago; this symbol has been continued in the masthead of

34 AVC... Robert S Newman’s oeuvre | Sushila Sawant Mendes the Marathi Gomantak daily newspaper, which was started in the 1960s and is still published today, though it has no connection with the original publication, except for both bearing a common name. Newman was spot on when he set out to study the Chardo caste, both its Hindu and Cath- olic branches. The brotherly rapport, that was shared and is still shared (Fernandes 130), transgresses religious boundaries as seen many a time but very overtly so during the sotrios festival in Cuncolim. In the AVC, Hindus and the Catholics, especially those of the Kshatriya caste or the Chardos, consider themselves as belonging to a common ancestry, or ek motkitle. (The literal translation being ‘from one pot’, a reference to cookingand sharingthe same food as done by a family.) They also believe that their original Hindu brethren were made impure (‘batoile’) by the Catholic Portuguese priests. The impurity refers to the eating of beef and pork, proscribed as non-edible by the non-Christians(Dias).For a foreigner to understand these caste afﬁnities, irrespective of religion, is truly amazing. For the people of AVC, it is an unwritten code which maintains these invisible walls; the only visibility is that each ward in the village is delineated from another ward based on caste, till date. The place where Newman stayed in Banda, Assolna, has not only the residences of the only blacksmith community in the village but is dominated by hardcore Kshat- riyas, who would even put the Hindutva brigade of the Rashtriya Swayam- sevak Sangh to shame with their overzealous belief in not communal politics but certainly caste politics. Caste boundaries are safeguarded, subtly but surely; young boys, I believe, even check the caste antecedents of the girls or vice-versa before falling in love. In AVC , inter-caste marriages are extremely rare. In fact, for generations, the people of these three villages have married within the boundaries of these three villages as well as of caste. The designation of the people as crimidors, or criminals, as perceived by the rest of Goa (Fernandes 129) – a myth to some extent given the nod by the Roman Catholic Church, with reference to the slaying of the Jesuit priests by the people of Cuncolim in 1583 – may have something to do with this sociological phenomenon. Who would want to get married to ‘a criminal’? An interesting anecdote was shared by my colleague Rajay Pawar,

35 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

which shows how the rest of Goa perceives the people of Cuncolim.It is a common practice in Goa for children to spend summer vacations in their maternal grandmother’s house. His was in Canacona. Every evening, the village boys would play football together but his grandmother would always warn him, “Do not meddle with that boy, he is a Cuncolkar.” The boy in reference was just six years old! In my childhood, I remember (a thought shared by my husband from Assolna) whenever there were inter- village football matches and the Cuncolim team was sure to lose, the ﬁeld would be raided and the match halted. Nobody objected because nobody dared to confront the Cunkolkars! (Coutinho)

Newman refers to the 1982 church conﬂict between the Mouradors and the Shudras and Kshatriyas. The Hindu Dessais of Cuncolim supported the Catholic Kshatriyas (Aquinas37). The Umbrellas of Cuncolimare a symbol of this cohesion and unity, which is sometimes nurtured by politicians during elections to seek votes en masse. Most events in AVC like the mell (also a procession held during the three-day carnival celebrations in AVC), or the sontrios, display an underbelly of caste boundaries among the participants (Timble). All along the route of the sontrios, one can see Catholics waiting with aggarbatis (incense sticks) and marigold ﬂowers to worship the goddess. The traditional route also avoids the road next to the present church and branches into an internal road (Personal visit), where the Aguiar family has especially built a dovornem (originally built in every village to lay download heavy loads off the head for some rest, in this case to rest the goddess off the shoulders of the procession bearers) for the palki (the palanquin carrying the goddess).

Newman’s writings on AVC also emphasize the Indian nature of Goan culture and the tradition of tolerance and syncretism that presents an alternative to communalism. In AVC, the polarisation of the Kshatriya caste, irrespective of religion, is often a means to gain votes. The essence of what Newman wrote about so many years ago still stands the test of time. In fact, politicians of all hues and colours have used and abused the existing system; and, in a democracy, the majority wins the elections. Every election in AVC is more often than not fought on the basis of caste and religious numbers (Rodrigues).

36 AVC... Robert S Newman’s oeuvre | Sushila Sawant Mendes

Newman’s essays on AVC The four important essays under study here are: Goddess of Dreams, Homeland of Gold: Imagining Goa. The Umbrellas of Cuncolim: A study of Goan identity A Goddess and a Village: Shantadurga and the village of Cuncolim Vision at Velim: Meaning of a miracle in Goa. In another essay on ‘Konkani Mai Ascends the throne: The cultural basis of Goan statehood’, Newman writes: “The processions of Umbrellas at Cuncolim and Veroda are rituals underlying an obvious symbolic form of history, kingship and common faith in Shantadurga.” The priests of the temple have confirmed to him that the divinity oracle at the Shantadurga Fatorpekarin temple is consulted more by Catholics then by Hindus. How- ever as an insider, it is evident that there is no sanction for this from the AVC Catholic society; irrespective of caste, devotion to the goddess is ab- horred by the Catholic priests in their sermons and criticised from the pulpit as being a Konkno (Hindu, in this case, heathen) practice. So, the point is that despite this, Catholics, as well as Hindus, go to the temple at Fatorpa to make offerings or to pay obeisance. Many go to the goddess to ask for a cure or to help them sort out their financial problems. How- ever, the Catholics, unlike the Hindus, do it clandestinely, as it has neither religious nor social sanction (Ferreira). In the same essay, Newman explains that the synthesis of Catholic and Hindu beliefs in Goa is ‘neither wishful thinking nor an academic exercise [by him] but is widespread and represented by festivals, acts of worship, divination, and healing rituals’. He believes that ‘such a body of folk practice and belief is a living wellspring for the creation of a Goa Indica image’. However that such an image does not yet exist is due to, according to New- man, what Pamod Kale explains about popular perception of a Konkani Tiatr, ‘The scorn with which an influential section of the Goan population regards this syncretic pattern as being a vulgar expression of low taste and dubious authenticity’ (Kale 2063). For many years after the Alvara of 1684 was passed in Goa, the Konkani language was officially suppressed by the Portuguese colonial government. Even in my childhood, it was considered as a ‘servant’s language’. Since then there has been a paradigm shift in the attitude, both of

37 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

the government and people of Goa. Though Goan society is riddled with a honeycomb of caste structures, whose dynamics have even seeped into language, Konkani does enjoy an ofﬁcial status as a state language, along with Marathi. When Newman was undertaking his writing, Konkani was in the process of attaining this status. Goa witnessed many a storm and agitations. Today, though, a new generation of Goans have emerged, including my daughters, who studied their mother tongue at the primary stage. To our surprise, they were comfortable writing even English in the Devanagari script, as that was the alphabet taught to them in primary school. Today Konkani has indeed ascended ‘the throne’. Newman uses two symbols of the folk religion to illustrate his views. Firstly the colourful umbrellas carriedby the Chardo caste to welcome the return of their goddess back to their village after she was forced out by the Portuguese in the 1580s. The umbrellas are a symbol of a common history and kingship ties shared by the Hindu and Catholic Chardo community, witnessed every year. The red powder or gulal, which is used to celebrate the event, is never thrown on females (Personal visit). Another example is the Goan respect for the Mother Goddess even before the Portuguese arrived. She was worshipped as Shanteri or Shantadurga and today has been replaced by Catholicism. One example is the Our Lady of Miracles at Mapusa whose feast day is a popular event among Hindus. The belief is that it was a Sateri temple. In Cuncolim, whether it is Shantadurga or Our Lady or Mamãe Saibin, they belong to Goa Indica (Newman 79-80). The myth which explains the syncretism of this faith is that of the seven sister goddesses that lived in Goa, of whom one or two wereconverted to the Catholic faithwhile the others remained Hindu. Newman sees this as an emotional explanation of how Goans are still one people with one culture,even if on the surface they seem divided. In his essay ‘Goddess of Dreams, Homeland of Gold: Imagining Goa’, Newman says people who share even dreams of a single goddess cannot be considered to belong to different ethnicities and explores how culture shapes the way we imagine ourselves. In this essay, he puts himself into the picture – who, though he makes friends he remained an outsider, always a foreigner. As he puts it, “as an outsider I cannot hope to have the local knowledge that Goans have about their land and society!”

38 AVC... Robert S Newman’s oeuvre | Sushila Sawant Mendes

The Hindu goddess appears in the dreams of both Catholics and Muslims, who dare not ignore her requests. This belief in the goddess is more widespread in Cuncolim as compared to Assolna and Velim, where there is a strong awareness of common ancestry or kinship even though conversions took place in the sixteenth century. Newman speaks of a Hindu gentleman from Cuncolim who spoke in Portuguese saying: “We defend the rights of Shantadurga Kunkollikarin and Our Lady of Good Health.” Newman writes of different dreams wherein the goddess appears and asks or requests for something – e.g. a cassock from a Catholic priest. The oracles of petal of Shantadurga evoke the power of divine intervention for advice regarding marriage, job offers, medical operations, business or troubled relations, both for the Hindus and Catholics. Both Hindus and Catholics share the Shantadurga Kunkollikarin of Fatorpa appearing in their dreams, the devout acceptance of a god, whether Catholic or Hindu among the people of these three villages, which results in miracles and apparitions – one of which took place in my maternal village, Velim. Newman, without any preconceived notions on miracles, simply states: “It was a miracle for me certainly.” He quickly adds, like a true anthropologist, “I was able to study the whole phenomenon at close hand.” As the apparition took place in the neighbourhood of my ancestral house, I remember visiting the site, but returning back disappointed. All that I remember is my conviction that I should not make fun of other people’s ‘faith’. Deities of AVC Newman observes that the goddess not only speaks through dreams and petal patterns but also by possessing individuals and “speaking through their mouth”. Even to seek guidance about religious matters, members of the twelve clans go to the Shantadurga temple at Fatorpa. They pray together but the goddess speaks through one of them. In AVC, among many folk deities is the devchar (spirit), who is believed to help the villager in diverse ways, for instance, to ﬁnd lost cattle etc., and is locally referred to as the Hapsi, Rakno, Vataro or Bodgeshwar. Prof. Pissurlekar in his list of temples lists goddess Santeri and Madeu in Cuncolim, Santeri, Betall and Beirady in Velim and Betal, Santeri and

39 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

Purus Deckhecho in Assolna (Priolkar 79-82). Santeri is the common deity to AVC. The evil eye is the dixtt. Therefore in AVC dreams are connected to goddesses and protecting spirits, where communications via oracle, pos- session and visions are commonplace and where evil spirits threaten as well as protect. Newman concludes that dreams, possessions, divination and spirits are interwoven into the Goan culture. The essay ‘The Umbrellas of Cuncolim – A study of Goan identity’ shows that caste can be a stronger source of bonding than religion. The villages of AVC have ‘an interesting history this implies a certain amount of chaos and bloodshed....’ Secondly: ‘Goan literary culture has been consistently dominated by Brahmins, both Catholics and Hindu Brahmanism have typiﬁed customs and traditions. Goa’s Catholic Brahmin houses have become Goan architecture and their food has become Goan cuisine, their songs and dances have become Goan music’ (Newman 113). AVC is different. In fact, the vast majority of Goans are not Brahmins and they are Chardos, Bhandaris, Sudhirs and tribal both Kunbis and Gawdas. I particularly liked Newman’s interpretation of the Mother Goddess. ‘Goans worship Shantadurga not an intercessor like the Virgin Mary, between people and a masculine deity, but she has power in her own right.’People lineup in queues onthe day of the zatra to pray for personal favours like prosperity, marriage, fertility and also make vows. The myth of the seven sisters of temples and Our Lady of Miracles in Mapusa and Our Lady of Cures in Cansaulim show that deities were converted and are today worshipped both by Catholic and Hindus who attend the respective feast day in large numbers. Shantadurga is worshipped by the twelve Kshatriya clans of Cuncolim. They are among the mahajans of the temple, while in other parts of Goa the mahajans are generally Brahmins (Faria 225-230). A traditional route over mountains and rivers is maintained in the procession of the umbrellas. Red powder, or kukum, thrown by the men shows the route of the procession long after it is over. This procession is accompanied by a Western-style band with brass instruments and also with Indian percus- sion instruments like the gumot. The arti (ritual of worship) is performed by both Catholic and Hindus, who on this day have only one identity as Cuncolkars. The Catholic Aguiars of Cuncolim (whose ancestor was one

40 AVC... Robert S Newman’s oeuvre | Sushila Sawant Mendes of the locals killed in July 1583) proudly display the concrete platform built by them to rest the Shantadurga palanquin during the procession. As mentioned above, the Catholics pay obeisance and put ﬂowers as well as aggarbatis (a Hindu practice, never used by Catholics for worship), to worship the goddess during the procession. In his essay ‘A Goddess and a Village: Shantadurga and the village of Cuncolim’, Newman lists a narrative of different viewpoints in history. Writers’ views of events about the Kshatriyas of Cuncolim refusing to pay taxes and the guerrilla tactics used by the local people. Conversions and the burning of the temples are the other events of history in AVC (Priolkar 79, Kamat 52-72, Mendes 36-42). By 1881, the total Catholic population of Cuncolim was more than double of that of the Hindus and Muslims put together (Dalvi 31). A Por- tuguese view of the historical events is seen in the writings of Fernando Leal, a government servant who was the Administrator of AVC in 1898 (Leal 11). He speaks about the killing of a tax collector, Estevão Rodrigues, in Assolna. He also looks upon the Jesuit priests who were killed by the local people in 1583 as heroes of Christianity (Fernandes 123-126). The people of Cuncolim in the true Kshatriya spirit periodically protested to the Portuguese King for almost a century and a half thereafter, as seen from a petition of 1724 about the burning of their idols in the pagoda of Fatorpa (Codice 54). Teotonio de Souza writes about the views of Diogo do Couto who in 1788 describes Cuncolim as the “leader of rebels” and the people as “the worst of the people of Salcete” (Newman 136). The procession of the umbrellas was banned by the Portuguese in Cuncolim from 1886 to 1908, in which year it was restarted. In contemporary Cuncolim, the people whether Hindu or Catholic but of the Kshatriya clan believe that they “are the descendants of freedom ﬁghters and worship Goddess Shantadurga” (Dias). In Newman’s paper on “Vision at Velim: the political and cultural meaning of a miracle in Goa”, he writes about one António Fernandes who is believed to have a vision of Mary on a tile of the roof of his house on March 8, 1987 (a Sunday). The author explains that the political meaning of the miracle declaration was that a man who saw the miracle was a

41 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

Kunbi and this was an attempt to assert and gain power and respect as the Kunbis in Velimas elsewherein Goa havea lowstatus inthe villagesociety. The cultural meaning given is that this miracle was a syncretic experience of the Khetri or the ghosts of people who die a tragic death, as in this case the date of the miracle coincided with the death of his daughter who had been accidentally burnt alive. Secondly, Antonio Fernandes was believed to have a bhar, or was possessed by the Goddess Shantadurga who is also worshiped as Our Lady of Vailankanni. Therefore this miracle was a statement about the worth of a Goan Kunbi Gawda and a cultural statement of the power of the goddess, in the psyche of a Catholic worshipper. This vision was in the neighbourhood of my maternal home in Velim andI do remember visiting this site. It takes a Robert Newman to analyse this miracle from a sociological viewpoint of social status and power politics. To me then, it was just a curious visit and I clearly remember I saw nothing on that tile... and I had broken the first rule of an anthropological study: ‘do not judge’. To conclude, as an insider I can see that the author has done a thor- ough anthropological study which has resulted in a well written account of the culture of the people of AVC. These writings also show the close connection of the importance of anthropology and the subalterns in the writing and understanding of history. From the people’s perspective, a researcher cannot judge miracles or spirit possessions from a scientific angle. Newman has used the tools of anthropology to understand the people’s faith in their deities and how it appears in their dreams. Visions appear and the people believe in both their dreams and the visions. The sontrios portray a glimpse of the past history which brings together communities at least once in a year. In AVC these happenings are a part of the people’s psyche. These festivals, dreams and vision are very real happenings in the lives of the people of AVC. They are a symbol of syncretism of faith, of relation- ships, moulded together as one people, one community who do consider themselves responsible for accidents of history. AVC, therefore, has a very unique history as compared to the other villages of Goa in terms of the Kshatriya bonding which is both spoken aloud as well as expressed in their beliefs, zatras and festivals, where caste affinities override religion.

42 AVC... Robert S Newman’s oeuvre | Sushila Sawant Mendes

Works Cited Primary sources Manuscript: Codice: 54 xi-37, VII. Petition of the people of Assolna, Velim and Cuncolim to the King of Portugal to protest against the burning of the temples in the villages by the Jesuit priests, Biblioteca do Palácio de Ajuda, Lisboa. 1724. Personal interactions Almeida Coutinho, Cleofato. 12 Jan. 2017, Assolna, Goa. Dias, Flaviano. 20 Dec. 2009. Porvorim, Goa. Fernandes, Tony, 4 Apr. 2001. Cuncolim, Goa. He always offers lunch to the sontrios procession when it passes his house in Buinsa, Cuncolim, every year. Ferreira, Nozareno. 25 May 1997, Assolna. Newman, Robert, S. 23 May 2017. Lisbon, Portugal. Had an informal interaction with him during an international congress. This paper was written much later. Pawar, Rajay. 18 Jun. 2012, Quepem. Timble, Prabhakar. 1 Feb. 2017. Margão. Secondary sources Newspaper Gomantak, a fortnightly edited by Dr. Julião Menezes from Assolna and for some time by my father, Adv. Louis Mendes from Velim, started six months after the death of Luís de Menezes Bragança from Jan. 1939-1949. On every July 11, his death anniversary was commemorated with pages which were dedicated to his writings. Menezes Bragança was a Kshatriya from Chandor, whose philosophy inspired many freedom ﬁghters of AVC. Books Almeida, José Julião do Sacramento, A Aldeia de Assõlna. no publisher given, 1958. Aquinas Thomas. Cuncolim is a Historic Village, Cuncolim, 1983. Axelrod, Paul and Michelle Fuerch. “A Flight of the deities: Hindu Resistance in Portuguese Goa.” Modern Asian Studies, Vol. 30, No.2, 1996. Borges, Charles J. The Economics of the Goa Jesuits 1542-1759. New Delhi: Concept, 1994. Note: The Jesuits cultivated ﬁelds and had coconut plantations in AVC. Dalvi, Lingu, R. História de Cuncolim. 1908. Nagvenkar, Harishchandra T. (Trans.) History of Cuncolim, Margão: Adv. Dat- taram Linga Dalvi Memorial Trust, 2007. Faria, Planton. Cuncolim Down the Ages. Calvado, Cuncolim, Goa: Govani Me- dia Centre, 2006. Fernandes, Edna. Holy Warriors – a Journey into the Heart of Indian Fundament- alism. London: Portobello Books Ltd, 2001.

43 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

Kale, Pramod. “Essentialist and Epochalist Elements in Goan Popular Culture”, Economic and Political Weekly. Vol. 21, no. 47, Nov. 22, 1986. Kamat, Pratima. Farar Far: Local resistance to colonial hegemony in Goa. 1510- 1912. Panaji, Goa: Institute Menezes Braganza, 1999. Leal, F. Relatorio acerca de Administração Geral do Campos Nacionais de As- solna, Velim, Ambelim, Talvorda, Nuem e Ragibaga, Imprensa Nacional, Nova Goa, 1898. Mendes, Sushila. Luís de Menezes Bragança Nationalism, Secularism and Free- Thought in Portuguese Goa. Panaji, Goa: Directorate of Art & Culture, Govt. of Goa, 2011. Newman, Robert, S. Of Umbrellas, Goddesses & Dreams: Essays on Goan culture and society. Mapusa, Goa: Other India Press, 2011. Priolkar, A.K. The Goa Inquisition. Self-published, Bombay: 1961. Rao, R.P. Portuguese Rule in Goa. Bombay: Asia Publishing House, 1963.

44 Seventeenth-century maritime Goa as viewed by François Pyrard de Laval

XAVIER M. MARTINS1

ARGE numbers of European adventurers and travellers were attrac- L ted to India. They were curious to know unknown lands. Only a few of them leftaccountsof their observations – about rulers, the people, their religions, customs, trade and other issues – in the form of memoirs, diaries, journals, travelogues and personal letters written by them to their friends and relatives back in Europe. These accounts form an indispensable source for historical writings. One such traveller was François Pyrard de Laval, a Frenchman, navigator and the son of a cartographer. He left behind one of the most interesting accounts of India from the beginning of the seventeenth century. Pyrard de Laval set out for the Orient in 1601 and spent a decade travelling in the East Indies, the Maldives, Moluccas and various parts of India. He arrived wounded in Goa from Cochin and was admitted to the Royal Hospital. Pyrard de Laval undertook two voyages aboard Portuguese ships – one to Malacca and the other to Diu. On his return from Malacca, he spent some twenty months in Goa and returned home only in 1611. His account describes Portuguese navigation, shipping and trade in different parts of Africa and India at the time. The island of Goa and its defense Goa was a cosmopolitan city and also was the economic, cultural and administrative centre of the Portuguese State of India. Pyrard de Laval writes that the Island of Goa was formed by the river which encircled it and also formed other nearby islands (Gray 28). It had a circumference of eight leagues with seven fortresses guarding its passages. According to Pyrard

1 Associate Professor, Department of History, Government College of Arts & Commerce, Virnoda, Pernem, Goa. [email protected] GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

de Laval, the river was not very deep and the large Portuguese ocean- going vessels, on their arrival, had to be anchored at the entrance or at the mouth of the river which was called the ‘bar’ (26). During the monsoons, no ship could enter or cross the bar. The entrance of the river was wide. There were two forts, one on either side of the river, at Aguada to the north and at the Cabo to the south, to check the advance of hostile vessels. These naval installations were vital for the Portuguese to ensure the security of the bar. To ensure the safety and the defense of the bar, the Portuguese built the fortresses of Cabo, Reis Magos and Gaspar Dias. He also makes a mention of the Aguada as a watering station for all Lisbon bound ships sailing from Goa (31). Pyrard de Laval says that before leaving the port of Goa, the captain had to make calculations about the winter wherever they happened to be. To meet the defence and naval requirements, the Portuguese had a full- fledged naval dockyard at Old Goa. He makes a mention of a large number of technical personnel working in the dockyard under a chief master in different workshops. There were slaves and convicts employed in the dockyard and in the arsenal. A proper register containing the names, place of birth, age, identification marks, period of punishment etc. was maintained (Mathew). He also makes reference to the local artisans employed in the dockyard. Arrivals and departures of ships Pyrard de Laval says that the ships left the shores of Lisbon for the voyage to Goa at the end of February or at least by the beginning of March, so that they could safely sail round the Cape of Good Hope (Mathew 233, Boxer The Portuguese Seaborne Empire, Boxer From Lisbon to Goa, Leitão). There were royal instructions to avoid late departures from Goa. Ships left Goa in February or March, sometimes in April, instead of leaving on the eve of Christmas or at the New Year. He makes a reference to the Dutch presence in Goa. The Dutch reached India for the first time in 1599 with two ships. They devised a plan to barricade the bar of Goa, the point of origin of the Portuguese homeward sailing journey, with the objective of depleting Portuguese trade. In 1604, the Dutch fleet entered the mouth of the river Mandovi. Pyrard de Laval makes a mention of the burning and sinking of the Portuguese ves-

46 Maritime Goa, viewed by Pyrard de Laval | Xavier Martins sels. The Dutch ﬂeet had blockaded the sand bar for almost a month, creating a panicky situation for the Portuguese (Boxer The Dutch Seaborne Empire 56). Piracy, and Portuguese measures to combat it Pyrard de Laval refers to the piracy in the Indian waters and the measures adopted by the Portuguese to combat it. Piracy was rampant in western In- dia in the sixteenth and seventeenth century, both in the Malabar and in the Gujarat waters. The Persian Gulf was vulnerable too. The Malabar pirates maintained a constant watch on the Lisbon ships. Pyrard de Laval reiterates the observations of a Jesuit priest who remarked that “the voyage from Goa to Cochin was more dangerous than that to Portugal” (Pearson 73). Special ﬂeets of warships were maintained by the Portuguese to enforce their trade regulations and to maintain a surveillance over the coast.

Portuguese control over the sea

The Portuguese wanted Indian rulers to accord protection to their trading vessels against attacks by pirates. War and commercial links were the two means adopted by the Portuguese to establish their rule in India. Pyrard de Laval says that the Portuguese had signed treaties of peace and friend- ship with most of the kings of India, calling them irmanos et armes, or brothers-in-arms (Gray 208). The Portuguese induced the native rulers to provide them locations with good anchorage to build trading posts or factories along the western coast of India (208). These rulers promised that they would not have any trade links with the enemies of the Por- tuguese. Pyrard de Laval states that the Portuguese warranted the native kings to guard all the seas against the threats from corsairs, pirates and against all enemies who might appear in those ports (205). Under these treaties, the Indian rulers and merchants were prohibited from carrying out trade in certain commodities like teakwood, slaves, arms and ammunition, pepper and other species. For more details about the Por- tuguese treaties with the native rulers refer to Biker. To enforce their naval supremacy, the Portuguese introduced the system of cartazes (Shastry 148-152 and Malekandathil 220-223), caﬁlas (Leitão 122) and armadas.2

2 There are records at the Goa Historical Archives which reveals that the native mer-

47 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

Sailing of native vessels was subjected to sailing permits or cartaze is- sued by the Portuguese captains at selected points. The cartaze or the sailing permit stated the name of the local merchant, the tonnage of the vessel, the number of crew, the cargo and the point of destination. There were many native rulers and merchants who defied the Por- tuguese claim of supremacy over the eastern trade and the trade route. The Portuguese vessels were attacked, forcing the Portuguese to devise a new system, that of the cafila, to control trade. The cafila consisted of local merchant ships arranged in convoys and then being sailed under guardof perhaps ten Portuguese ships, to Goa. Three or four food convoys came each year from the Kanara to Goa. Pyrard de Laval writes of two to three cafilas would sail to Goa from Cambay and Surat (Pearson 77). Every year these cafilas were escorted by the war galiots. All ships had to halt here (in Goa) to receive the cartaze and pay customs duties. Special fleets of warships were maintained by the Portuguese for general patrolling of the coast. Following the conquest of Goa in 1510, regular patrolling was undertaken from Goa to the north and to the south. Afonso de Albuquerque, after the conquest of Ormuz in 1515, divided the Portuguese empire into two zones placed under captain-majors (Mathew 139). However, after 1533, the Portuguese divided the Indian coast into northern, central and southern zones under other captain-majors. Pyrard de Laval says that every year the Portuguese sent two armadas from Goa, one to the north and the other to the south at the cost of the Royal exchequer. Each armada was placed under the command of a captain- major. By the end of the sixteenth century, the northern and southern armadas consisted of about 60 vessels.

Goa as the centre of merchandise

Perhaps the most interesting aspect of his writings is the description of trade between the eastern islands, China and Japan, Spanish America and

chants had to obtain the cartazes even in the eighteenth century. The cafilas, or the merchant fleets under the convoy, would come to Goa twice or thrice a year. More detailed information pertaining to the formation and the operation of the cafila is available in the Regimentos e Instruções series at the Goa Historical Archives. The term armadas was applied to a group of ships commanded by a Captain-Major. There was also a term frota, designated to a group of trading ships which sailed under the escort of the warships.

48 Maritime Goa, viewed by Pyrard de Laval | Xavier Martins the Philippines, and Portuguese Goa and Malacca. Goa was the main port of the Portuguese trade in the east. Varied nationalities from the Orient, from the Cape of Good Hope to as far as China and Japan, brought their merchandise to Goa. Different types of merchandise were loaded and unloaded as per Royal instructions. Pyrard de Laval writes that the King would not allow or permit even the Span- iards to sail to the east and trade. Violation of this order was punishable with the death penalty. Portuguese ships from Goa sailed to Macau, Japan, Malacca, Bengal, Ceylon, Pegu and the entire coast of Malabar and from there to Mocambique, Bassein, Daman, Chaul, Dabul, Cambay, Surat, Diu and along the coast of Ormuz (Gray 213). All goods collected from these places were brought to Goa, except pepper, which was stored at the state granariestill the arrivalof the shipsfromLisbon at Goa. The ships at times sailed to Cochin to load pepper and, on completion of the loading, the ships took the direct route to Portugal from Cochin, passing at the head of the Maldive Islands (213). Pyrard de Laval points out that, at the order of the King, every year, two or three vessels were sent to China and Japan. These ships also sailed to Macau (215). Macau was an emporium for all the merchandise that came in from China and other parts of the world. From Malacca they sail to Macau and from there to Japan. The voyages to China, Japan, Malacca, Mocambique and Ormuz were exclusively kept for the King, except if this voyage was allotted to a fidalgo or a captain or to any other officer as gift (mercês). Mercês or gifts of the voyage were made to the individuals by the King. Officials, at times, would petition the King asking for mercês for services rendered by them to the Estado da Índia. In the Goa Historical Archives, there over fifty volumes titled as Mercês Gerais, covering a period from 1612 to 1883. At times these voyages were granted as gifts to fidalgos, captains or any other officer.The main cargothat was carriedfrom Goa to Macau was sliver. Ships from Goa sailed with a variety of other goods such as wines, woolen fabrics, cotton clothes, precious stones, etc. Ships making the voyage from Goa to Japan (Nagaski), would take three whole years, as the sailing depended upon the wind currents which prevailed for about six months. The duration of these voyages also depended upon the duration of the ship’s stay at Macao. This voyage, which

49 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

originallyhad been open to all and sundry, was soon limited to an annual nau or carrack, under the captain-major appointed by the Crown. This route was reserved only for the King. Pyrard de Laval dwells on the poor conditions of the Portuguese soldiers and seamen. Most of them were not paid for months together. He says that the viceroys, Governors and some of the King’s officers were the greatest beneficiaries of the Portuguese eastern naval enterprise. These officers enriched themselves at the expense of the royal treasury (Gray 201). He explains the serious flaws in the navigational system of the Por- tuguese. According to him, during the voyage the apprentices and soldiers were not tough and active but careless, dirty and lazy (203). Pyrard de Laval narrates his misfortune on the eve of his departure, when he was pickpocketed, causing him great inconvenience,as he could not purchase anything during his return voyage (282). He writes that each seamen was provided with a small portion of bread and some water on the homeward voyage, at Goa. In his narrative he also makes reference to certain leading Portuguese figures. He refers to André Furtado de Mendonça, considered by some as the greatest Portuguese captain, Archbishop Aleixo Menezes, the English Jesuit Thomas Stephens and the French Jesuit Étienne de la Croix in Goa. His account also mentions the buildings, churches, con- vents, seminaries, streets, fountains, etc. His observations about Portuguese navigation in the East assailed the writings of some Portuguese chronicles. His accounts also unfold the circumstances for various despatches and orders of the King and proclama- tions of the viceroys relating to Portuguese navigation in the Orient. Works Cited Albuquerque, Braz de. Commentarios de Grande Afonso de Albuquerque. Vol. II. Biker, Julio Firmino judice (ed), Collecção de Tratados e Consertos de Pazes que o Estado da India Portugueza fez com os Reis e Senhores com quem teve Relações nas partes da Asia e Africa Oriental desde o Principio da Conquista até ao fim do século XVII, Lisboa, 1881-.7, 14 vols. Boxer, C. R. The Dutch Sea Borne Empire, 1600-1800. London, 1965. ——— The Portuguese Seaborne Empire,1600-1800, London, 1965. ——— From Lisbon to Goa, 1500-1750: Studies in Portuguese Maritime Enter- prise. Variorum, Hampshire, 1990. Gray, Albert (Trans). The Voyage of François Pyrard de Laval, Vol. 2, Part I, Asian Educational Services, New Delhi.

50 Maritime Goa, viewed by Pyrard de Laval | Xavier Martins

Leitão, Humberto (introd. e notas). Dois Roteiros do Século XVI, de Manuel Mon- teiro e Gaspar Ferreira Reimão, atribuídos a João Baptista Lavanha. Lisbon, Centro de Estudos Históricos Ultramarinos, 1963. Leitão, H and J. Vicente Lopes. Dicionario da Linguagem de Marinha Antiga e Actual, Centro de Estudos Historicas e Cartograﬁa Antiga, Lisbon, 1990. Malekandathil, Pius. Portuguese Cochin And The Maritime Trade of India 1500- 1663. Manohar Publishers, New Delhi, 2001, pp.220-223. Mathew, K.M. History of Portuguese Navigation in India 1497-1600, Mittal Pub- lications, Delhi, 1988. Pearson, M.N. Coastal Western India. Concept Publishing Company, New Delhi, 1981. Shastry, B.S. Studies in Indo-Portuguese History. IBH Prakashana, 1981, Ban- galore, pp. 148-152.

51 French travellers on Goan food habits

MARIA DE LOURDES BRAVO DA COSTA1

Food and cooking, diet and dietary habits, afford an opportunity to comprehend complex issues of cultural changes and transna- tional cultural ﬂows. Many a traveller to Goa has made references to food – some in passing, some relevant to a particular event or related to an institution. François Pyrard de Laval visited Goa in the ﬁrst decade of the seventeenth century when it was in its hey- day, while Rev. Denis L. Cottineau de Kloguen arrived in 1827, midway through the decadence of the Portuguese Empire. Was there a change in between these visits? How relevant is their writing to understanding Goa’s food history?

RAVELOGUES have been considered as primary sources by histori- T ans, as these are firsthand descriptions of places visited by the traveller. It also presents the traveller’s experiences and what he encounters, specially by way of unknown or interesting aspects. Descriptions as factual as possible are characteristic of travel writing, testing a writer’s skill and the writings are a gift to us. However, the traveller may not always write with objectivity. Some- times, he may be influenced with what he has on his mind or from what he has heard and might try to see things he encounters in that light. Oc- casionally, he may be influenced politically and try to write and interpret facts the way it suits him or his country. Many relied on these travelogues for the description of the areas, customs and manners of the people, happenings of the time and what was available in these places. Meticulous- ness and wonder with which a traveller recorded what a person, town or landscape looked like has been very useful to those who want to recreate or understand the past. One must admire the patience with which they

1 Research scholar at the Research Centre, Government College of Arts, Science & Com- merce, Quepem, Goa University. lbravodacosta @rediffmail.com French travellers on Goan food habits | Bravo da Costa created pictures in words. Easily made and transmitted images are a recent innovation, but people have wanted to see exactly what other places looked like for much longer. A number of foreign travellers visited Goa during the colonial period. The Dutch, French, Italian and English, amongst others, are included in this category. They have recorded their experiences in a single or multi- volume descriptions. These narratives include geographical information of the places the travellers saw, besides portrayals of people, their races, castes, mannerism, customs, lifestyle, etc. With all this information, travelogues, in fact, can also be considered anthropological works. A few of them made references to the type of availability of food and food habits of the people. In this essay, an analysis will be undertaken of the works of Pyrard de Laval and Cottineau de la Kloguen. Both the travellers have been selected as they are of the same nationality and both give significant information on food in Goa at the time they visited the territory. François Pyrard de Laval (1570-1621) was in Goa for three years from 1607 to 1610, quite a considerable period of time, and therefore we can say that his observations will be closer to reality. His narrative is very interesting and is considered one of the best for the period. He writes that fish was abundant in Goa. This should not come as a surprise to us, knowing the geographical conditions of Goa, blessed with number of rivers and water bodies, both natural and man-made, production of fish must have been excellent. We have also to keep in mind that in the era that Pyrard de Laval travelled, the only way to preserve the catch of the day, if not consumed fresh, was to salt it or pickle it. This would enable people to store and eat their catch during the rainy season, when availabilityof fish was limited due to weather conditions that made it very difficult to venture into the sea. Fresh fish had to be sold on the same day, or it had to be salted for preservation. The narratives also present the difference in the food intake between the economically well-off who could afford to buy different kind of meats, as per their choice, and the poor who would survive on rice which was available, as most of them toiled the land and cultivated the fields as la- bourers. Goa’s main agriculture produce was rice, so it was but natural that the people of Goa would consume it as their main food. The labour-

53 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

ers were paid in kind, as the barter system was in practice in those days. This system did not allow them to have a cash ﬂow to buy other products even if available, as there was no money or its supply was limited. Pyrard de Laval writes

The viands amongst the rich consisted chieﬂy of beef, pork and poultry;the poor lived on rice and ﬁsh. Fish was so abundant that in every street and lane, men and women were seen frying it and pickling it for sale.

The lifestyle amongst the Portuguese at the time can also be gauged from the diet offered at the Royal Hospital, where Pyrard de Laval was himself hospitalised to recuperate. According to him, a variety of viands, fish, vegetables and sweets were served to patients. Breakfast consisted of bread with raisins, alvo (halwa, a sweet dish made of wheat, coconut and sugar) and conjee. For lunch, patients were served a full or half boiled or roasted chicken and sweets. Dinner at 5 p.m. consisted of meat, soup, vegetables such as ladyfinger and rice. In addition, the patients were served a variety of fish, eggs, fruits and bread on the doctor’s prescription. The abundance amongst the richand those in powerinthe territory is also corroborated by Johan Albrecht de Mandelslo (1616-1644), the Ger- man adventurer who left behind writings on his experiences in Persia and India.In hisnarrative he writesthat “the Portuguese had a table filled with largess when they entertained guests.” This points to the way they lived and how easy they were on their spending. “Every course consisted only of four dishes of meat, but they were so often changed, and the meat so excellently well dressed. With the meat there was brought such variety of excellent fruits that by continued change and inter-mixture of both, the appetite was sharpened and renewed” (61). However, Pyrard de Laval does not make reference to the curry, made of coconut, which is a part of the Goan food trilogy of fish, curry and rice. It is well known that coconut curry is important to a Goan’s rice eating habits, a must, one could say. A housewife will make her curry preparation, a daily ritual, and make it an important input in the Goan diet. It is prepared with coconut, which is abundantly available in Goa. Women’s innovation has led them to improvise it into a more palatable food, and curry was prepared in a way that made eating rice a delectable meal. The

54 French travellers on Goan food habits | Bravo da Costa addition of fish enhanced its flavour. Curry was a part of the Goan meal much before the Portuguese arrived. The famous Portuguese naturalist, Garcia de Orta mentions this in his conversation with his friend Ruando in the Colloquios, published in 1563. Orta mentions that the natives used coconut for curry, besides extracting oil for cooking and medicinal purposes. “With this Coquo pounded they make a sort of milk, and cook rice with it, and it is like rice boiled in goat’s milk. They make dishes with it of birds and meat, which they call caril” (142). The Portuguese are credited to have brought Catholicism to Goa. Many were converted and adhered to the Catholic religion. Christmas became the main festival of the Catholic community of Goa. The influence on the food was clear in the celebration of the festival. Thus, the Por- tuguese influenced not only by converting but also by introducing food habits.

Even in most of the houses and junction of roads, markets and places, tables areset andonit arekept sweets, dry fruitsandcakes. They call the latter rosquilhas and are of a thousand of variety which all the people buy to share with others for consuada, and this kind of fare continues till the feast of Three Kings. At night they put big boards with the following words, ‘Ano Bom’ (good year), to the accompaniment of music (98).

What are rosquilhas? They are made of ﬂour, milk, sugar, water, eggs, butter and mixed to form a dough. A small ball of the dough is taken and rolled to make a round bangle-shaped biscoit. The doughcan also be twis- ted across like a plait, to give it a different shape. This is the basic recipe of a rosquilha. There are innumerable ways of making rosquilhas, and a common way is by adding a sugar syrup coating to it or sprinkling sugar while hot. We do not see people making rosquilhas today. However, they are very popular in Portugal during Christmas time. Cottineau de Kloguen’s Historical Sketch of Goa By 1827, when Cottineau visited Goa, it was just a shadow of its past. There is a warninggivento the readersinthe prefaceof the secondedition of his Historical Sketch of Goa to bear in mind that all features of Goa as actually seen by the author refer to about the year 1827. The preface to the 1910 edition – the ﬁrst edition was published in 1831, soon after the death of

55 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

the author – tells us that ”Denis L. Cottineau de Kloguen, one time chap- lainofColaba,spent a longtime in Goa studying the history of the old city, and then wrote a book which deserves to be called a classic.” Between 1610 and 1827, many changes had taken place in Goa. How- ever, agriculture continued to be the mainstay of the people with rice at its centre. Cottineau writes that despite a shortfall in production, the situation had changed with new measures taken and the governmental encouragement to cultivate rice in the new province of Ponda. Rice was being produced in quantities more than required and was sufﬁcient even for export (114). This observation shows that with new and proper measures, the production could be increased. However, this experience does not seem to have been adhered to or continued by the authorities, as rice was again the main item of import to Goa during latter years as is the case even today. This in spite of different measures for rice production proposed to, and taken up, by the government. Cottineau adds that another important agricultural produce was the coconut, used to make oil and people use its water in almost all their dishes and is also as a chief item of transportation especially to Bombay (114). In fact, coconut ruled Goa’s export list for many years, both in the form of the nut as well as copra. Coconut oil was important to the locals because it was the local medium of cooking. Its importance continued till some marketing experts started pointing to it as a high cholesterol oil so that they could push other oils. It would appear that they were successful in replacing the coconut oil, especially post 1961 in a big way. However, fortunately, some traditional household cooking still uses the coconut oil for its aromatic effect. But, many in the younger generation who have not had the experience of eating the ﬁsh fried in coconut oil today grimace at the aroma. Cottineau notes that fruits available in Goa were mainly mangoes and bananas, the mangoes being the very best he had eaten (114). By then, there must have been many of the new varieties that were introduced using techniques of grafting. One may point out that Linschoten, whose description of Goa and other places he visited is considered among the most vivid amongst the travellers of the times, gives descriptions of many of the plants that were available in Goa and other parts. It is interesting that

56 French travellers on Goan food habits | Bravo da Costa when he describes the mangoes, he mentions those of Ormuz as being the best followed by those from ‘Guzerate’. This leads us to surmise that mangoes of quality – such as the famous ‘Malcorada’,‘Hilario’,‘Xavier’ and other delicious mangoes that Goa is well known for – are a later addition and came after the time Linschoten was in Goa. Bananas were grown throughout the year and were consumed by most. Goa had a variety of its own bananas grown by locals, like the figos de horta, saldatti, banana da terra or the famous banana de Moira and the hapri (used for cooking). Today we have added different varieties of banana on our menu and even in cultivation. However, we are losing out on the traditional variety of figos de horta which one rarely sees in the market and the banana de Moira. Cottineau, however, has missed out on the summer fruits available in Goa, probably because some of these were not cultivated and grew on the hillocks, except for cashew and the kokum trees. Both were cash crops. But other fruits like candas, jambul, a host of other wildfruits, the delights of the children as well as adults, are absent from his narrative. His keen observation did not miss the aversion of Goans to consuming vegetables. He also says that they did not make any efforts to cultivate more varieties of fruits and vegetables (114). Local vegetables were cultivated only once annually, as the winter crop. No effort was made to increase the number of cultivation, neither the area under vegetable cultivation, probably since there wasn’t much demand. It appears that lady’s fingers (bende in Konkani) were a local favourite and were grown throughout the year.It isknowntoo that the peopleof the Islandof Santo Estevam cultivated the best variety of bende (considered to have seven veins), and the inhabitants of this island are therefore nicknamed bhendekar (cultivators of lady’s fingers). Cottineau noted (114) that although the high and rich classes ate bread, and the poor used flour for different kinds of cakes; there being insufficient cultivation of wheat, it needed to be imported. The mangoes of Goa are indeed excellent, and, except for plantains, very little attention is paid to the culture of other fruits, as also vegetables, of which they are not very fond. Indian corn,millet, and Maguire,are onlycultivated as curi- osities and dainties. Sura or toddy, fermented and distilled into liquor, is

57 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

the only common drink of the majority of the inhabitants, besides water (114). The quotidian as observed by Cottineau’s narrative is as follows:

The food of the poorer sort, consists chiefly in rice, fish, plantains, other fruits, and some cake of flour; they do not eat meat more than three or four times a year; they season their dishes with ghee, or clarified butter, after the manner of the Indians; curry is their principal dish, and rice gruel congee is their only morning and evening meal. Coconut water enters in almost everything they eat (118).

While the above description is of the poor, the following gives an insight about afﬂuent families:

Rich and easy families take their breakfast between seven and eight, after hearing Mass; it now chiefly consists of tea, bread, and butter, and sometimes coffee; some, however, keep to the old way of eating congee; between twelve and one, dinner is taken. The richest have soup, and boiled and roast meat, and always finish by rice and curry before the dessert, which consists of cakes and sweetmeats; they drink Madeira, Lisbon and other Portuguese wines; those less easy take no soup, but never omit the curry, and they drink urraca; they have a particular way of dressing rice, which is very much like the Turkish pillow; the use of sleeping after dinner is universal. At four they drink plain tea, some adding cakes and biscuits; the supper is taken at eight, and chiefly consists of fish curry and rice; very few eat flesh meat; they are all fond of smoking, and many even among the women (119).

Cottineau’s comments on different kinds of meat reveal that the most commonly eaten meat at the time was pork, fowl and turkey, which were available in plenty and beef was not available for want of demand.

The animal ﬂesh, more commonly eaten, is pork, fowl, and turkey, which are cheap and abundant; beef is likewise had at a low rate, but is rare to be found for want of demand, except in three chief towns, and on the table of the richest families; sheep and goat are rare (114).

Riceasweknowwasconsumedindifferentforms. Itwouldbehad as canji or as cooked rice. However, there were other uses of rice. It is used to pre- pare savoury and sweet preparations to be served at different time of the day.

58 French travellers on Goan food habits | Bravo da Costa

The quotidian also shows that tea was served for breakfast. But, this was served only by those that had possibility of buying it. This would mean the colonisers and the landed gentry. The commonman had canji for breakfast because it was nutritious, besides being affordable. The habit of drinking tea was probably introduced by British soldiers who were posted in Goa, from 1798 to 1814, under the guise of protecting Goa from a possible French invasion. Coffee must also have been an introduction by the Europeans who were fond of drinking it. The Portuguese had also made an attemptto grow coffee locallyand had earmarked some land in the Satari Taluka for the purpose. Conclusion: While the Portuguese inﬂuenced the food of Goa to a great extent, rice, ﬁsh and curry remained the main food of the Goan people. All of these were available locally to the people. This leads to the comment that availability and economics were ultimately responsible for the food habits of the people. Works Cited Comissariat, M.S., Mandelso’s Travels in Western India (1638-1639). New Delhi, Asian Educational Services, 1995. Cottineau, Denis L.. Historical Sketch of Goa. The metropolis of the Portuguese settlements in India. New Delhi. Asian Educational Services, 2005. Orta, Garcia da. Colloquies on the simple and drugs of India. Delhi. Sri Satguru, 1987. Pyrard de Laval, François. The Voyage of François Pyrard of Laval to the East In- dies, the Maldives, the Moluccas and Brazil. New Delhi. Asian Educational Services, 2000.

59 Veni Vidi Amavi: writing Goa from the outside-in

PREMA ROCHA1

Goa has long been sought after by travellers, much before it gained the reputation as the tourist destination it is today. The dominant narrativeof Goa for theglobaltourist has largely hinged on the idea of ﬁsh, feni and fun. This essay turns its gaze to select accounts of ‘travellers’ who came to stay. They made Goa their home. It takes into accountan essay by ManoharShetty from Goa Travels in addition to chronicles from Inside/Out, the maiden volume of the Goa Writers group.

People don’t take trips, trips take people. –John Steinbeck

RAVEL is central to the human condition. Man is quintessentially a T traveller from the womb. Variously, a pilgrim, searcher, seeker of greener pastures, an exile, a drifter. But, apart from the trope of travel as metaphor, man has a need to escape from routine and embark upon the mystery and adventure that is built into travel. Travel offers a sense of ambivalence in that it holds out the possibilities of exploration of self as well as an escape from self. While it zooms in on new vistas, at a deeper level it reveals to us parts of ourselves like moods and mental states that may have been hitherto unexplored. The traveller is presented a tabula rasa and freed, as Pico Iyer puts it, “of inessential labels”. This prospect of establishing contact with more essential aspects of the self is likely the reason the traveller feels most animated on embarking upon that journey. Goa has been sought after by travellers much before it gained a reputation as the tourist destination it is today. In his comprehensive anthology of historical travelogues Veni, Vidi... Goa, Luís Santa Rita Vas maps

1 Associate Professor, Department of English, St. Xavier’s College, Mapusa, Goa. pre- [email protected] Veni Vidi Amavi | Prema Rocha travellers to Goa from ancient times, dating back to Ibn Battuta in the fourteenth century. In 1511, Tomé Pires almost presciently called Goa ‘the coolest place in India’ (Shetty, Goa Travels xiv). Jerry Pinto draws attention to the fact that the ‘mantra of sun-sand-surf-soçegado’ has been Goa’s ‘siren song, with its lulling alliterative refrain, an invitation to the land of lotus-eaters’ (Pinto xii). Yet another traveller cites ‘Fish, fetes, fenim and fun’ as the central narrative of Goa for the world (Da Silva 386). Goa Travels by Manohar Shetty comprises accounts of travellers from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century including observations by Graham Greene, Somerset Maugham, Evelyn Waugh, William Dalrymple and Nai- paul, among others. This essay turns its gaze to some of the chronicled accounts of travellers who made Goa their home. Consequently, it takes into account an essay by Manohar Shetty from Goa Travels,in addition to narratives from the book Inside/Out, a volume by the Goa Writers group. In his essay “The Shady Invasion of the Beach Umbrella”, Manohar Shetty tells his Goa story. He first experienced Goa in the 1970s as a long- haired college student-cum-voracious reader-cum-clandestine poet in a narcotic haze, haunting the beach belt and flea market. In time, while workingin Bombay he met his future wife “V” (290). Shetty concedes that Bombay had a hold on him despite the many inconveniences. Ultimately, he grew “tired of commuting, of being thumped back and forth like a dirty volleyball. And V longed to return to Goa” (291). And so, they did. Sh- etty muses over the Goa he inhabits as a resident: the political volatility, provincial meanness, and misrepresentations of Goa by eminent writers. He notes the struggle faced by Konkani, the degradation of the environment due to mining, the impact of unplanned property development and rampant corruption in public life. He observes that xenophobia exists despite the factthathis own Mangalorean origins rendered iteasierforhimto be accepted in Goan society. Tourism, he argues, has disfigured the place. While Goa may be paradise for the tourist, for the localsit is ‘paradise lost’ (294). In the book Inside/Out, a number of Goa writers from the eponymous group tell their story of Goa. Among them is Vidyadhar Gadgil’s celebration of his outsider status as liberating. “Garv se kaho hum ghanti hain” has Gadgil trace his first sojourn to Goa – a week-long break with

61 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

college friends – spent completely inebriated. He notes that this is almost a rite of passage for Indian youth, and adds: “I suppose we did most of the things that middle-class 19-year-old Indian students do on holidays in places likeGoa. Wakeup around10 a.m., have some breakfast, start getting drunk or stoned, drift off to a beach, ogle some White women, have a dip in the sea, keep drinking off and on, have dinner in Panjim, and back to the Santa Cruz dump for more drinking till the merry day draws to a close” (52). He is ashamed of and would rather forget that episode. Goa was to become home to him and his wife of Goan descent. Gadgil humourously drives home pertinent observations regarding the Goan obsession with the insider-outsider issue. He considers the nuances behind the Goan bias towards bhaille, ghantis and the binktamkar. He satirises the Goenkar obsession with ethnic background:

If you can dig out some ancestor of yours who was of Goan descent, you’rein. A quarter-Goan, half-British and quarter-anything- else woman who has lived in the UK all her life, and never come within snifﬁng distance of Goa, is by some mysterious process more Goan than a bhaillo, withoutany Goan blood, who has lived in Goa all his life (55).

He underlines misconceptions like that of the Goan invariably represented as Catholic in Bollywood and in literature, of Goans being ‘forced’ to sell their land, the Goan obsession with White skin, and Goa being colonised by India. Five weeks after a reluctant holiday in Goa, Helene Derkin Menezes is back for good. “From the outside... in” charts her journey. In 1994 she found herself taking a break with her female friend from her job at the country’sleading advertising agency in cold London to “32 degrees of sunshine” in Goa (93). The cheap holiday packagewas too good to resist. The initial culture shock and paranoia give way to the feeling of being in paradise. She met and fell in love with her future husband on that trip. From driving on rule-deﬁcit Goan roads, to the traditional village feast dance at Colva, the reader is able to view it all from the fresh perspective of one experiencing it for the ﬁrst time: the sights of vendors, the produce at the local market, barbers at work, the delectable food at comparatively ridicu- lously low prices. Five months later, Helene ties up loose ends in London.

62 Veni Vidi Amavi | Prema Rocha

She gives up the power dressing and labels for an idyllic life in Goa with Derrick whom she married soon after. “Bulletproof” narrates how German writer Kornelia Santoro took a two-year sabbatical to travel India on her “Enfield Bullet”. Three months in Goa, one and a half year of riding through India led her to “shed many layers” of what she calls her pampered self (49). On her return, Goa felt like home. She fell in love with her Italian future husband here as also the friendly locals, the hills, the sunshine, the swaying palms, and the relaxed pace. She and Alberto got married in Italy and returned to Goa where they have been living ever since. In a deeply reflective essay, pertinently titled ‘One Still Here’, love for and identification with Catarina Da Orta (sister of the eminent physician Garcia Da Orta) prompts Aimee Ginsberg, a Jewish woman who has lived in Goa for ten years, to reconstruct the life of the Jewish Catarina Da Orta. The latter was burnt at the stake in this land they both grew to love. She gives the historical persona of Catarina, a human face. In so humanising her and bringing her into focus she turns the spotlight on a largely overlooked chapter of our history – the dreadful Inquisition. She reclaims ‘her- story’, reimagining how the Inquisitionists waited till until Garcia – who was a favourite of the rich and mighty – died, before arresting his sister. Catarina was tortured for about two years before finally being burned at the stake. Ginsberg wonders what kept the lady in Goa when she could have sought refuge outside. Eleven years later, Garcia Da Orta’s bones would be exhumed and burned. In addition to the experience of the foreigner who made a home in Goa, a sense of balance is maintained in the inclusion of narratives of Goans who reverse migrated. Wendell Rodricks’ essay “Indian, international, Goan!” records the manner in which the advice, ‘Put your country and your roots in your clothes’, shaped his life and career. It prompted him to “soul search on inside” and look at his work “from the outside” (192-193). As a result, the man who gave India Minimalism returned to his ancestral Colvale. He put India and Goa into his clothes even as he put his village on the world fashion map. Sheela Jaywant’s “Leaving Dubai” charts the journey of Shambhu, a third-generation expat whose grandfather left Palolem in the 1940s and

63 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

set up base in Rajasthan. His father moved to Bombay and subsequently to Dubai, “a kind of heaven”. Shambhu thus grew up in Dubai speaking Konkani at home. Interestingly, he had been to Goa only twice before his marriage. However, his friends, like those of his parents, were Goan. They were part of Goan clubs, married within the caste, “sang folk songs, play- acted tiatrs”, cooked Goan food. They preserved traditions in this foreign land.The globalmeltdown in2008 took away his job and they were forced to leave the UAE. The notion of home is turned on its head with one having to leave the only place one knows and a good life, for a veritable ‘vir- tual home’ constructed through memory and hearsay (76). Bomoikar late Melinda Coutinho Powell, too, relocated from Mumbai to Davorlim in Goa in 1998. The article captures the initial skepticism giving way to acceptance and adjustments on both sides. She draws attention to the Goan penchant for camaraderie, expressed in seemingly nosey questions posed by neighbours like “Is there ﬁsh in the market today?” (84) She appreciates the traditions and experiences like that of the poder on his cycle, the village tavern with its regular brawls and arm wrestling, the sincerity and affection of the village folk, the buddy system of reaching out in times of loss. She wistfully notes the degradation of the virgin beaches and hillsides inevitably giving way to housing for the “‘outsider’ invasion” (88). All of India seems to covet a piece of real estate in Goa. The Hindus- tan Times elicited views from some who have chosen to relocate to this dream destination. “Goa just lets you be”, afﬁrms former actor Kimmy Katkar who moved to Goa with her family in 2014 after living in Mum- bai, Melbourne and Pune. Since 2011, Pralay Bakshi works from his home studio and assists Bina Punjani (his wife) with her hair salon in Miramar. He opines that Goa offers the closest to Europe that’s possible in India providing quality of life as well as business opportunities. Green spaces, and access to a good life are what magnetises them to Goa. Delhi litig- ator Diviya Kapoor moved to Calangute in 2004. She runs a bookstore in Candolim. She loves the beach and the leisurely pace. Theatre person Ar- undhati Chattopadhyaya and Neel her musician husband state that Goa offers them the quality of life they lived abroad. She elucidates that beyond the cheese and wine, it is about “the ocean, greenery and quiet. We

64 Veni Vidi Amavi | Prema Rocha hear the birds and the flour mill across the street. We have frogs and mon- itors in our courtyard, a kokum, jambul tree.” Yogita Mehra and Karan Manral who set up base in Goa in 2002 run an organic farm currently spanning 2.5 acres of friends’ land. They’ve found, over the years, that Goa fascinates the metropolis-maddened, artistic type. Among those who have moved to Goa, Vas takes into account more visible narratives like that of psychoanalyst and novelist Sudhir Kakar and his wife Katarina, journalist turned novelist Sudeep Chakravarti, Amitav Ghosh, author Lord Meghnad Desai, photographer Dayanita Singh and Heta Pandit, among others. What is alluring about Goans and Goa? Cleaner air, relatively cheaper housing, the greenery, the lifestyle, the relaxed pace may be part of the answer. History professor Parag Parobo notes that Goa is envisaged as a “space of difference, and this difference has become its marker” (1). Maria Aurora Couto regards tolerance, respect, and “appreciation of other cultures and technology” as strengths of Goa (395). Historian Teotonio de Souza grants that Goan identity originates prior to the arrival of the Por- tuguese but 450 years of colonial rule have undoubtedly left a mark (Ran- gel 7). Anthropologist Robert S. Newman posits that Goan culture must be regarded as a “syncretic Hindu-Catholic one”. He locates this ‘fascinating synthesis’ in the larger Indian context which is but a vast syncretic culture (Vas 337). Victor Rangel-Ribeiro cites the Goan intellectual João da Veiga Coutinho’s description of Goans as “chameleon-like” in terms of ad- aptability (13). He quotes Peter Nazareth to clinch the discussion: “I think of myself as being a Goan first, as well as being an Indian. Being a Goan automatically makes me an Indian; being an Indian wouldnot necessarily make me a Goan” (9). Couto likens identity to an onion: “Ifyou peel it you will shed tears, but there would be nothing left”.She wonders whether the answer lies in respecting “multiple identities” (398). Dreamy notions aside, cognisance has to be taken of issues that Goans have to deal with as part of daily living: public transport and road woes, maintenance of homes, getting labour, house help, communication and connectivity bandwidth woes, dealing with the monsoons and white ants, making businesses work, finding jobs, cost of living where the best pick gets sent to hotels. Then there are the stereotypes that are only reinforced

65 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

by the media and film industry. Booze, drugs, the drug mafia, sex, rave parties, a free for all permissive society where anything goes, these are no less a part of the Goa narrative. It is important to critique the packaging of Goa as a land of sun, surf, sand and sex, and highlight– as Rajdeep Sardesainotes – the Goa of “deep social conservatism, of folk religiosity... of simplicity of lifestyle within rural communities, of a premium on education and of immense pride in its plural, multi-cultural heritage”. However, Jason Keith Fernandes reminds us that there is much to be feared as well in shifting focus away from the perverted gaze of the tourist and Indian media industry. To pro- pose that the real Goa resides in the hinterland is to deny the claim “to authenticity of the Goans who actually live and work in the beach belt.” For, they are Goans too and this is no less genuine Goan culture as well. Rahul Shrivastava asserts that the role of “the eternal outsider, [is] a rare privilege in this retro modernist age of native, primordial identities” (Vas 343). The travellers who came to stay might agree with one who knows something of the business of home. For Salman Rushdie, home is, simply, “the place where you feel happy”. British-born American of Indian descent, Pico Iyer, who has chosen to live in Japan, asserts that “home has reallyless to do with a piece of soil than... with a piece of soul.” The Goan in soul may identify with Leonor Rangel-Ribeiro.She encapsulates the ardent longing of the Goan exile to be unified with the homeland even in death:

All this harmony of divine love that is Goa, It is me! And if one day in a distant land Death should cull me without mercy, I will return to the lands of Goa Will return on the wings of the wind Even as dust. (Ribeiro 16-17)

Works Cited

Couto, Maria Aurora. “Afterword: Waiting to be Translated...” In Nazareth, Pivot- ing on the Point of Return, pp. 393-99. Da Silva, Marion. “Return to Goa.” In Nazareth, Pivoting on the Point of Return, pp. 381-386.

66 Veni Vidi Amavi | Prema Rocha

Fernandes, Jason Keith. “Of Rapes, Murder, Drugs and the ‘Real Goa’”. Go- mantak Times, 26 Mar. 2008. Gadgil, Vidyadhar. “Garv se kaho hum ghanti hain”. In Menezes and Lourenço (eds), pp. 52-61. Iyer, Pico. “Why We Travel.” 18 Mar. 2000. picoiyerjourneys.com /index.php/2000/03/why-we-travel/ Accessed 28 Feb. 2017. Lopez, Rachel. “Actor to Journalist: Look Who’s Settling Down in Goa for a Dream Life.” Hindustan Times. 31 Jan. 2016. Menezes, Helene Derkin. “From the outside... in”. In Menezes and Lourenço (eds). Menezes, Helene Derkin & José Lourenço (eds.) Inside/ Out: New Writing from Goa. Saligão: Goa,1556/Goa Writers 2011. Nazareth, Peter (ed.) Modern Goan Literature: Pivoting on the Point of Return. Saligão/Panjim: Goa,1556/Broadway, 2010. Parobo, Parag. India’s First Democratic Revolution. New Delhi: Orient Black- swan, 2015. Pinto, Jerry (ed.) Reﬂected in Water: Writings on Goa. New Delhi: Penguin, 2008. Rangel-Ribeiro, Victor. Introduction. In Donna J. Young, Mirror to Goa. S. R. Vas, Luís. Veni, Vidi... Goa: Travellers’ Views of Goa, Ancient and Modern. Centro de Estudos Indo-Portugueses Voicuntrao Dempo, 2011. Shetty, Manohar (ed.). Goa Travels. New Delhi: Rupa, 2014. ——— “The Shady Invasion of the Beach Umbrella”. Goa Travels. ——— (ed.) Ferry Crossing: Short Stories from Goa. New Delhi: Penguin, 1998. Young, Donna J. Mirror to Goa. Saligão/Panjim: Goa,1556/Broadway, 2009.

67 Sifting sands: a search for stability and sustenance of Goan culture through travel narratives

SUNITA MESQUITA1

A land that promises the traveller a culture of curiosity and an almost fathomless fascination for its inhabitants has been the hall- mark of many travelogues on Goa. This ‘outsider’ image springs from the reservoir of its imperialistic past that has successfully created a Westernised present. By throwing light on the presence of the rich traditions and cultural patterns that embody this tourist destination, the paper attempts to search, question and assess how travel narratives have become a veritable indicator of culture. Accosted by the burden of a changing cultural scenario, the need to correlate literature with culture would become a vital fulcrum of its sustenance.

HE curiosity of coming to Goa and experiencing a ‘traveller’s delight’ T is not unusual for a visitor to Goa. In fact, global and national trav- ellerswhohaven’tmadeuptheirmindsonwheretogoforaholiday would have already noted that a Google search for a top holiday destination in India will take you to none other than Goa. Goa’s chequered colonial past has brought with it a universal curious fascination.Not just in contemporary times but stories told by some of the earliest travellers are narratives that traverse a passion for the unknown. In her research paper titled The Fascination for the Orient in Contemporary Travel Literature and Painting, Maria João Castro while maintaining that the cause of undertaking travel was imperialistic in nature, opines that,

It was the imperial colonies, (Great Britain in India; France in In- dochina; Portugal in Goa, Macau and Timor), who were the driving force behind overseas travel, contributing to an increasing

1 Associate Professor, Department of English, St Xavier’s College, Mapusa, Goa. sunit- [email protected] Sifting sands | Sunita Mesquita

number of artists and writers being eager to experience and learn about these overseas possessions (152).

While wanting to deliberate on the reasons why travellers choose Goa – whether it is its beautiful beaches, places of historical richness and its Indo-Portuguese culture – many Goans would find a representative voice in the words of Prof. Eduardo de Sousa, writing in Fortune Teller, where he states, “Romance of travel and love of nature, mingled with religious sen- timents and feelings, draw many persons from distant lands to Goa. With its mystic oriental charm, Goa attracts many foreign tourists” (Souza 51). It is believed by every unsuspecting Goan that the major attraction for tourists is Goa’s beautiful landscape and its rich cultural heritage. Every- one would like to believe that these are the very things that attract the traveller to Goa. However, there is perhaps another truth. The general assumption is that a great many people who visit Goa do it for the ‘entertainment’ life it offers of fun, feni and fantasy. In this ‘fantastic’ land, the traveller has visions of a people given to the ‘trade of entertainment’ bereft of traditional and educational space. It may come as an unpleasant surprise that when you hear people inquire about Goa, they find it difficult to believe that there are ‘colleges’ in Goa and that Goans here actually pick up an education. Such a flippant attitude towards Goa is aptly described by Manohar Shetty who writes in his introduction to Ferry Crossing: Short stories from Goa

A recent Governor of Goa, sunning himself silly at the private beach of Cabo Raj Bhavan, reﬂected on his tenure in Goa as a thirteen-month-long ‘super-deluxe holiday at the cost of the Pres- ident of India’.

Whatever the ‘visitor’ might think about being in Goa, with the onslaught of European inﬂuence on traditional culture, Goans would want the ‘outsider’ to experience a different Goa... a Goa that is rich in culture, custom and tradition where hard work, a tolerant attitude and respect for other religions abound. With literature as an indicator of culture, this essay attempts to explore the literature of travel and its views on the changing dynamics of

69 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

cultureinthe makingof Goa. The task at handisthatof interpreting travel narratives that will direct focus on contemporary challenges that come in the way of sustaining Goa’s ethos, culture and heritage.

The gaze of the traveller

Given Goa’s multicultural diversity, should one be concerned about how Goa is written? It is a lesser known fact that explorer travellers have written about Goa as early as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, and even earlier. An understanding of their perceptions would give an insight into deﬁning Goa and its evolving cultural history. However, it must be noted that this perception is usually different when compared to the manner in which local residents perceive their land. In the chapter titled Travel Narratives as Textual evidences of Cultural Documentation, Dhishna states that

The manner in which a traveller/writer views a new/foreign place will be different from the way in which the people living in that place perceive it. Hence, the accounts of a traveller would reﬂect much more curiosity in comparison to that of the indigenous person. The travel writer usually highlights the quality of the place, its culture, custom, people... Hence the perception of the traveller/writer about the culture of a place/people is important in understanding any travel narrative.

The traveller’s perspective has been under constant change when it comes to assessing Goa. From visiting Goa to conduct the spice trade, to trading in drugs, much has altered. The ‘old Goa’ evades the new Goan. In an effort to bring about a greater consciousness, it is hoped that travel literature can ﬁll the gaps in history and build a bridge to culture. Alex- ander Henn argues, “Since Said’s groundbreaking text Orientalism, travel literature has been a part of many theorists’ interdisciplinary attempts to unravel the ways the West (“developed nations”) have perceived and depicted others in the East (“in the developing nations”).” He further argues that the Portuguese conquest of Asian space vis à vis Goa has played a signiﬁcant role in its cultural construction.

70 Sifting sands | Sunita Mesquita

Golden Goa... gone? While Goa takes pride in its cultural richness, it yearns for a revival of everything ‘Goan’. It is against this backdrop that one has to remember that several pages of travel writing are devoted to a description of Goa as a land of plenty. This has been distinctly corroborated by Caroline Ifeka who

...draws critical attention to the widespread tendency in European writing to condense the description of the scenic beauty and natural resourcefulness, the cosmopolitan life and mercantile prosperity of the early modern Portuguese headquarters in India into the image of Goa Dourada, or Golden Goa. (Henn)

In saying this, it must be acknowledged that this ‘Pearl of the Orient’ had abundance and prosperity walking hand in hand. A chance online encounter with Goa, and the Blue Mountains by Victorian explorer Sir Richard F.Burton published in 1851 was a pleasant revelation that Goa caught the eye of the Western ‘traveller’. It is an account of his journey through portions of southwest India while he was on sick leave from the British Indian army. Traveling through Bombay to the Portuguese colony of Goa, it provides a revealing look at the people who inhabited a part of India that was generally off the beaten track in the nineteenth century. Here is a line taken from this travelogue on the sea route to Goa:

We strain our eyes in search of the tall buildings and crowded ways that denote a capital: we can see naught but a forest of lanky cocoa-nuttrees, whosestems areapparentlygrowingoutof a multitude of small hovels. Can this be Goa?

Yes, it was Burton’s Goa and, like several other writers, his narrative includes descriptions that compare and contrast the image of Golden Goa. He goes on to say, “The descriptions of Goa in her palmy days are, thanks to the many travellers that visited the land” (Burton 46). Sir Burton devoted a sizable portion of his narrative to trace the perceptions of several explorers and what they have said about Goa. Two such references are cited by Linschoten and Capt. Hamilton. Sir Burton makes a reference to “Linschoten, a native of Haarlem, who travelled to the capital of Por- tuguese India about 1583. The book is replete with curious information. Linschoten’s account of the riches and splendour of Goa would be judged

71 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

exaggerated, were they not testiﬁed to by a host of other travellers.” The account further states that “...during the prosperous times of the Portuguese in Indiayou couldnot have seen a bit of iron in anymerchant’s house, but all gold and silver.” Karina Kubiˇnáková in her thesis titled Whose Goa? Projection of Goan Identity in Rival Discourses refers to Suma Oriental, a travelogue written by Tomé Pires between 1512 and 1515. Kubiˇnáková argues for the prosperous image of Goa by referring to the exact claims made by Pires whom she quotes:

Pires’s account of the early period of the capture of Goa describes a grand kingdom with civilized inhabitants. He claimed Goa to be civilized and “the most important [kingdom] in India, although they [other Muslim kingdoms] might not wish it to be so.”

Besides, some early traveller’s insights could be found in The Land of the Great Image by Maurice Collins, published in 1942. It is a narrative by Friar Sebastião Manrique on his visit to Goa, the then capital of Portuguese Asia when he was quite young (1604-1614). His stay coincided with the last years of Portuguese prosperity. Historian Teotonio de Souza recalls an unintentionally striking quotation from Collins: “For Latins, the city was a paradise, a lotus-eating island of the blest, where you could sit on your veranda listening to music as the breeze blew in from the sea, with humble folk within call to minister to your every wish.” With this account in his autobiographical work Goa to Me, Teotonio de Souza makes an almost overt representation of the parallels that exist between Portuguese colonial rule in Goa in the sixteenth century, and the tourist trade that exists here today, writes Vikram Gill. At the same time, Goa has had its tryst with conditions that might hardly be ‘golden’. This could be perceived from the descriptions pulled out by Sir Burton, who goes on to write:

The next in our list stands the good Capt. Hamilton, a sturdy old merchant militant, who infested the Eastern seas about the beginning of the eighteenth century. The poverty of Goa must have been great in Capt. Hamilton’s time, when “the houses were poorly furnished within, like their owners’ heads, and the tables andliving very mean. Thearmy wasso ill-paid anddefrauded that

72 Sifting sands | Sunita Mesquita

the soldiers were little better than common thieves and assassins. Trade was limited to salt and arrack, distilled from the cocoa-nut.

Today, Goa has its own share of richness and poverty. The houses may not be made of gold but to have a house you would need to pay the price of gold. The lanky cocoa-nut trees greeted Sir Burton on his arrival to Goa. Today Goans haveto ﬁghtforthe identity of the palmitself. A travel narrative may dwell on Goa’s famous feni but what is feni without our coconut trees? Goa legislative elections held in March 2017 were fought on the as- surance of sustaining Goem, Goykar and Goekarponn. The desire to bring back the past and restore Goa to its original ‘Golden’ image is perhaps idealistic but the Goan craves for it all the same.

Searching through the cultural lens

An important challenge to Goa and the Goans is the issue of a disappearing culture. Thereis yet againa feelingof an uncertainsense of what really makes for this culture. In his introduction to Modern Goan Short Stories, Luís Santa Rita Vas writes,

To an anthropologist and a sociologist, Goa is as interesting as any other state of India. Perhaps more so, because of its peculiar historical circumstances, which sets it apart from India for centuries. The coming of the Portuguese four and a half centuries ago resulted in the imposition of one culture on another of a profoundly different nature.

Goans have a unique politicalhistory that hasplayed a major role in defining its cultural history. It might be further stated that it is common knowledge that an Indian in India is culturally different from a Goan in India. Travel writing lays emphasis on people that inhabit a specific culture. In Goa, religion plays a significant role in determining one’s culture. Go- ing back to Goa, and the Blue Mountains, it may be noted that Captain Hamilton’s views of the manners and customs of the people are more interesting than his description of the city. Some quick descriptions of the Christians, Hindus and Muslims are noteworthy.

The native Christian is originally a converted Hindoo... and though he has changed for centuries his manners, dress, and religion, he retains to a wonderful extent the ideas, prejudices, and

73 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

superstitions of his ancient state [...] The Moslem population at Panjim scarcely amounts to a thousand. They have no place of worship, although their religion is now, like all others, tolerated. The distinctive mark of the Faithful is the long beard. They appear superior beings by the side of the degenerate native Chris- tians.[...] Next to the Christians, the Hindoos are the most numerous portion of the community. They are held in the highest possible esteem and consideration [...] But at Goa all men are equal (102-106).

These observations might appear biased to the reader but isn’t it the right of the traveller to have perceptions and interpretations of a land and its people that might be different from the perceptions of the indigenous native? In the essay titled ‘Goan culture: an imaginative re-construct’, the writer attempts to put into a cultural perspective the conditions surrounding Goa’s destiny thus “...the ‘Goan’ is a real individual rather than an ethnic guinea pig. He lives in a cultural space, stunningly ambivalent and de- ceptively complex. His cultural context is a marvelous amalgamof fusions and diffusions rooted in a long series of complicated human interactions” (Budkuley 171). There is something unique about being a Goan which cannot be disputed either by religion or by education. It runs in every Goan vein and Prof. Eduardo de Sousa while quoting the late poet B.B. Borkar writes that ‘Bakibab’ (as Borkar was known) once wrote about the Goan personality in the booklet that was published in 1982 by the Govern- ment of Goa entitled Goa, Now and Then. According to him, the Goan is always warm, sociable, gay, talkative, fun-loving, relaxed and trustworthy (163). What then brings the traveller to Goa? The traveller knows that the qualities found in the heart of a Goan is reﬂective of his long history of political invasion, a generous tolerance that stems out of easy religious acceptance and a language that speaks of living life in huge portions. Stone Soup, a short story by Nora Secco de Sousa, describes José Francisco Batata Fastudo as a “seasoned tramp and globe-trotter” who wishes to visit Goa. When Dona Maria Pulqueria Clementina Grace Torrada compli- ments him on being a “great traveller” and inquires with him, “And what particular business brings you to this side of the globe?”, José Fastudo

74 Sifting sands | Sunita Mesquita replies, “I had heard so much about the peace, prosperity and plenty of good things of life to be had for a song in Goa, that I always wanted to visit the spot.” He goes on to say, “The Goans were always known for their lavish hospitality which is paralleled only by the proverbial generosity of the desert Arab.” Yet the Goan in Goa feels threatened by the unwarranted projections of Goa as a rootless community that is facing the assault of a corrupt culture. The factors leading to this is crisply summarized thus: “The onslaught of the electronic multi-media, irreversible market trends, overwhelming advertising campaigns, unabashed consumerism... [society]... may be uprooted from native culture and thereby cast into the throes of peregrination and faceless global ubiquity” (Budkuley). It might well be said that Portuguese dominion no doubt transformed Goa’s cultural landscape but staying in a resort or hotel does not necessarily give you a sense of what Goa is all about. According to Stanley Stewart, Goa has not lost its cultural identity; it is simply hidden behind the crowded tourist spots, writes Vikram Gill. Goa still has its villages, one will yet find a farmer cultivating his field, while religion is a major framework within which the Goan conducts life and one will also find the Goan rushing to work like any other fellow human. A lot is written about Goa but much more is left to be discovered. The world of travel writing is huge. There are yet many spaces waiting to be filled while recognising Goa’s culture. Like Sir Burton who asks the reader to fill in the gaps as he concludes with these words

Adieu....! Farewell.... land of ....! May every...! May...! And when..., so may .... as thou hast ... ourselves! To the industry of an imaginative reader, we leave the doubtlessly agreeable task of ﬁlling up the hiatus in whatever manner the per- usal of our modest pages may suggest to his acuteness and dis- cernment. (Burton 368)

I leave the reader the agreeable task of ﬁlling up the gaps and sustaining the search for culture. Going back to the title... the traveller needs to sieve through several cultural experiences in order to discover the real Goa... let that search continue!

75 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

Works Cited

Budkuley, Kiran. “Goan literature: challenges of language and culture”. In Mus- ings in the Meadows: Essays on Goan Literature and Culture, Sanjana Pub- lications, Sanguem, 2012. Burton, Richard F. Goa, and the Blue Mountains, Samuel Bentley & Co., Lon- don, 1852. archive.org/details/goabluemountains00burtrich Accessed 11 Mar. 2017. Castro, Maria João. “The Fascination for the Orient in Contemporary Travel Lit- erature and Painting.” In International Journal of Humanities and Manage- ment Sciences (IJHMS), Vol 4, Issue 2 (2016) Accessed 13 Feb. 2017. De Sousa, Eduardo. “The Goan Villager”. From Goa with Love. All India (Press) Letter-Writers Association. Bombay, 2002. De Souza, Teotonio. Goa to Me, Concept Publishing, New Delhi. 1994. Dhishna, P. Cultural encounters in the travel narratives of D.H. Lawrence, V.S. Naipaul, Bruce Chatwin and S.K. Pottekkatt. 29 Nov. 2012. Pondicherry University. Thesis. shodhganga.inﬂibnet.ac.in/handle/ 10603/5364 Ac- cessed 13 Feb 2017. Gill, Vikram. “Parallels in Goa International Tourism and the New Imperi- alism”. April 2006. ibis.geog.ubc.ca/ewyly/students/gill.pdf. Accessed 17 Mar 2017. Henn, Alexander. “The Becoming of Goa: Space and Culture in the Emer- gence of a Multicultural Lifeworld.” In Lusotopie, 2000, pp. 333-39. http://www.lusotopie.sciencespobordeaux.fr/henn.pdf. Accessed 11 Mar 2017. Kubiˇnáková, Karina. “Whose Goa? Projection of Goan Identity in Rival Dis- courses”, University of Groningen, The Netherlands. February 2010. http://www.goanvoice.ca/2015/issue25/ref/whose-Goa.pdf. Accessed 11 Mar 2017. Pires, Tomé. Suma Oriental, edited by Pires, Rodrigues and Cortesão, archive.org/stream/McGillLibrary-136385-182/136385_djvu.txt Shetty, Manohar. “Introduction” Ferry Crossing: Short Stories from Goa, Pen- guin Books, 1998, pp xiii. Vas, Luís S. Rita. (Ed.) Modern Short Stories, edited by L.S.Rita Vas, Jaico Publish- ing House, Mumbai, 2002.

76 Goa through the prism of contemporary travel blogs

GLENISMARIAMENDONçA1

On-line travel literature offers a traveller’s insight into unvoiced ‘Goa-experiences’ and enables the tourism industry to gain con- structive feedback. It adds a new dimension to the Goa-travel literary output and, at times, enlightens the average Goan unaware of interesting things in his or her backyard. This essay examines select blogs written by travellers that offer a peek into a Goa beyond the balmy beaches and the tourist-vendor camaraderie. Along with the glam, the grotesque and grim perspectives indicate that there is still scope to improve the ‘Goa-experience’ for tourists.

RAVEL literature is a fascinating genre, a fertile ground for study T which is seldom traversed. It documents the bitter-sweet experiences of travellers either in transit or after the travel experience. Such literature is not merely suited for eliciting a boost for the tourism industry but also acts as a curious repertoire of collective shared experiences of travellers who have visited a certain place. This essay collates the experiences of visiting Goa by various national and international visitors (tourists, expats and others). In a word, the present researcher will refer to these experiences of visitors as “Goa-experiences”, which are available in books on travel-literature, magazines, newspapers, television documentaries, radio shows and online literature like travel blogs. This essay will explore the Goa-experiences of travellers visiting Goa through the prism of select travel blogs.

Understanding Goa through blogs

Goa has been on the bucket wish-list of several tourists, both in India and abroad. Historically speaking, over the centuries, there have been count- less travellers who have visited Goa for trade, commerce, for missionary

1 Assistant Professor, Department of English, Carmel College for Women, Nuvem, Goa. Email: [email protected]. GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

service, conquests, for adventure and even for satiating their interests in sciences and literature. From the archival documentation and relevant books written, there is copious evidence to ascertain the fact that numerous travellers have visited Goa and documented their experiences along with their own assumptions and prejudices. It is interesting to find scholars like Luís S.R. Vas who have compiled such archived information on ancient and modern travellers’ views on Goa in a book titled Veni, Vidi... Goa. Therefore, it is imperative to see online sources for understanding the views on Goa by travellers. This essay limits itself to travel blogs of travellers who have visited Goa and have written about their Goa-experiences. The question often asked here is: What is a blog? Blogbasics.com defines a blog as a frequently up- dated online personal journal or diary. It is a place to express oneself to the world. It is a place to share your thoughts and passions. A blog can really be what you want it to be. One may, thus, call it a personal website which a blogger will update on a regular basis. ‘Blog’ is a short form for the word ‘web-log’, as the two terms have been used interchangeably. Thus a travel-blog is a twenty-first-century e-resource. Using it, a blogger who has visited a specific destination as a tourist or expat, or for any other purpose, narrates and writes his or her experiences, perceptions, views and sometimes preconceived ideas about the respective destination. The present paper looks at select travel blogs of national and international visitors who visited Goa or as expats lived here for longer periods and documented their Goa-experiences in travel blogs. Goa travel blog: Goa Beyond the Beaches The wanderer.com is a traveller’s haven which has a blog space where travellers voice their travel experiences. One such blog here is titled ‘Goa Bey- ond the Beaches’. Here, anonymous writers have informed about several places in Goa which are of significant value to a visitor or tourist. The language used is inviting and homely, drawing a reader to read with curiosity and find out what actually lies ‘beyond the beaches’ in Goa:

Imagine walking through a lane in Goa with Portuguese houses all around you, and chatter in local Konkani and Portuguese ﬁltering out of the windows. The doors of these homes are open and families are happily wishing each other with cakes and hugs. If you

78 Goa through the prism of travel blogs | Glenis Mendonça

are wondering this would be a typical day in colonial Goa in 1895, thinkagain.TheoldworldcharmofGoa isnot lost,notyet.It lives on in areas away fromtheovercrowdedbeaches... If you haveseen all of this, and want to explore something new in Goa — discover the Old Goa, discover Goa beyond beaches, alcohol and trance parties.

The author of this blog invites the reader to visit heritage houses, quiet villages like Divar (which has to be reached with a ferry-boat) and savour the serenity of the countryside amidst its traditional food joints. There is a reference to interesting places to visit, like museums in Goa or the Saturday Night Bazaar at Arpora and even otherwise niche vegan joints like ‘Bean Me Up’ in Vagator. The author offers a few recommended food andcoffeejointsin Goa which areworth a visit: Bodega, Urban Café, Hotel Venite, Baba Coffee and Coffee Haven. Vince’s Goa-experience: urbantravelblog.com

Vince arrives in Goa, where his party radar lets him down. An encounter with a young bracelet hawker, however, turns into an opportunity to spend the evening with an entire Indian family and form a bond that goes beyond the tourist dollar (n.p.).

Vince’s blog is a terriﬁc account of how an otherwise irksome family of trinket hawkers turns out to be his Goa buddies as he and his friends take themoutto a restaurantfor a meal, andshare an inexplicable bond, which he shares in this blog. The family then reciprocated by inviting Vince and his bunch of friends to their own humble home and offered them food and introduced them to their family.In an emotionally drawn description, Vince writes:

It was really a special experience; it was very meaningful to have transcended that vendor-tourist relationship, if just for a brief evening. On a personal level, I think most travellers have difﬁculty sorting out the disparity between their personal experience “on holiday” and the communities who may be affected by their tourism. It’s one of the tough parts about travelling, and I don’t have the answer to what’s right and what’s wrong, what’s be- neﬁcial or harmful. But I do know that moments like these are the onesthat taketheeconomicsout of theequationandbring people together to just be people (n.p.).

79 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

As an international tourist, Vince is enthralled by the beauty of Goa: the beautiful beaches, the heritage monuments and Portuguese legacy. On a rented motorbike he explores the stunning countryside of Goa: jungles, open ﬁelds of rice, bridges over rivers, country roads, and small towns. Ex- periences in Benaulim, Anjuna and Quepem are etched in his memory. The heritage houses of South Goa offer ample scope to appreciate the architecture and culture of the countryside. He also recounts how little village boys expressed delight when offered piggy-back rides by him on his bike. A few pictures embellish the blog and offer a stimulating perspective.

Expatsblog.com: Hippie In Heels

Rachel is a young American expat in India. After backpacking for months, she moved permanently to live with her boyfriend in Goa. An avid traveller who has been to places in India, her expat blog called Hippie In Heels helps girls get through the labyrinthine that is India, safely and fashion- ably. This is how she describes herself:

I am a small blonde girl that people said couldn’t make it in India. I have! I have made it all over the world, all the way to Uganda. I love to travel and inspire others they can too. My blog is about being glamorous while you travel, you don’t have to look like an REI catalogue, or a “backpacker”. You can be you, and you are brave, strong,andbeautiful.Ibelievein solotravel,andIthinkthat a concern of safety shouldn’t hold you back, so I give tips to help keep girls safe, especially travelling where I live in India (n.p).

Here Rachael refers to Goa. Her blog is a creative and curious space where she documents her experiences and at the same time offers counsel to probable expat visitors to Goa. She emphasizes on the dos and don’ts to be kept in mind in Goa, the places to avoid as young single girls, tips for expats to settle comfortably in Goa as also the best use of time she makes to go shopping and beach-hopping.

Goa vegan travel blogs

It is interesting to note that there are several blogs where vegan travellers share their insights with readers. In a place like Goa, especially along the coast where people visit to have a blast on the beach, enjoy partying

80 Goa through the prism of travel blogs | Glenis Mendonça and eat the most forbidden non-vegetarian foods like beef and pork, it becomes very difficult for vegans to survive. Vegans visiting Goa have managed to explore comfy and reasonable vegan food-spots so that their food preferences are met in Goa which is often assumed to be mainly a haven for fish and flesh. One of such interesting vegan spots mentioned by bloggers in this space is “Bean Me Up” in Vagator. They write:

This incredible restaurant, surrounded by tropical jungle plants, serves some of the best food we have ever had. The staff is lovely, the vibe is casual and laid back, and the menu seems never- ending. A lot of love, care, and thought is put into the dishes at this vegan restaurant which is probably why every single thing we tried was phenomenal in freshness and flavour... We rarely give five out of five stars for restaurants; but the service, atmosphere, and food was outstanding.

The bloggers here mention the various varieties of vegan food dished out in places such as Shawn’s “Bean Me Up”. The descriptions are so delicious that even non-vegans would be tempted to try them out.

Romantic trips to Goa: traveltriangle.com

When Amit and Pooja from Bangalore travelled to Goa for their holiday, they had some memorable experiences on what they called the ‘Backwa- ters of Goa’. Their four-day trip to Goa where they stayed at The Lalit and had a packed itinerary, was indeed something to cherish. Many travellers, particularly newlyweds, treat Goa as a honeymoon destination. There are special tourist packages designed for such visitors. The experiences, details, whether they are worth it or not and the real experiences of couples are shared in such travel blogs which are attached to traveltriangle.com This webspace is a platform for visitors to share their romantic travel experiences. They share ‘things to be done’, ‘things to be avoided’, ‘must- visit places in Goa as travellers’, ‘instructions to ﬁrst-time travellers’ and other such vital information which helps all those who will be planning a trip to Goa. There’s another similar space called travbuddy.com, where several tourists visiting Goa write blogs to share their experiences and serve to enlighten other prospect travellers to Goa.

81 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

The ﬂipside of Goa through blogs

A careful study of blogs reveals that not all travellers coming to Goa ﬁnd it an idyllic haven. There are some like the Delhi-based Deepti Kapoor who observe that the beautiful, laid-back Goa of old is disappearing due to pollution, over-development and fears over personal safety. It’s time to leave Goa, she says while she overlooks an overcrowded Calangute beach, with hawkers pestering the tourists to buy their wares. Tourism is gradually turning to be a failing industry in Goa, it is argued. The statistics are stark and the several bloggers who write, understand the gravity of the problem. One of the bloggers responds to Deepti Kapoor with the stats and writes:

Foreign tourism has been falling for the last few years. India News Network reported that the total number of foreign tourists had fallen 20% over the last two years. The Times of India said 57,000 foreign tourists arrived in Goa between October and December 2015, compared to the 85,000 in the same period the previous year. Over 20,000 Russians, the demographic Goa recently relied on, have cancelled trips. 42% of Russians who had visited in the last four years said they wouldn’t be coming back. For them, Goa was too expensive, too dirty, the taxi maﬁa too aggressive, women didn’t feel safe, the police were uncooperative (n.p.)

All this speaks volumes about the discontentment which is slowing creep- ing in among those aspiringto travel to Goa. Bloggersare only being frank and straightforward and creating awareness about the problems they experience and foresee for Goa and other visitors to the State. Such blogs thus serve as eye-openers, not just to prospective travellers to the State, but also to Goans and local government bodies to undertake a re-look at the fast deteriorating tourism prospects and to make quick moves to remedy the situation. Though some years back, Goa was in the top 15 destinations of India considered safe for solo women to travel, it is no longer so. With recent unfortunate incidents along the beach belts of the State where foreign women were victims of sexual abuse by locals, the travellers are gradually raising eyebrows through their blogs. In the India travel blogs, the country itself is gradually getting notorious for being unsafe for solo women

82 Goa through the prism of travel blogs | Glenis Mendonça

(particularly foreign women) travelling as tourists. Goa too becomes no exception, thus making the scenario for women solo travellers quite grim. Conclusion Travel blogs about Goa by travellers visiting or even those living in this State, offer fresh perspectives from the so-called “outsider” about ‘inside’ matters of our State. They unravel the good, the bad and the ugly experiences of the travellers coming to Goa and serve as reﬂectors to give feedback to the tourism industry linked ofﬁcials and personnel so that they could undertake timely interventions to remedy the failing situation and improve the tourism prospects of the State. Unlike personal diaries, travel blogs become shared web spaces which illuminate, guide and inspire those who wish to know more about the State of Goa. They offer kaleidoscopic insights not just to prospect travellers or tourists planning to visit Goa, but also to Goans who assume they know all about their State.

Works Cited

“The Reality of Being a Digital Nomad in Goa, India.” Global Gallivant- ing Travel Blog, 3 Feb. 2017, www.global-gallivanting.com/reality-digital- nomad-goa-india/. American Expat Living in Goa, India Meet Rachel, www.expatsblog.com /articles/1675/american-expat-living-in-goa-india-meet-rachel “Nightlife in Goa: 10 Best Nightclubs, Raves and Party Places in Goa.” Global Gallivanting Travel Blog, 11 Feb. 2018, www.global- gallivanting.com/nightlife-ingoa-the-best-clubs-and-parties-in-goa- india/. IndiaNewsNetwork. “Over 8500 Regular British Tourists to Goa Cancel Their Bookings This Year.” indianewsnetwork.in/over-8500-regular-british- tourists -to-goa-cancel-their-bookings-this-year/ Joshi, Siddhartha. “The Wanderer.” Goa Travel Blog - Goa Beyond the Beaches!, Blogger, 5 Aug. 2017, www.sid-thewanderer. com/2015/02/goa-beyond- beaches-travel-guide-to-goa.html. Kapoor, Deepti. “An idyll no more: why I’m leaving Goa.” The Guard- ian, Guardian News and Media, 7 Sept. 2016, www.theguardian. com/travel/2016/sep/07/deepti-kapoor-why-i-am-leaving-goa. Rachel. “Hippie in Heels.” Facebook, www.facebook.com/ hippieinheelsblog. Sequeira, Devika. “European Tourist Numbers to Goa are Falling, And That’s a Worry.” The Wire, The Wire, 25 Sept. 2015, thewire.in/11526/ european- tourist-numbers-to-goa-are-falling-and-thats-a-worry/.

83 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

Sharath, Lakshmi. “Goa beyond beaches - Shigmo Festival.” Lakshmi Sharath, 5 Sept. 2017, www.lakshmisharath.com/2015/03/17/goa-beyond-beaches- the-shigmo-festival/. “The Best Vegan Food in Goa - Vegan Travel Blog on VeganTravel.Com.” Vegan Travel, 21 Jan. 2018, www.vegantravel.com/vegan-food-goa/. TravelTriangle. “Iresh And His Wife Rocked Their Trip To Goa And Here’s How!” Personalized Holiday Packages, 8 June 2017, traveltriangle.com /blog/iresh-romantic-trip-to-goa-travelogue/. TravelTriangle. “Amits Romantic Trip To Goa...” 16 Aug. 2017, traveltriangle.com/blog/amit-romantic-trip-to-goa/. TravelTriangle. “8 Most Amazing Places To Visit In Goa In December.” Person- alized Holiday Packages, 15 Sept. 2017, traveltriangle.com/ blog/places-to- visit-in-goa-in-december/. “URBAN.” Urban Travel Blog, www.urbantravelblog.com/trip/goa-india/ Vas, Luís S. R. Veni, Vidi, Goa. Travellers’ Views of Goa, Ancient and Modern. Goa: Centro de Estudos Indo Portuguese Voicuntrao Dempo, 2011. Ward, Mariellen. “Choosing the perfect beach in Goa, India.” Breathedreamgo, 2 Aug. 2017.

84 Through the eyes of a traveller-poet: Goa, yesterday and today

BRIAN MENDONÇA1

Travel-writing has usually been confined to prose. In this inquiry, I place my poems on Goa written during my sojourn so far as a traveller-poet. Though identifying with the larger matrix of India, the Goa poems have nimbly yielded a collection of a book of verse by itself. The last decade from my debut volume Last Bus to Vasco: Poems from Goa (2006) to my blog writings today have tried to mediate what it means to be a traveller in Goa. In this pursuit I have shifted genres from poetry to prose, reviews to reportage. Al- ways the subject has been the shifting signifier – Goa. The first poem, ‘Requiem to a Sal,’ (1987) lamented the hacking down of a tree, a horrific reality even today, thirty years on. Similarly there are poems which are descriptions of the places I have spent time in like, ‘Good Friday in Cuncolim,’ (2003) or the march of the tides in ‘May Queen,’ (2004).

HIS IS a poetic documentation of a rapidly changing Goa, of a land- T scape under erasure. The prose narratives are based more on incidents, like the killingof a man by villagers in Pernem, or the vast untamed outback one sees when one travels in Dharbandora taluka for example. Along the journey several social oddities of each place are noted and merged in the creative canvas. These minute observations give a sense of rootedness to the reader with that place. This paper will explore the terrain of my published writings on Goa and attempt to theorise Goa through its lens. It will also consider in its purview critical studies on my work so far. Documenting Goa Living away from Goa for most of my life, I have been fascinated by the way Goa was /is conﬁgured. In so many ways it deﬁed description.

1 Assistant Professor at the Department of English, Carmel College of Arts, Science and Commerce, Nuvem, Goa. [email protected] GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

One way to set about understanding its projection was to write about it. Though I primarily write about Goa now in prose, through my weekly column in the Gomantak Times Weekender, I begin my foray in poetry with my debut collection of poems titled Last Bus to Vasco: Poems from Goa self-published from Delhi in 2006.

To document Goa’s social reality in verse was something new. There were no takers, in terms of publishers, and whoever I approached was inclined to bin it. When I decided to self-publish the work, I was drawn more intensely into my poetic practice, since I was the author, the editor, the publisher, as well as the salesman for my own work. The canvas, however, was not Goa initially. The canvas was India, written during my years in Delhi from 1997 to 2010. From those poems I culled out the Goa poems fora volume on Goa with whichI made my debut as a Goan poet. The enterprise came to the attention of an aide to Menino Peres, then Directorof Information and Publicity who was travelling to Delhi on the same train as me, the iconic. Mr. Peres later released an advertisement by the Govern- ment of Goa, which was featured on the back cover of the book.

As has been mentioned in the theorizing of this seminar, this seminar seeks to look at the ‘curious’ perceptions of ‘outsiders’ about Goa. In some ways, as Sushama Sonak observed, I am both an ‘insider’ as wellasan‘outsider’ to Goa. This vantage point has enabled me to distil my experience of Goa and offer it up on a palette, as if it were, a uniqueslice of India.

The years since the publication of Last Bus to Vasco (2006) were the years of rapid change in Goa. However the volume contains poems on Goa from two decades earlier. My title poem ‘Last Bus to Vasco’ (1986) was written when the bypass was being built at Agassaim to Panjim. In it I described the quaint road the Kadamba bus used to take as it laboured on from Panjim to Vasco. It was also the year that there was a move to rename Vasco da Gama as Sambhaji Nagar. Even if that materialized, I thought, the name would be preserved in my volume of verse. It was my attempt to preserve the status quo.

‘Last Bus to Vasco’ the opening poem in Last Bus to Vasco exempliﬁes the themes which will underpin my later work. The opening itself is one of dissolution, a yielding, a melting away into the cosmic universe:

86 Through the eyes of a traveller-poet | Brian Mendonça

Cool zephyrs of night Under the canopy of the western sky, Everything dissolves, Places, smells, memories, distances.

Interestingly, the volume takes it ﬁrst breath with the ‘brooding Goa Velha cemetery’ in the second verse of ‘Last Bus to Vasco.’ It ends with the poem ‘The Bells of St. Andrews’ (2005) with fond remembrance:

Those whom we love Sleep nearby. Goans have always to mediate loss and they do so in elaborate ways. From the burial of the dead to the observances at the funeral and after, the de- ceased are always and memorialised. The liquidity of the poem ‘Last Bus to Vasco’ comes across with the merging of the mighty river Jamuna from North India and the river Krishna from the South. As compared to these the ‘lambent Zuari’ from Goa, in an act of intimacy ‘receives the prow of the ferry boat in cosmic harmony.’ Goa evokes the image of ‘Vasudhaiva kutumbakam’ the Sanskrit phrase meaning ‘All Creation is one family.’ Today though we do have souls who profess themselves to be digital nomads working on the beaches of Goa, at one time even for a phone call home to say you were going to be late was a trying experience:

Must call home. It’s late. ‘All-lines-in-this-route-are-busy. Please-call-after-some-time.’

Village rhythms are evoked in ‘Fr. Joseph Rowland Salema’ (1999) written at the feast of St. Anthony of Siolim. Through the persona of a priest, the poem comments on the historicity of the moment. There is a melding of the past and the present here, a hint of the colonial encounter:

Like channels of peace, the rivulets run by As marigolds of saffron set aﬂame a wayside khuris. The tulsi manch metamorphoses into a plinth for a cross As an oldman in kaxti walks with a stick on a bridge.

In ‘Sonya’ (2002) the quest for Sonya becomes a journey of discovery, re- tracing her steps on the sandy shore. It is a poem which sees Sonya as a

87 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

citizen of the world with no ﬁxed destination. It is possible to cultivate the art of aimlessness in Goa:

Basel, Setubal, Goa, Madras Homes of the self, anchor of the fugitive Where are you going? Where are you now?

The construction boom in Goa has wiped out vast areas of green cover in Goa. At what price development? On my furtive visits to Goa from Delhi, I summed up my lament in ‘Homecoming’(2000):

Gone are the trees From the hillside green As the sons of the fathers Seek homes of their own... Houses of Goa Thy death-knell is nigh As the axis shifts From squat to high.

Though there are many poems anchored in Goa, there are almost an equal number written in transit. ‘Ei or ie’ (2005) tries to capture the incorrect pronunciation of names of places in Goa by migrants in trains coming in to Goa:

Trouble with the vowels One the 2450 Dn. ‘Mud-goa comes before Thi-VIM. Mad-goa is later.’

Goa and India Though I have self-published two books of verse to date, the other being A Peace of India: Poems in Transit (2011), the fact remains that the poems in the two volumes were written concurrently. I did not sit down to write the Goa poems ﬁrst and then in another session do the India poems. This binary between Goa and India, ‘insider’ and ‘outsider’ has struck me as curious.Living more than a decade in Delhi which is culturally very inclusive, I am curious about Goa’s narrative of ‘we’ versus ‘them.’ A rail track does not change its complexion when it crosses the state boundary, nor does the river change its course as you travel over its bridges. Being in

88 Through the eyes of a traveller-poet | Brian Mendonça a third space like Delhi helped me to use my angst, my saudades to mirror Goa in my lines. The ache of leaving Goa and loved ones, was only made more bearable by forming a supportive community away from Goa –one that welcomed me as their own without distinction of caste or creed. So my poetry is imbued with the spirit of India, while writing about Goa. There is a larger canvas out there, a different reality, with a different set of questions which need to be addressed. Some of these questions are the abject poverty of people in Jharkhand for example; the eerie silence of dusk in Srinagar, with its disturbed conditions, and the several instances of havoc along the coastline of Tamil Nadu due to the wrath of nature. All these moments have been enshrined in my poems across this country. And in the same breath, it is possible to see Goa as with its beauty, its peaceful living conditions and the many times a cyclone has passed over it, leaving this tiny state untouched – as devout Catholics believe, through the intercession of Saint Francis Xavier. Sometimes for a poet boundaries melt away. All that remains is the immensity of nature. One’s destiny is bounded by the elements, viz. the sea and the land. We are all fugitives, travelling from one destination to another trying to ﬁnd our meaning. Here is a poem written in Portuguese by me:

Fugitivo

Fugindo A cidade Para o mar O mar Para a cidade Sempre. (Enroute Goa Express 2001)

The theme of the fugitive was expanded in an article I wrote from Delhi for Goa Today in 2001. When it was published I pressed it into the hands of family and colleagues in Goa and Delhi and was amazed at their responses. It also brought to the fore the disconnect between the capital of India and the nuances of Goa – or the poetic life for that matter. Like Brueghel’s painting ‘The Blind leading the Blind’ each reader confronts his/her own aporia [blindspot] while engaging with the text. I sewed them all into a quilt and called it ‘On the Run.’

89 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

On the Run ‘It’s about the dialectics of self and location.’ ‘Hmm. Colourless city.’ ‘Carl Sandburg – is that a beer?’ ‘Ravished – has my name on it!’ ‘Who’s Souza Lobo?’ ‘How can you talk about passion with a married woman?’ ‘It’s in the clouds. Can’t you write like the others?’ ‘You live in the past.’ ‘It’s like Icarus being burned.’ ‘Delhi, shitty of shitties?’ ‘Did Pessoa have a PhD?’ ‘like the way you always write about Goa.’ ‘Needs polish.’ Aapne Dilli aur Goa ko bilkul mila liya.’ ‘It’s so lyrical – reminds me of Kalidasa!’ ‘Mention of Saramago adds weight and beauty to your remarks.’

(New Delhi, 2001)

My poems have in fact always been ‘on the run’. Whether in Goa or out of it, I am a poet in a hurry to write a poem to capture a moment as it were, as in a photograph. I have done several studies of placeswhenIdoa photo-shootof thearea. Ithenlookatthepicturesandthenpiece together the lines of poetry on the train on the way back. The impulse to travel is always there:

Yes I Will Go Yes I will go To see my ‘friends’ The rivers, the birds And the trees Where the wind calls And the forests wait In the stories of an India Yet to be told. (Delhi, 2007)

To continue to write is to begin to mediate the equation between Goa and India. People ﬂock to Goa in search of nirvana. How they get it is any- body’s guess. As a traveller-poet, I sometimes identify with those tourists

90 Through the eyes of a traveller-poet | Brian Mendonça who come hoping Goa will notdisappointthem. Butin marketingGoa,we seem oblivious to the treacherous trenches we lead our young and youth to. With new technology, poetry is now being WhatsApped. On the occasion of the BRICS summit, I WhatsApped these lines and sent them off ill at ease with the state of affairs in Goa:

Good Morning from Goa Good morning from Goa The land of bricks, Where many are gallant But others just pricks. Where you can take a ride, With time on your side, Get stoned, get honed, With nowhere to hide. The hillside is barren The workers disaffected, No jobs, no food Is it rhyme, wine or mine? Come the pretty girls Their allure holds sway. When the night is done Keepest thy deed at bay? Enjoy the season The charters have arrived. It’s festive time, enGALFing times. Goa’s greener – not anymore Prithee, hark now, the rents do show.

(Goa, 2016)

The current vision of Goa, having moved to Goa seven years back is more pungent and hard-hitting. Gone is the romance and nostalgia. There is a new concern for Goa and its predicament.

Time/Space

Life can be looked at as existing on the time/space dimension. Both these realities are acutely experienced by the traveller. Whether s/he has to catch a train or board a bus, an awareness of time is essential to get

91 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

you from one place to another. The sense of time is different in different places. In Goa time moves slowly – at least that’s what tourist brochures would haveus believe. Lifein Bombay – or Delhi– is different, andfaster. Time is associated imperceptible with place. Like they say there are many ‘Indias’ in India, so too I would say there are many ‘Goas’ in Goa – each with their unique sense of time and space. The village road of Nagoa-Consua is not the same ascent as the six-lane highway from Old Goa to Panjim. With faster connectivity on land and on social media, space becomes surreal – because you are always in transit. Everything is happening at the same time. The lens of the traveller is not single. There are many lenses. The ﬁrst one is the humanistic – the traveller looks with a benevolent eye on humanity around her/her. S/he may not be able to do very much to lessen their burden, but at least a recording of their predicament or utter poverty will establish solidarity with their condition. The second lens is the prac- tical. If one is too busy courting the muse one is likely to miss the train. The more a traveller travels, both inside Goa and outside it, the more rar- eﬁed and distilled the lens becomes. The world indeed is his/her canvas. It is up to the traveller-poet to make his/her contribution to the world in his/her lifetime. Works Cited Primary Sources Mendonça, Brian. Last Bus to Vasco: Poems from Goa. Self-published, New Delhi, 2006. ——— A Peace of India: Poems in Transit. Self-published, New Delhi, 2011. ——— ‘A Peace of India: Narrative of a Nation.’ Tribune, Chandigarh, 22 Jan. 2012. ——— ‘A Traveller’s Take on Goa,’ Blogpost. www.lastbustovasco. blogspot.in Uploaded 4 Apr. 2017. lastbustovasco.blogspot.in/2017/ 04/a-travellers- take-on- goa.html ——— ‘Saptah, Sonepur and Snows.’ Blogpost. Uploaded 13 Aug. 2017. www.lastbustovasco.blogspot.in lastbustovasco.blogspot.in/2017 /08/saptah-sonepur-and-snows.html ——— ‘Nagoa to Nerul: Thirty-six Years After School.’ Weekender, Gomantak Times, St. Inez, Goa, March 2017. ——— ‘Dharbandora.’ Weekender, Gomantak Times, Goa, 2017. ——— ‘Caitan-ya.’ Weekender, Gomantak Times. Goa, 2015.

92 Through the eyes of a traveller-poet | Brian Mendonça

——— ‘Fugitive: On the Run.’ Goa Today, Goa, August 2001. Secondary Sources Anant, Ambika. ‘Poems of a Pan-Indian Itinerant.’ Book Review. Muse India. www.museindia.com/regularcontent.asp?issid=39&id=2856 Malik, Monica. ‘Dr. Brian Mendonca: Inspiring Journeys,’ atblink .blogspot.in 1 March 2014. Manjushree, K. ‘Interview with Brian Mendonça: A Popular Goan Poet.’ Ashwamegh. Aug. 2016. ashvamegh.net/author-poet-interviews /brian- mendonca/ Mendonca, Brian. Destination India. www.lastbustovasco. blogspot.in. lastbustovasco.blogspot.in/2008/11/destination-india.html 14 Nov. 2008. ——— R-Day Eves. www.last bustovasco. blogspot.in lastbustovasco. blogspot.in/2017/01/r-day-eves-2017.html 26 Jan. 2017. N., A. ‘Journeys in Verse’. The Sunday Tribune – Books, 3 Sept. 2006, www.tribuneindia.com/2006/20060903/spectrum/book6.htm.

93 Goa through the lens of Europeans – a revisiting

IRENE SILVEIRA1

Situated at the crossroads of world spaces, Goa has long been a traveller’s delight. Their well-documented accounts and pictures render a bird’s eye view, often missing the essence of the place and its people. Goa is still at the crossroads of space and time, where Western itinerants flock for a glimpse into the past, a look into the future, or to try feel the pulse of present events. They now carry more sophisticated equipment, and hope to succeed where others before them stumbled. We focus on three such rewritings of Goa by contemporary Europeans – Les Instantanés du Monde, Goa is not India, Contacto Goa – and examine articles, podcasts and film documentaries in the light of past travel writing and current reality. We revisit Goa from the Western standpoint and hope to find answers to challenges thrown up by cross-cultural contact.

OA, a tiny enclave on India’s west coast, blessed with bountiful nat- G ural resources and pristine beauty has attracted visitors over a long period of time. Its coast and hinterland, believed to have been commanded out of the seas by the gods themselves, are dotted with world- renowned beaches, gushing waterfalls, serene lakes, rustling streams, towering jungles inhabited by fauna and ﬂora so diverse as to be the paradise of every lay nature lover and sagacious bio-scientist. The sheer variety of rare birds hovering in the Goan skies call out to both ornithologists and everyday tourists. Goa and tourism do indeed go together and her spaces are swamped by local and foreign visitors all year round. With this tourist-brochure-styled introduction, I seek to highlight Goa’s appeal to the foreign visitor from times immemorial right down to the present ones. If, in the past, Goa’s strategic geopolitical position

1 Assistant Professor at the Department of French and Francophone Studies, Goa Uni- versity. [email protected] Goa through the lens of Europeans... | Irene Silveira brought conquerors from near and far to its shores, today, her beaches and unique cultural ethos work their magic on Indian and foreign tourists alike.As inthe days ofyore,Goa has its fairshareofcoastal and hinterland visitors, each seeking his or her own answers in what could also be God’s own country. God could well have authored her destiny if we are to believe the many myths and legends surrounding her conception, coming of age and woo- ing by princes, sultans, and sailors down the centuries. The Portuguese conquest in 1510 (also said to be under the auspices of a saint) changed her face drastically. The Cidade de Goa asshe nowcameto be knownsoon saw people of all colours walking the streets, and acquired a cosmopolitan hue, one which Goa maintains till date. From the sixteenth century onwards, numerous European travellers headed to the East docked at Goa. Stops at this spot may have been in- tentional or not; but once they landed, the strangeness of all they en- countered did not leave them untouched. In their writings, they aspired to describe and explain what they witnessed in the East, for the benefit of their countrymen back home. These European travelogues have constituted a valuable source of information for historians and were until recently considered to be more or less objective reflections of Indian conditions of the time. The present research centres on European accounts of Indian, more specifically Goan, physical and social topography. I shall begin with a brief mention of the writings of prominent European visitors to Goa from the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, along with highlights of their impressions. I shall seek to prove that these are indeed merely impressions and not thoroughly devoid of subtle manipulatory tactics. The second part of my research will focus on present-day travel narratives by Europeans in Goa in an attempt to redefine new tendencies in writing the Other. Has the revisiting of a new Goa by Europeans in the twenty-first century given rise to new, more informed styles of writing travelogues? What continues to plague or romanticise the European vision? Is a more truthful and objective rendering expected? These are some of the questions that will be looked at in this essay. The concluding section will glimpse into diverse modern travelogues within the larger travel narrat-

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ives taken up for analysis. Issues pertaining to identity and language will be touched upon and the travellers’ take on Goa’s uniqueness will be discussed. I argue that despite the progress made in representing Goa, the European gazecontinues to function through a European lens, one which continues to be tinted. Today there is definitely no dearth of knowledge available on Goa, yet a true knowing of the land and its people may re- quire a more insightful look. Writing the Goa of yore On alighting at the Cidade de Goa, Western travellers in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries were confronted with hitherto unseen topography, climate, flora, fauna, peoples, customs, traditions, and socio-economic configurations. They were often plagued by strange dreaded diseases and faced extraordinary challenges. All of these found a way into their travel writings. The Portuguese Estado da Índia was given enormous attention in scholarly writing of the time. Portugal ruled the Eastern seas and con- trolled the spice trade in the sixteenth century; the glory of its golden capital was unrivalled even in Europe. Goa has been described by the French adventurer François Pyrard de Laval at the beginning of the seventeenth century as a city of magnificent streets, churches, squares and palaces. The Cidade de Goa was, in the seventeenth century, a bustling cosmopolitan city with people of different origins and faiths within its walls. John Huyghen Van Linschoten wrote:

In the towne and island of Goa are resident many Heathens, Moores, Jewes and all strange nations... using severall customes and superstitions in religion (222).

Other well-known European travellers like Mandelslo, François Bernier, Jean-Baptiste Tavernier also attested to the presence of Jews in Goa (Fisc- hel 39). Many of these Jews were gainfully employed in the Portuguese administrative setup as translators and agents in the initial period of the Portuguese rule over Goa. These favourable conditions were soon to end with the Inquisition, yet Jews continued to maintain their presence and inﬂuence. In the un- easy political climate of the times, with the threat of the Mughals loom- ing large, it was crucial that the Portuguese maintain close ties with the

96 Goa through the lens of Europeans... | Irene Silveira

Deccani Sultans from whom they had wrested Goa. Diplomatic missions to the Sultanate were powered by Jewish resourcefulness with Judeo Coje Abrahão at the helm of affairs.His services were acknowledged by the Por- tuguese crown and he was granted a handsome pension (Fischel 43). Particularly worthy of mention is the Jew who lends his name to the Panjim municipalgarden andis known asthe father of the European practice of Indian medicinal plants. In his well-known book, the famous Por- tuguese savant Garcia da Orta reveals in dialogue form the value of Indian herbs, aromatics and spices. Colóquios dos simples e drogas da India is a work structured as a series of conversations between the author himself and an imaginary character – Dr. Ruano – representing the European academic tradition with its lacunae. Garcia da Orta was not alone in his criticism of European medicine. According to Cristiana Bastos, although Goa boasts of the oldest colonial Western-style medical school in Asia from the 1840s, its director from 1854-71, Eduardo Freitas Almeida questioned the credibility of its doctors who earned the title but were incapable of practising what they learnt. In contrast, the native healers were effective, affordable and popular (770). Cristiana Bastos highlights the role played by Goan physicians in Por- tuguese India and Africa and the hybrid nature of the medical practices. She states that:

imperial powers were not always successful in their attempts to erase local knowledge. In some situations, they did not even attempt it and, instead, they adopted elements of local knowledge as much as they brought in, or imposed, the European ways. On occasion, the trafﬁc between European and local systems happened both ways, leading to the development of medical hybridisms (768).

It is a well-documented fact that the Portuguese colonial regime pro- moted hybridism, beginning with Albuquerque himself who purportedly encouraged marriages between Portuguese soldiers and local women. However, this racialised narrative leaves room for doubt given the caste se- gregation prevalent in Indian society and which continued even after con- version to Christianity. Bastos asserts that the hybridism is rather cultural in nature, with the adoption of foreign customs by a Goan society ﬁrmly

97 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

attached to native customs and practices (773-774). In the field of medicine, there was no dearth of medical knowledge in India with Ayurveda, Unani medicine and Goan folk healing practices. That these continued to be practised in a hybridised form right in the Royal Hospital and the med- icalschool in Goa can be seen to be an outcome of the long hybridisation process that constituted the Indo-Portuguese. John Huyghen Van Linschoten, the celebrated traveller from Holland whose monumental work Itinerario led to the rising of the Dutch sun in Indian skies, claims that the Portuguese Viceroy, Archbishop and aristo- cracy preferred Hindu panditos and vaidyas to the Portuguese physicians of the time (Figueiredo 52). The Italian traveller Gemelli Careri writes that the doctors from Portugal used to learn with the vaidyas the treatment of cholera and other tropical diseases, because European methods of dia- gnosis and therapeutics were unsuitable for these diseases. Françoise de Valence credits seventeenth-century French travellers to Goa with describing maladies and remedies of the time. Pyrard de Laval lists hot fevers, dysentery, and venereal infections as the common diseases prevalent in Goa. Garcia da Orta describes the symptoms of cholera which plagued the city of Goa. These epidemics were equally documented by French travellers Pyrard de Laval and Charles Dellon, and the malady was later known as mordechi or modechien in French, a corruption of the Konkani word modachi which alludes to the swift and sudden death brought in its wake (Valence 115). Narcotics were among the drugs recommended: datura, notably, has been described by Garcia da Orta as well as by Jean Mocquet, while opium finds a mention in Dellon’s travel writing. The French traveller also remarks that the Goan conje (rice gruel) was used by the pandits to treat dysentery (Valence 117-118). In addition to writing aboutthe Indian physical and social topography, the Europeans worked to modify it. Understandably, European travellers have given vivid accounts of the practice of Sati, which led to its eventual eradication. However the tone of the writing had nuances that differed fromthe native historiographiesand justified the colonial enterprise. Sim- ilar was the case with some Portuguese narratives pertainingto the Goan village economy – the gaunkari system. Afonso Mexia’s Foral de Usos e Costumes dos Guancares describes the Comunidade system, under which

98 Goa through the lens of Europeans... | Irene Silveira profits from the land were divided among the shareholders who collectively owned the land. Paul Axelrod and Michelle A. Fuerch highlight the variations between Mexia’s Comunidade and the Saraswat village of the Sahyadri Khanda. This Hindu text, through its emphasis on the village deity and temple, differs remarkably from the Western document in its reproduction of the village economy (442, 455). The Comunidades again gave rise to numerous debates in the nineteenth century with Portuguese Orientalists like the Viscount de Torres-Novas Goa and Constancio Roque da Costa arguing that the system was unsuited to modern economies and should hence be abolished. Parallels can be drawn with British representations of clan-based villages as stateless ancient forms to justify the Raj. The opposing position was upheld by Xavier and Cunha Rivara, Secretar- ies to the Portuguese Governor-General who regarded the Comunidades as an idyllic village republic sadly eroded by the Portuguese government. The Comunidades live on to this day thanks to such defensive arguments which nevertheless, did not differ much from Mexia’s original analysis (Axelrod, Fuerch 457-459). The winds of change swept swiftly in Portuguese times, and the Goan landscape saw many additions in fruits and crops. The Portuguese Je- suits dedicatedly visited orchards and improved the grafts. The fruit of their labour can be tasted till this day. P.K. Gode opines that the delicious mangoes, some of which still fetch a high price in the Goan market, were the fruit of grafting which was introduced in Goan horticulture from the 1550’s onwards (281). Italians visiting India have heaped praise on the Goan mango and enumerated many of the fruit’s varieties. Plants, fruits, and spices were richly documented by the foreign travellers. The exotic botany narrative of the time was in response to the mystery and allure that the spice trade conjured up in the European mind. According to Saldanha, Chapters 49 to 83 of Linschoten’s Itinerario “introduce exotic fruits like mango, pineapple, and coconut; aromatics (sandal- wood, frankincense); narcotics (datura, betel, opium, cannabis); and all the fine spices” (162). The following extract praises the benefits of cloves to a European audience. The discourse at spice farms aimed at Western travellers to India today, is not much different and it corresponds to the larger than life image of Indian spices in the Occidental eyes.

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The water of greene Cloves distilled is very pleasant of smel, and strengthneth the hart, likewise they procure sweating in men that have the Pox, with Cloves, Nut megges, Mace, long and black Pep- per; some lay the poul der [powder] of Cloves upon a mans head, that hath a paine in it, that proceedeth of colde. They strengthen the Liver, the Maw [stomach], and the hart, they further di ges- tion, they procure evacuation of the Urine, and stop lascativenes [diarrhea], and being put into the eyes, pre served! the sight, and foure Drammes being drunke with Milke, doe procure lust. (Saldanha 162)

In the light of the fact that today’sEuropean tourists often visit spice farms and local markets, not so much to make purchases as to take in the exotic sights, smells and sounds, it is but evident that the marketplace would have also ﬁgured in the accounts of European travellers to the Cidade de Goa. The market in the Goa of old was called the Leilão (auction market) and was situated at the Rua Direita (main street). Pyrard de Laval describes it thus:

Proceeding from this palace [of the Viceroy] to the town, you enter the most handsome street of Goa, called la Duo drecho, or “straight.” It is more than 1,500 paces in length, and on both sides has many rich lapidaries, goldsmiths, and bankers, and also the richest and best merchants and artisans in Goa, all Portuguese, Italians, or Germans, as well as other Europeans. This street ends with a church [de la Sancta Misericordia], the most beautiful, rich, and highly decorated in Goa.... While this market is afoot, there is so great a crowd in the street that one can hardly pass (Saldanha 163).

This iconic market street has been immortalised in Linschoten’s drawing on Goa. What stand out in the scene are the inequalities in class and ethnicity. In the midst of the frantic commercial activity, the viewer’s gaze moves from the black slave girl to the horse in the centre before resting on the opulent palanquin and richly adorned Portuguese gentry on the right. Linschoten covers all segments of the population in his account – women, slaves, prisoners, Mesticos, Castisos, Arabs, Jews and animals. Linschoten claims to reveal in his Itinerario:

[...] places thus far discovered and known by the Portuguese; to which are added, not only the description of the habits, polities,

100 Goa through the lens of Europeans... | Irene Silveira

and nature of both the Portuguese living there and the native Indians, and their temples, idols, houses, with the most important trees, fruits, herbs, spices, and suchlike materials, as well as the manners of these people, whether religious, political, or economic, but also a short narrative of the commerce [...] Everything described and gathered by the same; very useful, seemly, and also entertaining for all the curious and lovers of strange things. (Saldanha 155).

Travelogues thus seemed to be written for the pleasure of the curious European and for the satisfaction of his urge to acquaint himself with strange things. Pursuit of the different Other was primordial and the description that ensued stressed on the unusual. The encounter with this difference gradually gave rise to what Pramod K. Nayyar calls a “rhetorical transformation of India” (213). Although meant to be predominantly informative for the benefit of the European readership back home, as reiter- ated by Linschoten, travellers’ texts were infused with a generous dose of the marvelous. The initial contact led to an accumulative account border- ing on exaggeration which soon saw a subtle shiftfrombenevolent abundance to deplorable excess. In the initial years, a mystifying exoticism co- existed with a demystifying scientific as travellers in awe and amazement sought to paint the land of the plenty. The pleasant profusion in paradise was followed by exaggerated tales of horror. In later stages, the Europeans painted the Indian sphere as deficient. Excess was substituted by a lack, which evidently needed to be filled. This “iconoclastic moral marvelous” trend in writing flattened differences among Indian landscapes, emptied native icons of value and highlighted native moral deficiency; thus paving the way for a repopulation of the Indian scene with English icons (Nayar 218). Thus writing by visiting travellers served colonial interests in a much larger sense. Although Nayar’s typology is in reference to English travel writing in the early colonialperiod and to Indiain the larger context, clear resonances between these early trends and modern Western perceptions of Goan conditions can be detected.

Recording the Goa of today A traveller documenting his impressions of Goa in the present technolo- gically advanced times would resort to more than just the pen. Ihave thus selected travelogues which present Goa through audio and video record-

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ings and are aimed at a wide public reach through the mass media. The corpus includes travel documentaries in audio or video format by Por- tuguese, French, German and Russian visitors to Goa. Nalini de Sousa hails from Portugal but currently lives in Goa from where she heads Lotus Film and TV Production. She is well known in the Lusophone world for her documentary series Contacto Goa – aired on the Portuguese channel RTP and showcasing the close links between India and Portugal. Sousa’s work is prolific; the series cross the seventy-number mark and touch on a variety of topics of relevance in Goa. Through its recording of real, everyday life in Goa and interviews with a great number of locals and visitors, Contacto Goa has succeeded in bringing Goa closer to television viewers in far-off Lusophone places. Les Instantanés du Monde isabookaccompaniedbyaCD andcomple- mented by around ten podcasts. These are essentially snippets taken from the travel experiences of French globetrotter and blogger Anne Bonneau. True to their name, the Instantanés du Monde are instants frozen in time, served with just the right dash of magical sounds to make the listener believe that they are still around for the savouring. Anne Bonneau has so- journedin Goa for aroundtwo weeks in 2010, and written on the land and its people in heart-warming prose and poetry. The audio recordings with her surreal commentary and authentic conversations with Goans from across the street are sure to seduce any would-be traveller to Goa. Her audio portraits transport the listener into an enchanting Goa that one may not necessarily encounter on the ground. In a change of tone, the Austrian Rudolf Gottsberger presents us with a realistic documentary film on the Goa of today, with its beauty, madness and filth. The unusual arrayof visitors is tied to Goa’snorthern beach landscape (Arambol in particular), and presents a rare view of this land. Travel- lers vouch for the fact that “you are never alone” in Goa and also confess “you can find company, you can find loneliness”. The illusion of Golden Goa – the land of dreams (and shanti times) – is carefully shattered as Gottsberger exposes the paradoxes that go into the making of present-day Goa. In the initial part of my analysis, I shall identify the major tropes in these travelogues. Undoubtedly the Goa of today is far different from that

102 Goa through the lens of Europeans... | Irene Silveira of the yesteryears. Yet, it is important to look for parallels with the writings of classical Western travellers. I do expect differences in style to be connected to writers’ experiences and background. In my opinion, it is the original standpoint that will eventually determine the image captured. The beautiful topography of the land, its green foliage and rich fruit described in the past has justifiably been given due attention through photographs and video footage. Anne Bonneau transports us to this paradise via her dreamlike descriptions in sensual prose. The rain of Goa, its wet earth, enchant time and again. The repetition signals a sense of wonder and awe and can be likened to the accumulative trend in early English travel writing. Contacto Goa too, documents the luscious fruit of Goa. In this case, more than the mango, it is the cashew that appeals. The episode on the cashew along with interviews with the proprietor of Zantye’s, a prominent cashew nut processing and exporting firm, brings this popular fruit and nut to the centre-stage. Modern-day botanist Miguel Braganza reveals that in Goa the nut was first eaten only in 1928 and that the cashew itself was a relatively later entrant into the Goan soil (post 1720) and hence missed making it to Garcia da Orta’s monumental Coloquios dos simples e drogas da India (“Contacto Goa” 23). Such inter-textuality between travelogues and centuries is fairly common and of particular interest. Amongst Contacto Goa’smany interviews, is one which connects with the travelogue of Linschoten – that of a descendant of the Vaidyas of old.2 This episode stresses on the continued popularity of indigenous medicine, revealing the relation between the owners of present-day iconic Hindu Pharmacy in Panjim and the well-known Ayurvedic medic Dada Vaidya. (“Contacto Goa” 61). Indian healing systems proved their value in the Portuguese era and continue to hold their sway over Europeans in Goa. Their present popularity among Westerners in Goa is well documented by Rudolf Gottsberger. The third story in the series testifies to the effectiveness of Indian healing. Maya hails from Russia and talks candidly about how she was cured from a serious illness thanks to the meditative dance form that she now practises and promotes with her friend Tanit.

2 Vaidyas and Pânditos are terms used to designate indigenous doctors in Portuguese times.

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The therapeutic dance focuses on physical and mental well-being, and has influences of Sufi and Indian temple dance practices. The documentary also speaks of the appeal of Ayurveda and other ancient Eastern forms of healing among the Westerners in Goa. (“Goa is not India”). Gottsberger trains his camera on the Jews that inhabit the Goa of today; heoffersrarevideo footageof a Jewish wedding on the coastal belt – a poor attempt at recreating a big fat Indian wedding. The bride arrives on the beach, dressed in a white wedding gown and riding a decorated horse; she is unceremoniously assisted by men, rather than by her own maids of honour (who incidentally are White women wearing red saris); her husband is dressed in Indian festive attire, the marriage is solemnised on the beach by a Jewish rabbi, and the ceremonial prayer shawl is revealed to have been bought at Mapusa market from a certain Mohammed. The bride imagines herself a princess and is accompanied down the streets and onto the sands by a modest retinue of scantily clad tourists and in- formally dressed locals. Understandably, the scene does not have much in common with the illustrious Jews of Goa’s past. The Gaunkari or Gaonkari system also finds a mention, especially in Bonneau’s work,3 as do Goan people from different strata of society. In contrast to the derogatory portrayal of natives by sixteenth-century travel writers as “palanquin bearers, galley slaves, petty traders, deceitful feud- atory chiefs, and heathen savages...” (Axelrod, Fuerch 443), Bonneau as well as Sousa focus on folk tribes and their customs, bakers and vendors, fisher-women, taxi-drivers, men of religion, musicians, artists, writers, ar- chitects, intellectuals... This representation of a cross-section of the Goan populace is certainly in more positive terms, yet leaves much unsaid or over-interpreted. The listener is left with a false impression that bakers in Goa have French bakeries4 (Bonneau 83-84), sausage vendors are fluent in five languages – including Portuguese5 (Bonneau 85), every Goan

3 Victor Hugo Gomes in his conversation with Bonneau asserts that Goa’s true heritage lies in its unique Gaunkari system (“Instantanés 2” 00:03:18-38) 4 The bakery run by Gil Gomes displays the signage “French Bakery”. Its products however are more Goan than French. Bonneau seems delighted in her ﬁnd of a “French bakery” but makes no mention of any Goan bakeries serving baguettes, croissants and such French fare. She concludes that Goans eat pão (as do the French – le pain) and both are very similar. 5 The sausage vendor, Florence Lobo, is portrayed to be ﬂuent in multiple languages

104 Goa through the lens of Europeans... | Irene Silveira has music and jazz “in his blood”6 (“Panjim” 00:15:42-48), upper-class intellectuals have made a “pact with the coloniser” and their houses have “nothing Indian about them”,7 (“Chandor” 00:04:18-24). Scenes are con- juredup–of football games(withno mention of popular cricket matches), of an august mansion where coconut oil is purportedly extracted and which turns out to be a modest house (Bonneau 84). Claims like “it is Por- tuguese to be drunk in the afternoon”,8 (“Panjim” 00:13:00-32) are evidently either half-truths or exaggerations, rooted in an inadequate knowing of the Other. Bonneau confesses her ignorance when she states that Europeans cannot tell the difference between Andhra Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. She then applies the same yardstick to Goans claiming that Por- tugal and France is the same seen from Goa (84). This is entirely incorrect and most Goans are aware of Portugal and France as being distinctly different. Gulfs in knowledge are apparently bridged by turning towards one’s own culture. Faced by an experience of overwhelming strangeness, the visitor often attempts to correlate with his own culture and reinterprets the contact with the Other in his own cultural mould. The Other thus begins to resemble the Self in the mind’s eye. Bonneau sees Goan sausages arranged as a chapelet (rosary), connects the Goan choriz (sausages) with the European chourisso, draws connections between the Goan pão and the “pain” (French bread), terms the Goan tea break the “pause café- tartine”; she has also reinterpreted the Goan bhatcar in the Konkani stage tiatr asthe “Arlequin”9 of French theatre. Bonneau is delighted to stumble upon a French bakery (which ironic-

including Portuguese. It is highly improbable that she is capable of communicating in Portuguese with the exception of a few mispronounced phrases. 6 Alex Fernandes claims that Goans have music and Jazz in their blood. Bonneau is merely documenting a stereotype. Not all Goans are necessarily Jazz music fans. 7 Bonneau makes this assertion following her visit to the Menezes Braganza house in Chandor, and her encounter with Aida de Menezes Braganza, a descendant from the family of Luís de Menezes Bragança, the famous Goan journalist known for his anti- colonial writing. Bonneau has mistaken the true identity of the Goan Catholic elite and assumed that they had nothing Indian about them. The fact remains that many Goan elites were proud of their Indian roots and spoke out against the colonizer. 8 Bonneau is again providing a stereotypical representation, which is far from the truth. 9 Arlequin (or the Harlequin) is a typical character in French theatre. Bonneau identi- ﬁes the bhatcar character common in Goan tiatr with Arlequin.

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ally only bears the name and serves no French bread, of the likes of croissants and baguettes, both of which are however available in Goa), to discover that a Goan is interested in environmental and social issues, like so many French people. She has found a Victor Hugo in Goa (surnamed Gomes) – and his name ismusic to her ears! “C’est son nom, Victor Hugo”, she proclaims triumphantly10 (Bonneau 88). In matters relating to religion too, she draws on her native cultural representations: she compares the offering baskets at church in the two countries, and is impressed by the Sãn João feast in Goa. She unwittingly terms the local Catholic tradition of jumping in the well as “pagan”.11 (“Saligão” 00:13:27-14:10). Al- though these are minor aspects that do not appear to make a great difference in the portrayal of Goa, they serve as indicators of the viewpoint through which the French traveller sees Goa. Despite some attempts in stretching one’s imagination, Bonneau’s documentary may be held in stark contrast with its German counterpart. Magical Goa turns dark and morbid in Goa is not India. Repulsive images of cripples crawling, woman coolies running behind taxis, haggling vendors and a narrative of Goans being out to cheat every foreigner per- vade that account. This supposedly rampant behaviour is rationalised by the European as a sort of return colonisation. Having been exploited in the past, the natives thus purportedly see Europeans as a “walking wallet” to extort money from. (“Goa is not India”, Rudolf Gottsberger.) The focus ison Westerners livinganddoing business in Goa. The localpoliceare ma- ligned for taking bribes but also for doing their duty and enforcing security measures which become a hindrance to European business activities. The rhetoric opposes the “They” to “Us” and presents the natives and the Europeans as watertight compartments and warring entities. Indians are portrayed as inefﬁcient and incapable of building a bridge in less than 15 years (“Goa is not India”, Elena Slovush). Ironically the travel writer also confesses that he would like to know Indians better. Knowing the Other entails spending time with the Other, inattent-

10 “It’s his name, Victor Hugo”.Bonneau alludes to Victor Hugo, the monumental French writer known for his interest in social causes. 11 The jumping in the well tradition linked with the São João or Sãn João Feast can hardly be termed pagan or non-Christian merely because it is not celebrated in the same manner here as in the West.

106 Goa through the lens of Europeans... | Irene Silveira ive, unbiased observation and fruitful conversation. Speaking the Other’s language and using interpretative services where required are expected to lessen the Tower-of-Babel effect. Although the classic European travelogues of past centuries were for long preferred in academic circles in view of their objectiveness and freedom from pressures exerted by the In- dian power classes and a familiarity with the sights of India, Eugenia Van- ina questions the veracity of these accounts by pointing to the linguistic inadequacies of the Western travellers, very few of whom were proficient in the native languages (270-271). Hence, the importance of language in contacts with natives and subsequent observations cannot be overlooked. The Western texts are today examined in the context of their writers’ socio- economic background and home country conditions. They are no longer viewed as objective sources of information but as interesting renditions of the Indian scenery, duly coloured by the writers’ stereotypes and constructs of the Indian Other. Subsequent to this research, I arguethat knowledgeof local languages, and close links with the local population in its diversity can yield a more truthful version. Goais not India isprimarilyin Englishwith some parts in German, Les Instantanés du Monde is in French interspersed with English and at times Konkani. It is noteworthy that the French is mainly a translated voice-over of the original English and that the documentary maker found it pertinent to enlist the services of a Goan proficient in French to interpret and facilitate her interactions with the Goan landscape. On the other side of the spectrum is Contacto Goa, which although predominantly Portuguese, registers English, Konkani, Hindi, Marathi, and French through its conversations with different sections of the population. A voice seems to be given to all communities in Goa, and Hindu culture and way of life is sufficiently represented. Les Instantanés du Monde – the fruit of a two-week long maiden voyage – over-represents the Catholic community and highlights the Portuguese face of Goa while eclipsing its In- dian side. In the case of Goa is not India, the entire local population is silenced in favour of the European voice. Travelogues within travelogues Travel narratives are often interlaced with other travel stories which may be in to Goa, or out of Goa. Sousa interviews folk artists and dhalo dance

107 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

performers who evoke their trips to Rajasthan and to “Reshia” (Russia) (“Contacto Goa” 1). Similar is the account of José Custodio Faria’s days in Portugal and France, and the famous incident where his father is reported to have encouraged him with these words uttered in Konkani – kator re bhaji.12 The power of words is scientiﬁcally acknowledged today as the power of suggestion. Isabel da Santa Rita Vaz13 in her conversation with Sousa labels Abade Faria as a son of this soil and claims that the Goan hero never did stop being a Goan. This particular episode of Contacto Goa pits Goans against Portuguese by bringingto the foreunderstated elements regarding discrimination against Goans which was to culminate in the Pintos’ Revolt masterminded by Catholic priests (“Contacto Goa” 26). Another illustrious son of Goa whose travel tales are recorded by Sousa is Francisco Luís Gomes, the Prince of Intellectuals, who fought for the democratic rights of Goans in the Portuguese Parliament. An anecdote is told in vivid tones: In Portugal, Gomes speaks about the beauty and riches of his land. He says the natives are so rich, that they do not wash their dishes after meals; they merely throw them out (“Contacto Goa” 36). The plates he referred to were probably made of leaves and not of ﬁne porcelain as would have been imagined by his European audience. Mul- tiple ways of seeing the same reality characterise inter-cultural meeting points. Alex Fernandes, Goan portraitist and photographer,who lived and worked in Kuwait, confesses to Bonneau that despite learning Arabic during his time there, he still had to deal with cultural differences in social behaviour vis-à-vis women in the Arab world (“Panjim” 00:03:10-35). Goa has seen a wide range of travellers down the centuries. Some are paradoxically situated between two worlds, having sojourned in Goa and in the West. Others are of Goan origins... such as Wendell Rodricks14 who came down from France upon being exhorted by a lady at the Yves Saint Laurent fashion house, to look to his homeland for inspiration (“Col-

12 A phrase used in local parlance to encourage and boost morale. José Custodio Faria’s father is reported to have uttered these words in Konkani and spurred him on, in a key incident when he was to speak in public in Europe. The words did have their desired effect and more. They probably inspired Faria to research on the power of the human mind and present hypnotism to the world. 13 Retired English professor and theatre personality in Goa. 14 Well-known fashion designer from Goa. Lived in France.

108 Goa through the lens of Europeans... | Irene Silveira vale” 00:01:55-4:25); and Remo Fernandes15 who in a reversal of travel trends, was inspired to be an Indian hippie in Europe. (“Siolim” 00:01:00- 29). Both speak to Bonneau in French. Then there is Nalini Sousa herself who traces her origins to Goa. In an interview with Sousa, Anuj Timblo, on vacation from the United States, gives credit to his Goan family for permitting him to pursue his dreams in music, and to Indo-Portuguese Goa for being his muse (“Contacto Goa” 2). Margaret Mascarenhas has also returned to Goa from America and collects art by Goa-based artists when she is not penning novels on Goa.16 She expands the deﬁnition of the Goan artist to include all artists creating out of Goa. Mafalda Mascar- enhas is onesuch Western artist among the many who see Goa as an ideal place to unleash their creativity (“Contacto Goa” 3). That Goa is populated by Europeans who live and work out of the place is given much credence by Goais not India. However, the Europeans are shown to interact mainly among themselves and to do business in this land which alternately attracts and repulses them. On the other hand is Sousa’s narrative where Europeans live and work and create together with locals in an attempt to add to Goa’s ﬁnancial and cultural value. Episodes dedicated to architecture explain that the architectural style typical of this state is veritably Indo-Portuguese in character. It is no longer Portuguese or European, rather the original creation of the Catholic and Hindu elite in Goa (“Contacto Goa” 4,5). Contacto Goa’s stress on the Indianness of Goa is unmistakable. The makers of the documentary series give enormous footage to Hindu and Indian customs, evoking prehistoric Neolithic settlement sites, Hindu gods, temples and festivals, folk dances, ancient deities, Maratha vestiges and the like, all narrated in English and in local languages, aptly translated into Portuguese for the global Lusophone audience.

And Goa is....?

Just as in centuries gone by, recent narratives have attempted to capture the essence of Goa and reconstruct it for the Western viewer. Anne Bon- neau has done it beautifully, conjuring up magical imagery of a Golden

15 Famous Indian pop star. Of Goan origin. Travelled through Europe. 16 Her acclaimed work includes the novel Skin amongst others.

109 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

Goa through poetic reading, realistic sounds, authentic noises17 that surprisingly prove to be music to the ears. Everyday marketplace haggling and the noise of blaring horns are transformed into sweet sounds. The rain is magical and the muddy slush is pleasing to the touch (Bonneau 88). Goa is wonderful beyond compare! Rudolf Gottsberger works at the other end of the spectrum, beating the drums about Goa’s supposed innumerable failures. The multitude of negatives is appalling. Goa seems to bear all that is unwanted in great measure – corruption, apathy, filth. In addition, the moral values of the natives are questioned, thus creating a space for the traveller. Natives are portrayed as corrupt, unprofessional, lazy, and undependable, inferring that the Westerners are far more capable of running successful businesses in Goa. In the past too, travellers juxtaposed the Enlightened Self with the Other, drawn up as a savage in their eyes. Parallels with Nayar’s typology stand out, as the two narratives (Bonneau and Gottsberger) show a dramatic shift from excessive beauty to exaggerated horror before arriving at a moral marvellous and casting doubts on the value of the native way of life. Of the three narratives examined, that of Contacto Goa alone seems fairly authenticated and objective. Bonneau’s story-telling is highly emotive and exotic, and she deals with the unusual by linking it in some way to her own culture. Gottsberger is extremely critical and contrasts Goa’s deficiencies with the supposed plenty of Western culture. Overall, it is Sousa’s informative and interpretative presentation that through the use of multiple sources – Indian, Indo-Portuguese and Portuguese – suc- ceeds in constructing Goa as a multicultural entity. The vantage point, in this case, is no longer the West. She moves from her comfortzone into the everyday Goa and does not hesitate to look back at Portugal with a critical eye. Goa’s mysterious allure lies in her contradictions. In the past, West- ern travellers attempted to define her as the Rome of the Orient. “Goa is not India,” firmly states Leon Rebelsky. Gottsberger lends his approval by entitling his documentary accordingly. Bonneau too assumes that “there

17 Bonneau intersperses her narration with local music and sounds – singing, bargain- ing, trafﬁc, rain etc.

110 Goa through the lens of Europeans... | Irene Silveira is nothing Indian in this house”18 during her visit to the Menezes Bragan- ca House in Chandor, overlooking the stellar presence of Luís Menezes de Braganca and his anti-colonial writings. She later arrives at the very same conclusion – “Goa is not India”19 (“Panjim” 00:08:40-49). Despite a sem- blance of valid evidence, these attempts at defining Goa remain factually incorrect and largely incomplete. The French and the German narratives define Goa by an absence and a negation, leaving much unsaid. So what is Goa? The version delivered by Contacto Goa presents this space as essentially Indo-Portuguese. Nalini Sousa answers the enigma by showcasing facets of Goan culture that are Indian and Portuguese while stressing on the confluence of the two. Synthesizing forces such as the sounds of bhajans sung in a Christian church are given due representation in many episodes. An encounter with the Other produces varied responses. Thierry Wil- helm – world traveller – enjoys the interpersonal encounter and the cross- cultural exchange in the course of his travels. However, he states, as did the Western travellers of the past centuries, that he wishes to satisfy his curiosity (“Goa is not India”). Are accounts of the East meant primarily to satisfy the curiosity of the Western traveller and audience? In my conclusion, I choose to reflect on Mafalda Mascarenhas’ reaction vis-a-vis In- dian tourists. In a candid conversation with Contacto Goa, this Portuguese artist in Goa states that she finds the sari to be a sensual garment. She explains that to the Western gaze a bikini on the beach is regular fare while a sari is erotic. However, she is acutely aware that the reverseisthecaseof the Indian gaze. (“Contacto Goa” 3). The absence of a derogatory tone in her reflection on Western and Indian perceptions is commendable. This, in my opinion, is an intercultural stand where an individual sees the Self and the Other, is conscious of the differences in position, and yet accepts them without judgement. Travels are journeys undertaken – from the homeland to alien country, from the Self toward the Other. European travellers came to Goa and re-interpreted their experience of the land and its people in their writings.

18 “...rien d’indien dans cette demeure”- Bonneau’s original translated as “there is nothing Indian in this house”. 19 “Goa n’est pas l’Inde” – Bonneau’s original translated as “Goa is not India”.

111 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

Their travel tales are true, but only to a point. As people travel in unprecedented ways in today’s world, the Self encounters the Other in newer, more varied forms. Skilful navigation of meeting points between cultures is a real challenge thrown open to all modern day travellers.

Works Cited

Axelrod, Paul and Michelle Fuerch. “Portuguese Orientalism and the Making of the Village Communities of Goa”. Ethnohistory, Vol. 45, No. 3, 1998, pp. 439-476. Bastos, Cristiana. “Medical Hybridisms and Social Boundaries: Aspects of Portu- guese Colonialism in Africa and India in the Nineteenth Century”. Journal of Southern African Studies, Vol. 33, No. 4, 2007, pp. 767-782. Bonneau, Anne. Les Instantanés du monde. Feuillage, 2014. Bonneau, Anne, creator. “Benaulim.” Instantanés du Monde à Goa, Outre-mer 1ère, 2011, la 1ere France info, http://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/ emissions- radio/instantanes-du- monde, Accessed 10 June 2011. —. “Colvale.” Instantanés du Monde à Goa, Outre-mer 1ère, 2011, la 1ere France info, http://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/emissions-radio/instantanes-du- monde, Accessed 10 June 2011. —. “Dans les forêts de Netorlim.” Instantanés du Monde à Goa, Outre-mer 1ère, 2011, la 1ere France info, http://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/ emissions- radio/instantanes-du-monde, Accessed 10 June 2011. —. “Goa, en Technicolor.” Instantanés du Monde à Goa, Outre-mer 1ère, 2011, la 1ere France info, http://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/emissions- radio/ instantanes-du-monde , Accessed 10 June 2011. —. “Margão.” Instantanés du Monde à Goa, Outre-mer 1ère, 2011, la 1ere France info, http://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/emissions-radio/ instantanes-du- monde , Accessed 10 June 2011. —. “Moira.” Instantanés du Monde à Goa, Outre-mer 1ère, 2011, la 1ere France info, http://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/emissions-radio/ instantanes-du- monde , Accessed 10 June 2011. —. “Panjim.” Instantanés du Monde à Goa, Outre-mer 1ère, 2011, la 1ere France info, http://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/emissions-radio/ instantanes-du- monde, Accessed 10 June 2011. —. “Saligão.” Instantanés du Monde à Goa, Outre-mer 1ère, 2011, la 1ere France info, http://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/emissions-radio/ instantanes-du- monde, Accessed 10 June 2011. —. “Sangolda.” Instantanés du Monde à Goa, Outre-mer 1ère, 2011, la 1ere France info, http://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/emissions-radio/ instantanes-du-monde, Accessed 10 June 2011.

112 Goa through the lens of Europeans... | Irene Silveira

—. “Siolim.” Instantanés du Monde à Goa, Outre-mer 1ère, 2011, la 1ere France info, http://la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/emissions-radio /instantanes-du- monde, Accessed 10 June 2011. Contacto Goa. Created by Nalini de Sousa, Lotus Film and TV Production. Dellon, Charles. Dellon’s Account of the Inquisition at Goa: Translated from the French: with an Appendix Containing an Account of the Escape of Archibald Bower, (one of the Inquisitors) from the Inquisition, at Maçerata, in Italy. I. Wilson, 1812. Figueiredo, Joao. M.P. de. “The Practice of Indian Medicine in Goa during the Portuguese Rule, 1510-1699”. Luso-Brazilian Review, Vol. 4, No. 1, 1967, pp. 51-60. Fischel, Walter J. “Leading Jews in the Service of Portuguese India”. The Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. 47, No. 1, 1956, pp. 37-57. Goa is not India. Created by Rudolf Gottsberger. Studio Rot, 2012. Gode, P.K. “References to Grafted Mangoes in India between A.D. 1600 and 1800”. Journal of the American Oriental Society, Vol.79, No.4, 1959, pp. 281- 282. Gracias, Fatima da Silva. Health and Hygiene in Colonial Goa, 1510-1961. Concept Publishing Company, 1994. Jazeel, Tariq. “Postcolonialism: Orientalism and the geographical imagination”. Geography, Vol. 97, No. 1, 2012, pp. 4-11. Kundra, Sakul. “Widow Immolation in Mughal India: Perceptions of French Travellers and Adventurers in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries”. Social Scientist, Vol. 42, No. 9/10, 2014, pp. 63-84. Linon-Chipon. “Autour de François Pyrard de Laval: un voyage, un naufrage, deux voyages, deux textes, plusieurs textes (de 1601 à 1679)”. Centre de Recherche sur la Littérature des Voyages. 19 Feb. 2002. Mocquet, Jean. Voyage a Mozambique & Goa: La relation de Jean Mocquet (1607- 1610). Chandeigne, 1996. Nayar, Pramod. K. “Marvelous Excesses: English Travel Writing in India, 1608- 1727”. Journal of British Studies, Vol. 44, No. 2, 2005, pp. 213-238. Orta, Garcia da. Coloquios dos simples e drogas da India [...] [Volume I]. Im- prensa Nacional, 1891. Phillip W, translator. The Voyage of John Huyghen Van Linschoten to the East Indies. The First Book, Containing His Description of the East, Volume 1. From the Old English Translation of 1598. Hakluyt Society, 1874. Saldanha, Arun. “The Itineraries of Geography: Jan Huygen van Linschoten’s“It- inerario” and Dutch Expeditions to the Indian Ocean, 1594-1602”. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, Vol. 101, No. 1, 2011, pp. 149- 177. Valence, Françoise De. “Health in Goa in the Seventeenth Century: The Reports of some French Travellers”. Bulletin of the Indian Institute of History of Medicine, Vol XXIX, 1999, pp.113-122.

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Vanina, Eugenia. “Roads of (Mis)Understanding: European Travellers in India (Fifteenth to Seventeenth Century)”. Indian Historical Review, 40 (2), 2013, pp. 267-284. Winius, George D. “The Renaissance as Reﬂected in Goa”. Mediterranean Stud- ies, Vol. 7, 1998, pp. 125-134.

114 Reconstructing Goa through travel narratives: a study of select writings from Manohar Shetty’s Goa Travels

AKSHATA BHATT &NAFISA OLIVEIRA1

Today, travel writing encompasses a wide range of writings diversified by intent, content and style of narration. Whether it is a self-- conscious travel memoir which seeks to amalgamate the particular with the universal or a travel blog written with a backpacker’s enthusiastic immediacy, every narrative of travel literature is a palimpsest which contains perceptions about geography, demo- graphy, landscape and mindscape, all of which are coloured by the writer-traveller’s vision. Goa – the land of many metaphors – has often found a place in the written word. Undoubtedly a favourite of wanderlust dreams since time immemorial, Goa has barely experienced the dearth of curious travellers and explorers. Yet, this essay argues, the contemporary image of Goa as vivid in glossy tourist brochures invariably plays to the galleries – its sun, sand and susegaado – neatly fitting into a fourth ‘s’ that has come to define Goa’s touristic identity – stereotype. This ‘all- encompassing’ popular paradigm, however, fails to do justice to the inherent variegation and verve which is a part of Goa’s larger narrative – its diverse cultures, dialects, festivities, peoples and a systematic syncretism which is unique to a land that has endured dynamic dialectics. Working through the baseline of select writings from Goa Travels: Being the accounts of travellers from the 16th century to the 21st century, this essay wishes to study and analyse the reconstruction(s)of Goa throughthe travellers’ lens in view of Goa’s increasing tourist influx and visibility on the global map.

1 Bhatt is Assistant Professor at the Dhempe College of Arts and Science (ak- [email protected]), and Oliveira is Assistant Professor at the Goa University ([email protected]). GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

HE phenomenon of travel has been an integral part of the human T journey.Whether it was a mandatory seasonal migration, a need to know the unknown or a conscious effort to map the geographic terrain in which humans found themselves, humans carried a story as they travelled – a new knowledge colouredby perspective and imagination. Not all travel stories, however, got documented in the written form. Some transmuted as lore – oral records that were passed on from one generation to another. However, although not embossed in the written word, travel stories have always been a part of the larger human narrative – of humans’ tryst with their environment, of their desire to locate themselves in the vast and often confounding geography around them and of the need to map their own identity vis-a-vis the terrain in which they found themselves.

Travel narratology

Today, travel writing encompasses a wide range of writings diversified by intent, content and style of narration. As literary forms, we argue, travel narratives defy rigid categorisation. For instance, it may be difficult to ascertain whether a travel narrative which claims objectivity as its intrinsic value has not been influenced by the preconceived notions or the biases of the author. It is also, similarly, difficult and perhaps inappropriate to write off a travel memoir as an authentic documentation of facts if one looks at it as a mere record of personal experiences. Whether it is a self- conscious travel memoir which seeks to amalgamate the particular with the universal or the modern-day travel blogs which are coloured by wanderlust visions as well as the immediate visibility that online media de- mands, the discursive matrices of travel accounts reveal that every documentation is informed by the writer’s sense of perception and purpose. Al- though documented more often than not through first-hand experiences, travel entries have been considered to be problematic sources of information. This is perhaps because of the fact that in an attempt to delineate travel experiences, the writer of these accounts willy-nilly tries to define the ‘other’.This ‘other’ could be the landscape, the cultures or the peoples one encounters on a travel experience. This endeavour of defining the other, with or without political agenda, is often influenced by the ideological baselines of the writer.

116 Shetty’s Goa Travels | Akshata Bhatt, Naﬁsa Oliveira

Travel writing and the imperial agenda

Travel narratives written from early sixteenth century have been studied by critics in an attempt to understand the complex rubrics involved in the European imperial and colonial expansion. For instance, contending that travel accounts are connected with important historical transitions, critic Mary Louise Pratt in her work Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transcul- turation (2003) opines that written discourses of colonial travel narratives not only encode, legitimise and underline the aspirations of European economic expansion and empire but also expose an obsessive need that the imperial centre feels to ‘know itself’ by presenting and re-presenting its peripheries and its others. In doing so, these travel accounts do not merely reflect places – they represent and reconstruct them, informed by their own socio-political and cultural paradigms. In The Post-Colonial Studies Reader (2003), critics Griffiths, Ashcroft and Tiffin further bring out the dynamics of the issue of representation. They assert that “in both conquest and colonisation, texts and textuality played a major part” (93). In enlisting the kind of European texts which captured the non-European subject within European frameworks of re- ductionist stereotypes, the critics mention “anthropologies, histories and fiction” (93). The researchers of the present paper argue that travel narratives can also be considered as veritable literary frameworks through which the colonial agenda was foregrounded. Masquerading as naive accounts of personal experiences, travel narratives, intentionally or otherwise, participated in the process of otherisation and the discursive reconstruction of the colonies. It is in light of this argument that this essay wishes to study select entries from Manohar Shetty’s Goa Travels. Goa’s contemporary status as a tourist destination is well-established. The glossy brochures aimed at alluring tourists from around the world unapologetically play to the galleries – selling the land as a place for fun, frolic and abandon. In the larger economic paradigm, these narrations informed by popular stereotype increase Goa’s visibility on the global map. However, a lot is lost in this metaphorical translation. Goa’s identity as a land of many metaphors – of variegated cultures, syncretic traditions, diverse peoples and more importantly significant historical transitions – is conspicuous by its absence

117 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

in the Brand Goa of the contemporary tourist’s imagination. In doing so, these representations also participate in the ‘otherization’ of Goa by exoti- cising it. However, in contemporary times, a lot of counter-narratives have emerged which challenge and even deconstruct the stereotyping, voci- ferously putting forth the view that Goa’s distinctness should not reduce it to the status of the marginalised ‘other’ in the contemporary socio- economic polarities. In light of this, the travel-entries incorporated in Manohar Shetty’s Goa Travels open up a new, multidimensional vista to the politic of travel narratology. In the entries selected for the study, there is a semi representation of the landand the ways of its people. Throughselect entries, this paper will revisit Goa through the travellers’ lens in order to gauge the underlying narratives which have informed the multiple layers of Goa’s identity over the years.

Study of select entries

As mentioned earlier, Goa’s scenic beauty often becomes the selling point of the touristic agenda. This aspect of the Goan landscape ﬁnds representation in early travel narratives incorporated in Goa Travels: Being the accounts of travellers from the 16th century to the 21st century (2014) too; but apart from a sheer fascination with the topography, these accounts also speak about the recuperative and restorative qualities of the land. Pietro Della Valle, the Italian composer-musicologist who visited Asia in the Renaissance period, for instance, records that,

In Goa, likewise, for the most part, the beginning of the Rain is in the ﬁrst days of June; yet sometimes, it anticipates, and sometimes falls sometime later, with little difference... [b]y this Rain, the heat diminished and the earth, which before was dry and all naked becomes clothed with new verdure and various colours of pleasant ﬂowers and especially the air becomes more healthful, sweet and more benign (81).

The travel narrators, however, like their predecessors, were keenly aware of the commercial beneﬁts of the land and recorded the economic potential of Goa which may have contributed in the colonial extension of the Portuguese imperial power in the land. Calling it a land which is ‘exceed-

118 Shetty’s Goa Travels | Akshata Bhatt, Naﬁsa Oliveira ingly fertile’, Duarte Barbosa, the writer and offer in early sixteenth century Portuguese India, speaks of Goa as a city which is

very great, with good houses, well girt about with strong walls, with towers and bastions. Around it are many vegetable and fruit gardens, with ﬁne trees and tanks of sweet water with mosques and heathen temples. Here the Hydalcam had a great revenue as well from the land as from the sea (4).

The identity of Goa and its peoples as a palimpsest of variegated cultures ﬁnds representation in the travel accounts. For instance, the seventeenth- century French navigator François Pyrard de Laval describes a woman as she appeared at the mass,

The scene is a medley of the Occident and the Orient, of the Latin and the Indian... of the Catholic and the Pagan... Her gown is gold brocade, which glows under a mantle of black silk gauze. She comes riding in a palanquin, seated on a Persian carpet and propped on velvet cushions (76).

Some of the travel accounts deconstruct the processes by which the early colonisers consolidated their position in the colonies by assuming new identities and restructuring social hierarchies in the terra nova. For instance, Pyrard de Laval speaks about the arrival of the Portuguese colonisers in India and says,

Many of the soldiers were ex-convicts, released for the purpose, and all belonged to the lowest class, but as soon as they landed in India they became gentlemen [...] The real nobility winked at this practice. If Indians could be induced to believe that all Por- tuguese were aristocrats, or, at least, that all Portuguese in India were gentlemen of quality, so much the better (72).

The view is reinforced by yet another Frenchman, the gem merchant and traveller Jean-Baptiste Tavernier when he writes,

The Portuguese who go to India have no sooner past the Cape of Good Hope than they all become ﬁdalgos or gentlemen, and add Don to the simple name of Pedro or Jeronimo by which they were known when they embarked; this is the reason why they are commonly called in derision ‘ﬁdalgos of the Cape of Good Hope’. As they changed their status, so also they change their nature... (118).

119 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

When reading the various entries, a few thematic discrepancies become apparent to the readers. Pietro Della Valle, while discussing widow burning (Sati), mentions in his excerpt that it was prohibited by Afonso de Al- buquerque when he took the city of Goa and that it was a reproach to the British Government that not until the year 1829 was the practice of widow-burning forbidden by law in British territories. Perhaps he wishes to indicate that the Portuguese were ahead in reform as compared to the British. In the seventeenth century, there arose colonial rivalry among the European imperial powers who were vying for supremacy. Consider- ing the fact that travel books were vital to imperialism, emphasising on this legal move would be a positive step on the part of the Portuguese to expand and strengthen their colonies. “Civilising” the natives would include eradicating any anachronistic and decadent practices such as Sati, a custom which unquestionably was a social evil which needed to be addressed. Even today, the law bequeathed by the Portuguese has been generally regarded as fair, if not ﬁne. In the vein of law and morality, several writers have constructed the identity of the imperial subject as depraved and in need of being tamed. Jacobus Canter Visscher (1692-1735), the Dutch minister who arrived on the Malabar coast in 1717, claims, “There is no place in the world where [the] law is less regarded than here” (160). Most of the European colonial powers through interpellation would convince the colonized nations that they were primitives in need of civilisation. This ideological hold was the strongest weapon of colonialism. While these derisive accounts would constitute the Empire for its readers, they would justify the cause and presence of imperialism on the other. In their respective pieces, François Pyrard de Laval, historian José Nicolau da Fonseca, and the German adventurer J. Albert de Mandelslo question the chastity to be found in the place. To quote Mandelslo,

The men there are so jealous of their wives that they permit not their nearest relations to see them: for chastity is so strange a vir- tue in those parts, that there is no woman but contrives all the ways imaginable to pursue her enjoyments, never minding the breach of those laws which God and nature hath imposed upon them, though the frequent misfortunes which happen upon that occasion should engage them to be more curious and reserved

120 Shetty’s Goa Travels | Akshata Bhatt, Naﬁsa Oliveira

(114).

In his paper on “Travel Writing and Ideology”, H.S. Chandalia opines, “Western travel writing coincides with the colonial expansion of the empire.” In keeping with the assertion of the West that the colonised nations were in need of being civilized and that consequently it was almost an act of kindness bestowed upon them, descriptions of the people as “heathens” and “pagans” is explicable. One particular writer stands out in this regard, though there are others who have written of Goa in a patronising manner. Richard F. Burton scathingly remarked, “It would be, we believe, difﬁcult to ﬁnd in Asia an uglier or more degraded-looking race than that which we are now describing” (177). He goes on to declare, “This race is decidedly the lowest in the scale of civilized humanity we have yet seen” (180). Demeaning the colonised people may have been a necessity in order to assert their superiority and justify civilizing the so-called “savage”; or it may have been a total preoccupation with the Self and misconstruc- tion of the Other. However, Denis L. Cottineau de Kloguen, writing in the 1800s, differs in his description of Goa saying,

It is certain that the authors of the life of St. Francis Xavier themselves, though Portuguese, give a dreadful account of the state of morals in Goa... [O]n the contrary it would be difficult to find a community of the same number of individuals, pursuing a more regular, tranquil and moral conduct, than that of the present inhabitants of Goa; very seldom, indeed, does there happen any misconduct among the females, not only of the first respectabil- ity, but of the great majority of the population... quarrels are very rare, and murders, or even duels, are still more so... (173).

It is pertinent to note that there are differences in the narrative of various authors. This may be related to the target-readership that the writer wishes to address, the purpose of the account as well as the writer’s individual personality. Some writers may have been more concerned with enabling the Europeans back home to imagine this Empire of which they were in control. Travel narratives are indeed what David Spurr has called “the rhetoric of empire”. The change in the global political scene may have led to a change in the tone of travel writing as well. One can ﬁnd in Graham Greene’s ac-

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count of liberated Goa, a different portrayal of the state from the ones above. There is an objectivity apparent in the narrative and the author avoids being judgmental. His understanding of the state and the people is profound. His observations range from, “The far-ranging Goan has loy- alty to his village you seldom ﬁnd elsewhere,” to “Goan hospitality will not cease till the cellar is empty” (251-254). The pieces towards the end of the anthology differ in tone, as well as, in narration fromthose in the beginning.There may have been an inclina- tion in the traveller to integrate with the Other and internalise the experience, rather than othering the outside world. In the same vein, Hemendra Singh Chandalia opines,

Besides the quantity and variety, travel writing in the twentieth century has grown into a more complex kind of writing where it mixes adventure, landscape, emotion and longing with a conscious exploration and depiction of an ideology also. A journey outside, more often than not, corresponds with a journey inside the self... Having come to the end of the journey, he records the experiences of not just the physical distances negotiated, but also the mental and spiritual experiences felt by him. At times, his entire personality undergoes a transformation and returns a changed man with a new understanding of life, a new ideology.

In ‘The Contemporary Traveller’ sub-section of Goa Travels, the journalist Homer A. Jack gives a vivid description of his experience in the piece ‘Hunting Satyagrahis’.His analysis of the event stems from logicandanun- derstanding of human nature. He says, “I think it correct to assume that people everywhere are more preoccupied with problems of foodand family than with politics” (244). Another narrative in this section, by Helene Derkin Menezes, is reﬂect- ive of the shift in focus from the political to the personal in the history of travel writing on Goa. In her entry, ‘Like no other place on earth,’ she muses while on a holiday, “This is nirvana. How can something so simple be so indulgent?” (272). The shift in the tone of travel narratives is an indication of the writers’ desire to assimilate the unfamiliar, to accept the other, and to arrive at an understanding of a different culture. Not a culture that is ‘higher’ or ‘lower’,but distinct and perhaps having a charm of its own.

122 Shetty’s Goa Travels | Akshata Bhatt, Naﬁsa Oliveira

Conclusion In speaking about the issues of representation in colonial and travel discourses, the editors Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin as well as Mary Louis Pratt speak about the dichotomic otherisation in European literary discourses, stating that in establishing the colonial subjects as the other these texts establish the colonial masters as the centre by implicitly giving them the power to re-present and represent. In fact, this is true of most travel narratives – in context of post-structuralist perspectives, it would be an error to believe that travel narration carries an innocent reflection of the world which it describes. In fact, it may be internally fallacious to categorise travel narratives into rigid genres of fact and fiction for one can see an inevitable interplay of both. What is also evident in these travel narratives is a fact that the critics mentioned above underline too that in representing the ‘other’, the narrators of travel writings actually attempt to define the ‘self’. In this sense, travel writing is not just an external processof recording; itisalso an internal processof self-validation. The travel entries in Goa Travels also display similar matrices. In fact, it is interesting to note that there is a robust competition among the European travel narrators, as they describe colonies other than those that their own countries have colonised. In this sense, there is a constant shifting and re-shifting of centres and a process of otherisation not just in the master-subject paradigm, but even in the master-master paradigm. What is conspicuous in its presence, as is in the larger imperial discourse, is the silence or rather the “mute- ness” of the signified. Although there are entries in which the ‘empire writes back’, Goa Travels opens up a larger paradigm in travel research to talk about the implicit process of reconstruction of places and creation of spaces that happens willy-nilly in all travel narratives. Filipina poet and critic Dinah Roma-Sianturi raises some pertinent questions about the future of travel writings when she opines,

Recent travel theory books are often introduced in a growing standardized manner. It begins with a reminder of how there has been a resurgence in critical attention to travel writing over the past decades alongside commentaries on how the belated recognition of travel writing genre has been on account of its hetero- geneous nature. It crosses boundaries and unsettles the conven-

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tions of other disciplines. It is both fact and ﬁction. It was for a long time viewed [as] amateurish and sub-literary until ﬁnally, the introduction touches on its so-called “imperial origins”. And it is here [that]the arguments begin to tread on sensitive grounds. The key question that confronts contemporary travel theory involves the very question that launched a long-standing investigation [of] the genre. Can it divest itself of its imperial origins? Can it, despite being reminded of its violent beginnings, move forward and achieve discursive maturity (qtd. in Youngs 3).

Today, as pertinent discourses of post-modern narration, travel writings have not remained self-enclosed. The important presence of travel narrations, more often than not informing tourism trends, cannot be ignored. It is pivotal to view travel narratives not merely as literary documents but as signiﬁcant socio-cultural commentaries which can impact and relev- antly shape the reconstruction of a region’s identity. In light of this, travel entries from Goa Travels:Being the accounts of travellersfrom the 16th century to the 21st century can play a noteworthy role in facilitating a further discussion on the role of travel writings as a distinct genre in the larger twenty-ﬁrst-century human narrative. Works Cited

Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Grifﬁths and Helen Tifﬁn. The Post-Colonial Reader. Rout- ledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2003. Chandalia, Hemendra Singh. Travel Writing and Ideology. Academia.Edu. www.academia.edu/8213786/Travel_Writing_and_Ideology Pratt, Marie Louis. Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation. Francis & Taylor. 2003. Shetty, Manohar. Goa Travels: Being the accounts of travellers from the 16th century to the 21st century. Rupa & Co., 2014. Spurr, David. The Rhetoric of Empire: Colonial Discourse in Journalism, Travel Writing and Imperial Administration. Duke University Press, 1993. Youngs, Tim. “Introduction”. The Cambridge Introduction to Travel Writing. Cambridge University Press. 2013.

124 Anne Bonneau’s Radio Travelogues: a portrayal of the archetypal and stereotypical Goan

NATASHA MARIA GOMES1

Since travelogues are a subjective appraisal of an objective reality, they are a fertile ground for psycho-sociological analysis. This paper makes an attempt to explore French journalist Anne Bon- neau’s radio travelogues on Goa and to highlight the image that modern travelogues portray of today’s Goans and Goa. Bonneau’s travelogues are structured around the archetype of the musician, artist, local artisans and tribals, but the image of the Goan stereotype – the fun-loving, susegad Goan – is ever present. This essay points out that some Goans themselves perpetuate this stereotype in order to feed the tourist industry.

HE young and the retired, the hippy and the neo-hippy, the hedon- T ist and the religious have all flocked to Goa, the fabled land of sun, spices and scenic splendour since time immemorial. Despite the slump in the global tourism industry in the last couple of years, the number of tourists who visit this tiny state is still close to double of the local population. Goa’s unique past and consequently the cultural outlook of its people make it unlike any place in India. It is not surprising therefore to find that tourists and travellers alike have documented their journey throughout the length and breadth of this quintessential holiday destination. With the development of transport and the advent of Web 2.0, almost anyone with a device and internet connection can author a travelogue. At this juncture, it’s important to distinguish the pejorative nomen- clature of the enjoyment-seeking ‘tourist’ from the positively-charged la- bel ‘traveller.’ In non-fiction travel writing, it is generally believed that while accounts of beach-life, sightseeing, shopping, cruises and casinos fuel the tourist discourse, the traveller seeks to explore something new

1 Assistant Professor, Department of French and Francophone Studies, Goa University. [email protected] / [email protected] GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

and they often discover the authenticity of a place though empathic in- volvement. Gilbert Keith Chesterton, the British ‘Prince of Paradox’,likens a “tripper” to an incomplete traveller and emphasises that, “The traveller sees what he sees, the tripper [tourist] sees what he has come to see” (ch. 15). Travel literature dates back to hundreds of decades when the world was terra incognita. From the earliest cavemen and women to the hyper- connected individuals of today, humans have been wired with the desire to explore and seek out something new. “Of the gladdest moments in human life, methinks, is the departure upon a distant journey into unknown lands” (Burton 16-17). According to the editors of The Cambridge Companion to Travel Writing, “Traveller’s tales are as old as fiction itself” (Hulme andYoung 2). These journeysto the unknown or the lesser-known are an integral part of our shared human consciousness and have been the crux of our oral and written tradition. However, not all journeys are considered as ‘travels’. In fact, travel writing has been given the ‘Ugly Duckling’ treatment in comparison to the other literary genres. Jonathan Raban, the British travel writer, likens “travel writing” to “a notoriously raffish open house” as it “accommodates different genres. . . private diary, essay short story, prose poems, rough notes and polished table talk with indiscriminate hospitality” (254-55). Not surprisingly, even though travel writing has existed for over centuries, it is a literary genre that has been hotly contested as critics and historians have time and again questioned the ethnographic and literary value of travelogues. Hulme and Youngs point out that it is only recently that analysis of travel writing has gained popularity in academic circles and “scholarly work on travel writing has reached unprecedented levels” (1). Travelogues are part of Travel Literature as they include a traveller’s personal narrative. According to Webster’s New World College Dictionary, a travelogue is a “lecture on travels, usually accompanied by the showing of picturesor a film, usuallyshort, abouta foreign or out-of-the-way place, especially one that emphasises the place’s unusual or glamorous aspects.” Travelogues can take different forms: books, blogs, vlogs, movies, audio podcasts and graphic novels.

126 Anne Bonneau’s radio travelogues | Natasha M. Gomes

The earliest travel writing on Goa dates back to the fourteenth century, a time when there were still many undiscovered territories, a time when people travelled by foot and by sea for long distances and a time when neither Google Maps nor Google Translator existed. Travel writings were autobiographical accounts and helped define the uncharted territory and the ‘Other.’ Since travel literature is essentially based on the traveller’s experiences and accounts, they are fertile grounds for psychological analysis as these memoirs and travelogues are coloured with the authors perspectives and preconceived notions. In an attempt to categorise and define the ‘Foreign’ or the ‘Other’, the traveller often mirrors ‘Self’ – his or her own culture-specific and individual lens of viewing the world. Even today’s seasoned traveller backpacks with stereotypical notions, but the proactive encounters with ‘self’ and the ‘other’ either crystallise these stereotypes or help the traveller see beyond and discover the archetypes of a place. This essay attempts to analyse Anne Bonneau’s audio travelogues on Goa and highlights the Goan archetypes and stereotypes found in her narratives. The nine 20-minute podcasts chosen for this study were first aired in French by Radio France Outre-Mer in 2010 and were part of Bon- neau’s radio show titled Instantanés du Monde [Snapshots of the World]. By focusing on the psycho-sociological analysis of Bonneau’s Travelogue, this study attempts to answer two fundamental questions: What role do travelogues play in influencing perceptions of the target audience? What image do modern travelogues portray of today’s Goans and Goa? Literature review Archetypes

“Two-thirds of what we see is behind our eyes.”

There is ancient wisdom in this Chinese proverb that states we make in- ferences and judgements based on past experiences. Modern psychiat- rists like Carl Jung developed the concept of “archetypes” after having worked intensely on dream analysis and on symbols in the ancient world and myths. Jung believed that apart from the “personal conscious” and “unconscious” elements of the human mind, the human “psyche” is also

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made up of the “collective unconscious” which is a universal inheritance common to all humans. This collective unconscious governs the way we perceive the world. These collective unconscious structures that are hard- wired into our brain are called archetypes. The archetypal patterns con- stantly reoccur in dreams and creative acts including film and literature and they can be a character, a human characteristic, a theme, or a symbol (18-103). In Anatomy of Criticism, the influential Canadian literary critic and literary theorist Northrop Frye brings out the archetypes found in some famous literary texts. These archetypes are symbols that reoccur time and again in a majority of works – from ancient times to the present. For example, the hero, the caregiver, the mother earth or the trickster. When archetypes are present in a text, they appeal to the readers at a very basic level and the narratives ring true. The primordial images are the mani- festation of the archetype and they may change depending on the external, personal and cultural factors. For instance, the archetypal “Wise One” (Jung 175), like Gandalf or Dumbledore, is sometimes portrayed as having a robe and a long beard (Ramaswamy 140-1, 127-8), but it could also be an old woman like the Fairy Godmother or a creature like Master Shifu, one of the Kung Fu Panda characters. Archetypes v/s Stereotypes Archetypes are the original mould from which all others copies are developed. It is the beginning product. Apart from the general archetypes, certain archetypes are specific to certain populations. Eg. Mother India, Uncle Sam and Britannia. A stereotype is a caricature of an archetype and therefore an end product. When certain traits are oversimplified these images take the form of stereotypes. The brutal years of slavery and years of racial se- gregation that followed in America have also created a culturally specific collective unconscious of African American stereotypes like the Mammy, Sambo, Sapphire and Jezebels. There are many demeaning stereotypes of the Blacks as beings morally corrupt. In a diverse country like India, the dimwitted Sardaji, the effeminate Bengali, the shrewd Marvadi and the Goan drunk are a few stereotypes among many others. The traveller often attempts to negotiate this terrain between arche-

128 Anne Bonneau’s radio travelogues | Natasha M. Gomes types and stereotypes. If the travel writers don’t tread carefully, they are most likely to fall into the trap of stereotyping the ‘Other.’ Goa described in travelogues A considerable amount of travel literature exists on Goa and it helps the modern readers understand Goa’s multi-layered past. These travel writings are extremely rich in description and they have historical value because they paint a picture of Goa as it changed hands from ruler to ruler. For instance, the Moroccan traveller, Ibn Battuta offers accounts of the island of Sindbahar, a.k.a. Goa, at the end of the Kadamba dynasty (Roy 129). To the earlier readers, these travel narratives were a crucialpiece of information as it deﬁned the vastly unknown world. Once Goa came under the rule of the Portuguese, it was frequented by several Europeans. Like Jan Van Linschoten, the Dutch traveller, many Europeans have chalked out the luxurious architectural set up of the city in addition to describing the scenic beauty of Goa Dourada – the Golden Goa (Parr 79-117). The sixteenth-century French traveller Vincent Le Blanc felt that the Goa mirrored the opulence in Europe (qtd. in Fonseca 146-7). European travellers like Ralph Fitch (1550-1611), Johan Albrecht de Mandelslo (1616–1644), Denis Louis Cottineau de Kloguen, Edward Ives, Garcia de Orta (1501?–1568), Jean-Baptiste Tavernier (1605–1689), Jaco- bus Canter Visscher and the English doctor John Fryer (circa 1650–1733), have all lived in Goa Portuguesa and the place left a deep impression on them. In their narratives, they have described the beauty of the landscape, different facets of the city, the buildings, the battles between the neighbouring dynasties, the daily habits of the people: their culinary habits, their dressing styles, their visits to the church and their general preoccupa- tions. Travellers analysed their surroundings in relation to their perceived notions and customs and in an attempt to deﬁne ‘the Other’. Many a time, the travellers also described unknown customs and re- counted sordid aspects of Goa like the brutal Inquisition.In his travelogue titled Goa and the Blue Mountains or Six Months of Sick Leave, the Vic- torian explorer and writer Richard Burton described the population of the place in very derogatory terms. The cultural arrogance of the imperialist writer is quite evident in his sharp criticism of the native culture and their

129 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

barbarous customs. Duarte Barbosa and the Pietro Della Valle described the horrifying practice of Sati (Shetty). These travel writings played a role in inﬂuencing perceptions of Europeans. Since the locals had practices that were different from the Europeans, they were often labelled as ‘bar- barian’ and their practices labelled as ‘backward.’ As Mia Waliszewski highlighted, “...[it] supported the inherent superiority of Northern Europe over other societies.” Carl E. Thompson, in his Travel Writing (2011), opines that “All journeys are in this way a confrontation with, or more optimistically, a negoti- ation of, what is sometimes termed alterity” (9). Modern travellers’ narratives attempt to portray the Goa of today: an erstwhile European colony, the neo-hippy culture, the Goans way of life which is different from any other places in India. Carl Thompson, notes that,

...since there are no foreign people with whom we do not share a common humanity, and probably no environment on the planet for which we do not have some sort of prior reference point, all travel requires us to negotiate a complex and sometimes unsettling interplay between alterity and identity, difference and simil- arity (9).

Just like the travel writers of the pre-Liberation era, the contemporary travel writers seek to describe ‘the Other’ and have their unique voice heard among a vast sea of voices. Travel narratives range from the humorous to the serious and can be documentary, literary, journalistic and promotional in nature. When the travellers just scratch the surface and over-simplify the attitudes of the locals, they pander to stereotypes. But when a travel writer manages to convey the true essence of the place, the travel narrative often includes archetypal symbols and characters. Anne Bonneau’s Audio Documentary Drawn by the desire to explore cultures where traditional occupations and a traditional way of life still exists, Anne Bonneau, the host of Instant- anés du Monde, a French radio show on Outre-mer 1re, has for the past seven years documented the sounds and the voices of people living in Asia, Africa, and the islands in the Indian and the Paciﬁc Ocean.

130 Anne Bonneau’s radio travelogues | Natasha M. Gomes

A majority of her podcasts are based on different places in India. She goes off the beaten path and visits the vineyards of Doddaballapur in Karnataka and the tea plantations in Vandiperiyar in Idukki district of Kerala, the tribes in the forests of Netorlim, Goa, among other places. We also learn about the Chettinad architecture, the sacred elephants of Guruvayoor and the mud horses of Aranthangi (a town and a historical municipality in Pudukkottai district in the state of Tamil Nadu). In a radio interview with Dominique Roederer, the host of Paris sur Mer, Bonneau likens her podcasts to an audio documentaryas opposed to a news reportor “reportage”,as she believes that her work is an artistic endeavour to portray a country, a region and a place (1:55-2:20). L’Inde Eter- nelle: A place which evokes vivid images to Europeans: images of palaces and maharajahs, but also a place which is precariously poised between the past and the present. A place where the last generation of local artisans and craftsmen still exist and a place where the new generation is slowly evolving to mirror a homogenised society (3:25-4:00). She believes that her work is a tribute to their way of life and a homage to the last generation of seasoned men and women who have continued to practice a trade and a profession despite the inﬂuence of globalisation. Accompanied by a local interpreter, this French journalist generally spends a few weeks observing, feeling the pulse of the place, interviewing people, recording conversations and myriad sounds. On returning to the radio studio in France, she collaborates with her team of sound technicians and voice-over artists to create a cohesive radio podcast. Unlike many other audio travelogues, her radio series are in the third person narrative and they are interspersed with snippets of conversations involving some famous and many not so famous locals. The francophone listeners are transported to another world as they hear these people share a part of their lives, their thoughts, aspirations, feelings and life goals. The locals retrace steps into their past and recount anecdotes. Their dialogues are dubbed into French, but one can still hear the musicality of the local language in the background. Bonneau not only constructs her narratives based on these varied interactions but her podcasts though ostensibly titled as a name of a place are generally structured around a theme that she wishes to address.

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A snapshot of the Goans and a way of life Seven years ago, in the rain-drenched month of June, Bonneau went about exploring Goa, a former Portuguese colony on the west coast of India. She oscillates between portraying it as an outsider and an insider, and as a consequence skilfully weaves a larger social context, into a com- pelling character-rich narrative. She negotiates the terrain between archetypes and stereotypes, by juxtaposing her narratives with several interviews. Being a keen observer, equipped with a palm-sized microphone, a recording device and a set of headphones, Bonneau captures the daily lifeof the typical Goans and their preoccupationswith the rains. She notonlyro- manticised the monsoon season with the poetry of her language but also intersperses the podcasts with the sounds of the pitter-patter of the rain- drops, the monsoon breeze, the rustling of leaves, the baker’s horn, and a farmer ploughing the ﬁeld with his two bullocks. She encapsulates the essence of the place by describing in detail the dark ominous clouds, the orchestrated opening of the umbrellas at the Mapusa market as the heav- ens began to pour and the locals skilfully manoeuvring their umbrellas to avoid poking others in the eye (Margão). One is teleported to a particular moment in time because of her uncanny art of narrating what she feels, sees, smells and hears. A cross-section of the Goan society is portrayed in the audio snapshots: from the bespectacled Goan Catholic lady donning a dress (Chandor), a Catholic priest (Saligão), Jazz lovers (Sangolda), hawkers on Baga beach to the woman who sells Goan sausages at the Mapusa market (Margão). In an attempt to paint a realistic picture of the inhabitants and a way of life that is slowly disappearing, Bonneau’s podcasts uncover Goan archetypal characters among the stereotypes. The creator: the musician and the artist Bonneau brings to the fore Goan musicians in the podcasts titled San- golda and Siolim. The cross-cultural aspects of Goa are evident in the music that is created and sung by its people. Goan music is a fusion of Western and Eastern forms of music. The Goan musicians, driven by an intense craving to play music, are an embodiment of an archetype. The

132 Anne Bonneau’s radio travelogues | Natasha M. Gomes proof of the importance of the Goan musician lies in the fact that they have contributed to the ﬂourishing of the Jazz in India and played a stellar role as sound technicians in the Bollywood industry. During the tourist season in Goa, it’s not uncommon to listen to live music. According to Jazzman Colin D’Cruz, music runs in the veins of every Goan as they love to listen and play music (Sangolda). He states that the highest number of music bands in the country come from this state. “Goa, C’est la musique!” he emphasises, “quand vous naissez, on joue de la musique, quand vous partez, il y a de la musique, quand vous vous mariez, on fait la musique, et bien sûr, quand vous mourrez, encore de la musique.” ‘When you are born, we play music, when you leave you play music, when you get married, we play music and when you die, we play music’ (Sangolda, 18:35-18:55). The Artist type encompasses painters, photographers, designers, entrepreneurs etc. Like the Musicians, they also feel the need to create something new and express themselves fully in the given time and age. The artists in Bonneau’s podcasts are Goans who have returned back to Goa after a journey abroad. Over the years, they have carved a niche for themselves with their signature creations. “Goa, C’est un paradis pour les artistes.” “Goa is a paradise to an artist” (Panjim, 0:02- 0:12) believes Alex Fernandes, a photographer who lived in Mumbai and the Middle East for several years before moving to Goa. He wanted to introduce a style of portraiture in Goa that was unique so he began with a series of photographs based on iconic local Konkani theatre personalities called tiatristes, and the musicians of Goa. Fernandes noticed similarities between the stock characters portrayed by the tiatristes and the caricatures of the popular Goan cartoonist Mario Miranda and believes that these images are archetypes of the Goan people. Wendell Rodricks, the famous fashion designer, learnt his craft in Paris and moved back to his ancestral village in Goa away from the ‘visual attacks’ of the urban life (Colvale). The poet-painter Tanya Mendonsa from Calcutta worked in France for 20 years before she reconnected with her Goan roots and moved to Goa (Moira). The rebel and the advocate Before he shot to fame as a pop star, Remo Fernandes, an archetype of

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a rebel, was inspired by the hippies and was on a pursuit to live a life of pleasure. As an Indian hippy in Europe, he played music on the streets, in the metro, in the restaurants in addition to doing odd jobs to sustain himself. He alwaysbelievedthathe wouldwork asan architectand would play music as a hobby. But his days in Europe changed his perspective of who he was and what he wanted out of life. Music was his life and he began writing songs about his motherland. Nostalgia is what drew him back to Goa: the sights, the sounds, the sun and the warmth of the people. No sooner did he release his first few albums then Bollywood made a beeline to his front door, in Goa. A musician with a social conscience, for the past 25 years he has been using music as an instrument to bring about social change and awaken the Goans to the blatant destruction of the paddy fields, beaches and their lush landscape. In his latest soundtrack, he sings with hope that the riches of his beloved Goa can be preserved, “Goa Goa, Oxem Sodanch Uronk Zai.” (Siolim) Victor Hugo Gomes, an alter-globalist and the curator of the ethnographic museum in Benaulim, is also an archetype of a rebel and an advocate. As a local who lives in close proximity to nature, he believes that our ancestors were truly wise and they had a sustainable way of life which the youngsters of today are trading for modernism. He talks about several varieties of rice and of fish that were found in Goa, but have slowly disappeared. In an attempt to preserve the diversity to of the land, Gomes has started breeding the traditional varieties of freshwater fish and being inspired by the Norwegian seed bank has created one of his own, here in Goa. For him, the heritage of Goa isn’t Portuguese, the language or the monuments, but the traditional gaunkari or comunidade system in which the community worked together and shared the profits. This system, he believes, has been systematically destroyed by various governments. Marketing strategies by multinational companies have prevented the Goans from valuing the local produce. Coconut oil and traditional sea salt have gained a reputation for being unhealthy. But he points to the fact that our ancestors used sea-farmed salt and traditional coconut oil in their cooking and they lived until a ripe old age.

134 Anne Bonneau’s radio travelogues | Natasha M. Gomes

He is against mechanised farming in Goa, because he believes that these machines are not adapted to the Goan terrain. He farms his own land and recorded all the traditional Konkani names for describing the 17 stages that the paddy goes through before it reaches a person’s plate as rice. In his ethnographic museum, he showcases the traditional tools, implements and crafts of the people of Goa. His sole aim is to preserve what he can for the future generations (Benaulim). Local artisans: the poder, the choriskar and the ramponkar or nustekar The poder or the baker

It is difficult to imagineGoa without the poder, the aroma of freshly baked bread and the signature sound of the baker’s horn at dawn and at dusk. In the podcast titled Margão, Bonneau explains that the Goans are so fond of their bread that they have acquired the nickname pão – the Por- tuguese word for bread. Like in France, bread is an essential part of the Goan household and every village has at least one local bakery. The Goans learnt the art of baking bread from the Portuguese. Even till this day, many artisan bakers like Gil Gomes from Margão still continue to use the traditional method. The flour is prepared in the morning with fresh yeast, kneaded and shaped in the afternoon and baked in the evening using a wood-fired mud oven. The bakers go from house to house, twice a day, on their cycles, selling this freshly baked bread. These cycles are fitted with bamboo baskets and a typical baker’shorn. Gil Gomes, a baker from Margão explains that it’s hard work, and during the torrential monsoons, the ‘baker’s boys’ wear raincoats while they go on their rounds. Due to the way of transporting bread during the monsoons, the bread tend to pick up moisture and the ones which do so have to be discarded. But despite the losses, in the words Gil Gomes, “We are managing.” It’s an occupation that has managed to survive all these years, but the future is bleak because of the onslaught of globalisation, lack of skilled bakers and the changing nature of the Goan diet. The choriskar or sausage maker

Bread is best eaten with baji – a vegetable preparation of pulses or pota- toes and spices – or with choris (sausages, in Konkani). According to Bon- neau, this spicy pork sausage looks like a rosary chaplet sausage but the

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name is similar to the Spanish chorizo and the Portuguese chouriço. It’s perhaps another culinary legacy that was granted by the Portuguese to Goa. In the local Mapusa market, she meets a sausage vendor, Florence Lobo, seated on a low stool in front of the sausages. She dexterously counts the “chapelet de saucisses” and sells it to her customers while skilfully balancing an umbrella to shelter herself from the drizzle (Margão 6:14-9:25). This choriskann proudly states that the choris is a Goan delicacy; it can be eaten with bread or can be used to flavour pulao and biryani. The pork is cooked in spices and then boiled in local coconut vinegar. They are dried and they last for months. It is frequently eaten, especially during the monsoons when fish is expensive and not easily available in Goa as the inclement weather makes fishing operations difficult at that time of the year. She adds that the Goans like their pork and, those who live outside Goa, often buy sausages in bulk. Florence Lobo further states that at first the foreigners are overwhelmed with the spice but over time they too develop a liking for this Goan choris.

The ramponkar and nustekar or ﬁsherman

Goa is known for its fish. During the monsoons, all fishing activity comes to a halt for several weeks. Bonneau observes that the fish markets are then empty except for a few local fishermen selling dry fish. Fish is imported from the nearby state of Andhra Pradesh. The local nustekar explains to Bonneau that during the monsoon, the sea is dangerous and the annual fishing ban is important because it gives the fish time to breed and grow.

The Goan tribals

The Kunbi, Gauda, Velip and the Dhangar communities are tribals who many historians believe were the original settlers of the Konkan area in- cludingGoa. Deepin the hinterlands of Goa, in the mining beltontheout- skirts of the Netorlim forests, Bonneau interacts with the Dhangar community, an erstwhile nomadic shepherd tribe that lived with their cattle in the Deccan and the Konkan area (Netorlim). The Dhangars used to live in the forests and their cattle grazed in the

136 Anne Bonneau’s radio travelogues | Natasha M. Gomes ample wastelands away from cultivators and their crops. After the 1974 census, the government demarcated land for this tribe and this, in turn, would drastically change their traditional lifestyle. With Victor Hugo Gomes, the curator of the local ethnographic museum mentioned above, as her guide, Bonneau is introduced to the traditional crafts and structures that this community created and built. This tribe lived in union with nature. They used naturally found materials to build enclosures and their homes. She intricately describesoneofthe few traditional goatli – goats shed that still exists today. It’s built at an eleva- tion with a roof of sticks and dried coconut fronds. Each family owns a herd of goats and designated members take the cattle out for grazing every day. Many have replaced their mud houses with concrete ones. It’s only in the last few years that their settlement received electricity. But by and large,the youth of the Dhangar tribe have abandoned their roots, the vast and rich trove of traditional knowledge. Many work in blue- collared jobs and scant importance is given to learning the traditional crafts like making natural ropes or playing the traditional ﬂute which was made of bamboo and bees’ wax. The oldest man in the community happens to be the only person who knows how to twist the plant barks to make coir and how to play the instrument which the shepherds tradition- ally used to calm aggressiveanimals and to help stray cattle ﬁnd their way back to the herd in the thick forest. The death of this patriarchof the community would mean the death of a vast specialisation of knowledge and the world would be poorer in that eventuality.

Tourism-dependent Goans

A third of Goa’s population depends on tourism. In a podcast titled “Goa en technicolor”, taxi driver Pascal laments that there were no tourists that year so he and a couple of other drivers simply whiled away their time playing a card game called rummy. The idle laid-back taxi driver is a symbol of the dwindling tourism industry in Goa. Pascal further points out to the fact that most of the tourist locations in Goa are reeking with garbage. In a bid to rectify the issue, the taxi drivers of Baga and Dona Paula have taken it upon themselves to clean

137 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

the surroundings. He believes that the tourist locations are natural sites and have to be preserved. According to Rajan Narayan, the editor of weekly Goan Observer newspaper, tourism in Goa developed by accident. The hippies discovered Goa in the 1960s because of the Vietnam War and the political and social tur- moil in Europe. They came to Goa because they sought an alternative way of life. Since the mid-1980s, over the years, the number of charter flights – earlier from Germany and Scandinavia and then from the UK and Rus- sia – increased because over time this state was considered to be a low- cost tourist destination. Unfortunately, along with the tourists, the Rus- sian and Israeli drug lords may have also set up home in Goa. Narayan opines that tourism is the only activity which is economically viable for Goa because, unlike the British, the Portuguese colonial rulers didn’t create many higher education and technical institutions. The ripple effects of this can be felt even today. Goans, he points out, don’t want to work and consequently, the blue-collared jobs are taken up by migrants from the neighbouring states. The Goan stereotypes Bonneau’s narratives are not devoid of stereotypes. These oversimplified traits of the Goans that one notices in Konkani tiatrs, Bollywood and in Mario de Miranda’s caricatures. Interestingly, we notice that some of the locals themselves perpetuate stereotypical notions of Goans. It is a known fact that Goa is a haven where alcohol flows freely. Bon- neau’s narrative alludes to the stereotype of the Goan and their love for the ‘bottle’. When she visited the Jazz musicians in Sangolda, she noted that alcohol flowed during the jamming session. Alex Fernandes, a well- known photographer, mentions that alcohol is an integral part of the Goan susegado or laid-back culture and that it is not uncommon to find Goans who are sloshed at 3 o’clock in the afternoon. This trait, he adds, the Goans shared with their former Portuguese rulers (Panjim). Another stereotype is that majority of the Goans sing or play a musical instrument. When Nelly Pereira, a famous Jazz singer, quips that 90% of Goans sing, as a local she is feeding the image of a stereotype (Sangolda). She recounts that her father used to often tell her that in Catholic communities after the evening rosary was recited, the family would gather

138 Anne Bonneau’s radio travelogues | Natasha M. Gomes around and sing mandde and dulpodam with the violin, the banjo and the guitar. This image of the musically-inclined, mandde-singing Goan Catholic is also present in Mario de Miranda’s caricatures. The interviews highlightthe fact that the locals themselves havea role to play in creating and maintaining the stereotypes. These stereotypes play a role in maintaining Goa’s image as a tropical paradise.

Conclusion

In a way, Bonneau’swork isa tribute to the people of Goa. It leans more towards ethnocentrism than exoticism. She deﬁnes ‘the Other’ to the franco- phones through a series of archetypal characters and brings out the com- monalities between the European and the Goan. She visits a range of places, some in the hinterland – Margão, Mapusa, Siolim, Netorlim – and not the beaches, in searchof people working in traditional occupations. Her audio documentaries preserve a slice of Goan life. She presents her listeners with a rich auditory atmosphere and intersperses her elaborate accounts with conversations from the locals. Being an outsider, she verbalises her experiences by describing what she sees, feels and smells. The perspective of the locals helps the listener understands the societal and cultural undercurrents of the place. It has to be noted that some of the iconic locals that she interviewed all had a link to Europe in general and France in particular. Her multi-layered narratives transport the listeners in time and space and they highlight archetypal characters while stumbling occasionally to certain stereotypes. To the Goans, her travel documentaries are a subtle plea to value their heritage and preserve the traditional occupations and consequently the savoir-faire that goes along with it.

Works Cited

Bonneau, Anne, creator. “Benaulim.” Instantanés du Monde à Goa, Outre- mer 1ère, 2011, la 1ere France info, la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/emissions- radio/instantanes-du-monde, Accessed 10 June 2011. —————. “Colvale.” Instantanés du Monde à Goa, Outre-mer 1ère, 2011, la 1ere France info, la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/emissions-radio/instantanes-du- monde, Accessed 10 June 2011.

139 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

—————. “Dans les forêts de Netorlim.” Instantanés du Monde à Goa, Outre- mer 1ère, 2011, la 1ere France info, la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/ emissions- radio/instantanes-du-monde, Accessed 10 June 2011. —————. “Goa, en Technicolor.” Instantanés du Monde à Goa, Outre- mer 1ère, 2011, la 1ere France info, la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/emissions- radio/instantanes-du-monde, Accessed 10 June 2011. —————. “Margão.” Instantanés du Monde à Goa, Outre-mer 1ère, 2011, la 1ere France info, la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/emissions-radio/ instantanes-du- monde, Accessed 10 June 2011. —————. “ Moira.” Instantanés du Monde à Goa, Outre-mer 1ère, 2011, la 1ere France info, la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/emissions-radio/ instantanes-du- monde, Accessed 10 June 2011. —————. “Panjim.” Instantanés du Monde à Goa, Outre-mer 1ère, 2011, la 1ere France info, la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/emissions-radio/ instantanes-du- monde, Accessed 10 June 2011. —————. “Saligão.” Instantanés du Monde à Goa, Outre-mer 1ère, 2011, la 1ere France info, la1ere. francetvinfo.fr/emissions-radio/ instantanes-du- monde, Accessed 10 June 2011. —————. “Sangolda.” Instantanés du Monde à Goa, Outre-mer 1ère, 2011, la 1ere France info, la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/emissions-radio/ instantanes-du- monde, Accessed 10 June 2011. —————. “Siolim.” Instantanés du Monde à Goa, Outre-mer 1ère, 2011, la 1ere France info, la1ere.francetvinfo.fr/emissions-radio/ instantanes-du- monde, Accessed 10 June 2011. Burton, Richard Francis. Goa and the Blue Mountain or Six Months of Sick Leave. Richard Bentley, London, 1851. Archives.org, archive.org/ details/goabluemountains00burtrich, Accessed 7 Aug. 2017. —————. Zanzibar. London, 1872, vol. 1, ch. 2, pp. 16-17. Chesterton, Gilbert Keith. “XV: The incomplete traveller.” Autobiography, Hutchinson & Co., 1936/eBooks@Adelaide, U of Adelaide Library, South Australia, 12 May 2016, ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/c/chesterton/ gk/autobiography/chapter15.html, Accessed 15 Aug. 2017. Fonseca, José Nicolau da. An Historical and Archaeological Sketch of the City of Goa: Preceded by a Short Statistical Account of the Territory of Goa. Asian Educational Services, 4th Reprint 2001, pp. 146-7. Google books, http://bit.ly/2TSjS95 Accessed 7 Aug. 2017. Frye, Northrop. Anatomy of Criticism: Four Essays. Princeton UP,1957, Fifteenth printing 2000. Hulme, Peter, and Tim Youngs (eds.) “Introduction.” The Cambridge Compan- ion to Travel Writing. Cambridge UP, 2002. Digitalized in May 2006, https://doi.org/10.1017/CCOL052178140X Jung, Carl G et al., (eds.) “Approaching the Unconscious.” Man and His Symbols. Ferguson Publishing, London, 1st ed. 1964, Reprinted 1988.

140 Anne Bonneau’s radio travelogues | Natasha M. Gomes

Jung, Carl G. “Psychology and Literature.” Modern Man in Search of a Soul, Rout- ledge, 2014. Parr, Charles McKew. “Goa” Jan van Linschoten: The Dutch Marco Polo, Thomas Y. Crowell, New York, 1964. Archives.org, archive.org/ stream/in.ernet.dli.2015.87339/2015.87339.The-Dutch-Marco-Polo _djvu.txt, Accessed 7 Aug. 2017. Raban, Jonathan. For Love & Money: Writing, Reading, Travelling, 1968- 1987. Pan Books, London, 1988, pp. 254-55. Archive.org, archive.org /details/forlovemoneywrit00raba, Accessed 20 Aug. 2017. Ramaswamy, Shobha. “Fantasy’s Gallery of Archetypes.” Archetypes in Fantasy Fiction: A Study of J. R. R. Tolkien and J. K. Rowling, Language in India, Volume 14:1 Jan. 2014. Roederer, Dominique, creator. Paris sur Mer/ Anne Bonneau. la1ere, 15 Dec. 2014, (00:11-27:14). Daily motion, www.dailymotion.com/ video/x2clzza, Accessed 20 Aug. 2017 Roy, Aniruddha. Towns and Cities of Medieval India: A Brief Survey. Routledge Taylor & Francis, London and New York/Manohar, 2017, pp. 129. Google books, http://bit.ly/2EgpFjv Accessed 13 Sept. 2017. Shetty, Manohar, editor. “The Early Traveller.” Goa Travels: Being the Accounts of Travellers from the 16th to the 21st century, Rupa & Co., 2014. Thompson, Carl. “Deﬁning the Genre.” Travel Writing, Routledge, 2011, ch.2, p.9. Google Books, http://bit.ly/2SI3co8 Waliszewski, Mia. “The role of travel writing in reconstructed the history of Latin America.” Latin American Travelogues, Brown University Lib- rary, library.brown.edu/cds/travelogues/waliszewski.html, Accessed 20 Aug. 2017.

141 Footprints of the colonial past: Goa in V.S. Naipaul’s A Million Mutinies Now

PALIA GAONKAR1

Nobel Laureate and well-known travel writer V. S. Naipaul dedicates only a very few pages to Goa in his book India: A Million Mu- tinies Now (1990). Rather than focusing on the obvious beach life and cheap liquor, he points out to the simplicity of the Goan land and to its history. Nevertheless, he does not fail to mention the “fracture in reality” of Goa, similar to any other Indian land, using the metaphor of the Mandovi bridge that had collapsed in the mid-1980s. His emphasis on the undeniable post-colonial presence makes Goa appear like an unassuming window to the past.

HERE can be two impressions of a certain place – the tourist’s ver- T sion, and the traveller’s version. The tourist’s version often speaks about the attractiveness of the place i.e. what stands out. A traveller’s version, on the other hand, will mention the attractions, but not necessarily. A traveller will more often than not make a learning experience out of the visit, and not just a pleasurable one. She or he will go beyond what is obvious and look at the placein the way a critic looks at a text. Travel writing is a venture that a traveller undertakes in order to record the travel in writing and literature. Often, travel writing encompasses a huge variety of writing: blogs, reviews, articles in travel magazines and other periodicals, and then, very emphatically, the travelogues which are published by authors as books. Travelogues or travel memoirs describe the journey of the author to a new place. More often than not, a travel writer is a passive observer, who tries to create a picture of the place visited, for her or hisreaders. Such writingsmay or may not be accompanied by photographs, which implies that a writer has to be skilful at her or his descriptions of a place, and has to be, without doubt, faithful to the images that are being recorded.

1 Research scholar, Dept. of English, Goa University. [email protected] Goa in Naipaul’s A Million Mutinies Now | Palia Gaonkar

Such a record has been given by Nobel Laureate V. S. Naipaul in his book, India: A Million Mutinies Now (1990). Naipaul is known for his connections with the post-colonial view of literature, and his travel writing is often viewed through the same lens. Naipaul has covered the length and breadth of India and put his observations down in his travel trilogy, of which the above book is the last publication. The first thing that one notices while reading Naipaulis that he prefers to take the less sophisticated modes of travel; which is true in the case of many travel writers. The more an outsider takes up to the common ways of the place visited, the better is her or his record of the place. When one comes down to the level of what is ‘local’ to the place, the understanding of the place, its culture and tradition become solid. Understanding the local is important especially in the case of tourist destinations because what is conveyed by tourists gains popularity, but often a corrected version is found penned down by a traveller. Goa, as itis a highlysought-after touristdestination, is often portrayed in media as it appears to the tourists, and seldom as it appears to the locals. The present research is taken up to analyse a traveller’s perspective of Goa, in this case, the traveller-author being V. S. Naipaul. In India: A Million Mutinies Now (1990), Naipaul dedicates a few pages to this small state in India. He makes very few but key observations about Goa, which tell a different tale than what is often told by tourists. Before exploring Naipaul’s perspective of Goa, this essay attempts to chart out an explanation of key concepts, that of travel writing and postcolonialism, and further tries to locate the place of V. S. Naipaul in this tapestry. To this end, the following section takes up a brief literature review. Travel writing and postcolonialism Carl Thompson in his book titled Travel Writing (2011) reiterates the policy concept of Granta, the reputed British literary journal, that “travel writing is a genre especially reflective of, and responsive to, the modern condition”, immensely influenced by globalisation, where travel has become a fact of life (2). Migration and travelling have become activities of day-to-day importance in the modern world. Boundaries have to be crossed, for myriad reasons. The “modern condition” necessitates dis-

143 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

placement of a person from the spatial as well as mental comfort zones. This ‘unsettling’ situation gives rise to a number of new sensory experiences, which have been captured by artists in various forms over the years. Travel writingisa personal accountofthe experience ofa place, which is perhaps new and interesting to the traveller. In the Introduction to The Cambridge Introduction to Travel Writing (2013), Youngs defines travel writing as “predominantly factual, first-person prose accounts of travels that have been undertaken by the author-narrator” (3). This implies that the person undertaking travel writing has to be not only a writer but a traveller in that. The subject of travel writing is the people, the place and the peculiarities that one comes across as part of the travel experience. Nevertheless, a contradiction to the above statement cannot be denied, which Youngs seems to have tackled by adding the word “predominantly”. Travel writing is, as mentioned earlier, a personal account, and therefore subjective; the objectivity of these accounts is sometimes questionable. This is noticed in the accounts of the travellers in the pre-colonial era, wherein, to use Edward Said’s term, the ‘oriental’, was made up of unciv- ilized people. One can, therefore, infer that what a traveller sees in a new place largely depends on where she or he stands in the power structure. Since post-colonial theory sets out to dismantle the established power structures (Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin 117), V.S. Naipaul’s travel writing is largely from a post-colonial perspective. Blanton (2013) gives a chronolo- gical account of travel writing in the twentieth century and remarks that it is difficult to ignore V. S. Naipaul, writing in the mid-twentieth century, as he takes a “central place in the post-colonial period” (n.p.). Further- more, in an article in The New York Times titled “The Irascible Prophet: V. S. Naipaul at Home”, Donadio (2005) comments that Naipaul’s writing is about “the clash between belief and unbelief, the unravelling of the Brit- ish Empire, and the migration of peoples” (np). Himself being the product of displacement, Naipaul’s journey in writing parallels his journey of self- discovery, where he looks for an identity and a sense of belongingness. Ray (2005) describes Naipaul as “an Indian in the West Indies, a West Indian in England, and a nomadic intellectual in a postcolonial world” (208).

144 Goa in Naipaul’s A Million Mutinies Now | Palia Gaonkar

Naipaul’s travels in India are depicted in his trilogy, An Age of Dark- ness (1964), India: A Wounded Civilization (1977) and India: A Million Mu- tinies Now (1990). The theme of these three books attains maturity as he progresses from the first book to the third. Saradhambal (2015) puts it as “[H]is vision of India is transformed from anger and disillusionment to understanding and accepting the reality of the country of his origin, and strikes a deeper connection with it” (55). It is in his last book of the trilogy that Goa finds a mention. One of the most sought-after tourist destinations, Goa, is popularly looked up to as a place of pleasure. But it does not seem so in V.S. Nai- paul’s India: A Million Mutinies Now (1990). For the Nobel Laureate, Goa appears more like a multidimensional archive, with its history and culture influenced by Portuguese colonisation. Goa in India: A Million Mutinies Now (1990) Naipaul’s description of Goa is dominated by postcolonial symbols, in the sense that his focus hardly moves away from the overt Portuguese influence seen in Goa. The words of T.S. Eliot, “the present moment of the past” (Bartleby n.p.) comes alive in this brief discussion, as he frequently delves into the historical background of the place. He begins with an incident that explains how, post-Liberation, a Goan Hindu has developed faith in Infant Jesus. This is possibly a subtle reference to the conversions that oc- curred during the Portuguese rule in Goa. He also points out to the fact that people flock to Goa more out of faith than to appreciate the architecture of the cathedral of Old Goa. He remarks:

[a]fter 450 years, all they had left behind in this emptiness and simplicity was their religion, their language (without a literature), their names, a Latin-like colonial population, and this cult, from their cathedral, of the Image of the Infant Jesus. (Naipaul 165)

In the “General Introduction” to The Post-Colonial Studies Reader (2003), it is stated that “postcolonialism is a continuing process of resistance and reconstruction” (Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin 2). In this regard, there are two significant observations that V.S. Naipaul makes about Goa in his travelogue which reflect the conflicts and paradoxes often seen in post-colonial societies. Firstly, his encounter with the broken Mandovi bridge and his consequent travel by ferry from one bank of the river to

145 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

the other is a powerful metaphor, which he describes as the “fracture in reality” (163). With that image, Naipaul probably points out to the fact that postcolonial societies such as Goa spend years coping with the after- effect of colonisation and newly-gained independence. It is evident, that “[p]ostcolonial societies are still subject in one way or another to overt or subtle forms of neo-colonial domination, and independence has not solved this problem” (Ashcroft, Griffiths & Tiffin 2). Secondly, he is amused at the choicethat Goa made in keeping the relics of St. Francis Xavier but removing the statue of Camoens, the sixteenth- century Portuguese traveller poet, whose statue was replaced by that of Mahatma Gandhi at the Old Goa junction. Camoens in his verses had described the adventures of Portuguese colonial expansion at large but was “the first great poet of modern Europe to write of India and Indians” (166). His significance seemed to be totallylostin Goa, which implies that “India had its own priorities and values” (167). It is crucialhereto pointout certainanomaliesthat canbe seen in Nai- paul’s observations with regard to Goa. His days in Goa seem to have re- volved only around Old Goa, as if the place summarises the entire state itself. It seems Naipaul has taken the identical characteristics of the names of the places (of the town and the state) and the smallness of the state as well as its name, quite literally.Thereis no mention of any other place that he visited in Goa; after his discussion on Goa and its colonised history, he moves indifferently to another state in a matter of six to seven pages. On page 164, he describes the Basilica of Bom Jesus as the cathedral wherein “Saint Francis Xavier was buried”. It is indeed strange of Naipaul for having put it that way since his discourse seems to be more about Old Goa than any other place, and not knowing that the relics of St. Francis Xavier are in fact reposed at the cathedral, and not “buried”. Time and again, Goans have reasserted that an authentic Goan experience is beyond the obvious portrayal of the place in the media. Al- though Naipaul does move in that direction, his exit from Goa in his writing is quite abrupt. His focus is limited to Old Goa, its architecture and related history. From a contemporary and celebrated writer such as Nai- paul, one would expect more than just that. Nevertheless, it is better than the touristy version of the Goan tale.

146 Goa in Naipaul’s A Million Mutinies Now | Palia Gaonkar

Conclusion Being a native of Goa, the researcher found Naipaul’s account of Goa incomplete and rather hasty. His references to the Portuguese colonisation and its inﬂuences on Goa are narrow to a fault. Naipaul appears to pick one place as a representative microcosm to comment on the macrocosm that is Goa. The inﬂuence of the Portuguese colonisation of Goa is prominent in the state, but not overpowering. And hence it is important to visit those places in Goa which have preserved their original identity in times of colonisation. Most of Goa resides in the villages, and it is from the villages that the culture and traditions of Goa can be comprehended. Geo- graphically, Goa is a small state, but its diversity is highly prominent. Goa, often ‘mis-portrayed’,and it needs reliable and responsible travel writers to give a faithful and wholesome picture of its profusion. Works Cited

Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Grifﬁths and Helen Tifﬁn. The Post-Colonial Studies Reader. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2003. Blanton, Casey. Travel Writing. Routledge, 2013. Eliot, T. S. “Tradition and Individual Talent”. Bartleby.com., n.d. www. bartleby.com/200/sw4.html Donadio, Rachel. “The irascible prophet: V.S. Naipaul at home”. The New York Times. The New York Times Company, 2005. India”. HuSS: International Journal of Research in Humanities and Social Sci- ences, Vol 2.2, 55-58, December 2015. Naipaul, V.S. India: A Million Mutinies Now. Electronic Edition. Picador, 2011. Ray, Mohit K. V S Naipaul: Critical Essays. Atlantic Publishers, 2005. Saradhambal, K.S. “Construction of an Origin: A Study of V. S. Naipa- ul’s Trilogy on India.” ResearchGate.Net, Dec. 2015, www.researchgate.net/publication/299551664_Construction_of_an_Origin_A_Study _of_V_S_Naipaul’s_Trilogy_on_India. Thompson, Carl. Travel Writing. Routledge, 2011. “VS Naipaul”. The Guardian. Guardian News and Media Limited, 2008. Youngs, Tim. “Introduction”. The Cambridge Introduction to Travel Writing. CUP,2013.

147 An object of the Occidental gaze: analyzing Tomé Pires’ description of Goa in Suma Oriental

AMBIKA KAMAT1

Suma Oriental is one of the many travelogues by early explorers and a text which later formed one of the foundations of Oriental- ism in the colonial age. The essay attemptsto understandhowthe Portuguese colony of Goa has been objectiﬁed in Pires’ account as a land yielding great revenue. Besides, the social structure, customs and nature of people are described with the preconception of European superiority.

INCE time immemorial, travelling has been considered as an out- S standing achievement. In the past, travelling long distances and reaching distant countries and continents was indeed a herculean task as there were limited means of transportation. Great risks were involved in travelling, whether it was by road or by sea. Travelling and finding new routes to travel was a prerogative of adventurers and also of those who could not sustain themselves in their homelands and chose to migrate for better prospects. With the Europeans establishing the navigating and trading mechan- isms, overseas trade came to be preferred as an upcoming professional branch in the fifteenth and the sixteenth century. Colonisation was an outcome of this process as there was an increasing awareness of the huge profits which could be reaped from such trade. Trading missions, initially sent by individual companies by risking their capital, later came to be supported by rulers of the respective territories. The settlements set up in foreign lands were brought under the jurisdiction of the domestic political power. With royal sanction, travelling and occupying high positions in the

1 Research Scholar at the Goa University. [email protected] Tomé Pires’ description of Goa | Ambika Kamat imperial venture became a symbol of esteem for the elite. It became a cultural normto move out of the comfort zoneand experience life in an alien land amongst unfamiliar people and culture. This essay aims at analysing description of Goa in The Suma Oriental of Tomé Pires: An account of the East from the Red Sea to Japan, written in Malacca and India in 1512-1515, which was translated and edited by Ar- mando Cortesão in 1944, in the light of Orientalism. Suma Oriental is one of the many travelogues by early explorers which later formed the foundation of Orientalism during the colonial age. The paper plans to unravel how the Portuguese colony of Goa has been objectified in Pires’ account as a land yielding great revenue. The social structure, customs and nature of people are described with the preconception of European superiority. Defining ‘the Orient’ Europeans were the first to discover sea routes to various places in the world. Trade, territorial conquests and spreading religion were prime mo- tivators of travel in the sixteenth century. The European travellers discovered that there was a stark difference in their culture and those of the lands to the East of them. Their complex nature, many times, made these cultures incomprehensible to them. However, these travellers could not resist contrasting these cultures with their own and defining them through a comparison. They imagined a distinction based on imaginary geographical divisions in form of ‘the Orient’ and ‘the Occident’ which they related to certain attributes and perceptions. Edward Saidin hisbook Orientalism observes,

The Orient is not only adjacent to Europe; it is also the place of Europe’s greatest and richest and oldest colonies, the source of its civilizations and languages, its cultural contestant, and one of its deepest and most recurring images of the Other... the Orient has helped to deﬁne Europe (or the West) as its contrastingimage, idea, personality, experience (1).

‘Symptoms’ of Orientalism

Said considers travel records to be an integral part of the ‘analysable formation’ of workson and those afﬁliated to the Orient. For Said, the ‘strategic location’ of the writer is crucial in analysing Orientalism in the text.

149 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

Tomé Pires was an apothecary to Prince Afonso, son of King John II of Portugal. Due to his merits, he was chosen as a leader of the first official European Embassy to China. He came to Goa in 1511 at the age of 43 as Factor of Drugs (Borges and Helmut 24). As an agent of the imperial venture, he describes the endeavours of the King of “subjugating the kingdoms in the heart of the Moorish dominions” (Pires 1) in lofty terms. This is, perhaps, a reference to Albuquerque’s conquest of Goa on November 25, 1510, as recorded in P.D. Xavier’s Goa: A Social History 1510- 1640 (1993), when to avenge his failed attempts of conquest, Albuquerque “ruthlessly put to death a large number of Muslims including women and children.He wrote to his sovereign,“...Byit, we gota foothold in Indiaand destroyed the dockyard of the Moors... It is the chief port of India for the Deccan, Vijayanagara, and Europe” (Xavier 7). Pires lauds the colonial schemes of utilising religion as an instrument of domination and specifies the kingdoms which have been conquered so far. “Upon all these your highness wages war, carrying your banners into their lands in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Pires 2). One of the symptoms of Orientalism is a ‘flexible positional superiority’ which the Westerner assumes in his all possible relations with the Orient, may it be as an ambassador or an explorer in the service of the royalty like Pires or in any other role such as “the scientist, the scholar, the missionary, the trader, or the soldier” (Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin 90). Even Armando Cortesão, a historian, colonial administrator and the translator and editor of the book cannot resist asserting the supremacy of the European explorers in his foreword to the book. He claims that the Suma Oriental is a ‘history of geography’ (Pires xiii). His statement is based on the assumption that Tomé Pires, a European, was an authority on the geographical documentation of the territories in the East given that he possessed the qualities such as rationality, objectivity and scientific temperament which have conventionally been associated with an Occidental explorer. All such assumptions are founded, as Said rightly comments, on “the idea of European identity as a superior one in comparison with all the non-European peoples and cultures” (Said 7). Objectification of Goa is a predominant thread especially in the first half of the description in Suma Oriental. The travel account sounds more

150 Tomé Pires’ description of Goa | Ambika Kamat like documentation of a site to be or in process of being conquered. Pires perceived Goa as a promising piece of land which had strategic significance for the Portuguese in the process of annexing other territories. On the mainland it had cities and towns, many tanadarias yielding large revenues and having highly cultivated lands, which are still in the hands of the Moors; ... since the great city of Goa, which is the key to all (the rest), is now in the power and service of the most high lord, it will not be long before the remainder follow it (Pires 56). P.D. Xavier notes that when Goa was under the rule of the Adil Shah, there were officers called thanadars whose duties included “collection of commercial and agricultural taxes. They had their own private army and carried out police and judicial functions as well” (11). Charles Borges and Helmut Feldmann in Goa and Portugal: Their Cultural Links (1997) refer to Suma Oriental to concludethat the tanadarias were “offices of the chief local police with military authority to collect imports and customs levies” (24). Thus, it can be deduced that the thanadars were influential authorities in the financial and political system of the Adil Shahi regime as they had tremendous control on funds collected through taxation andalso had militias at disposal. Pires’ description expresses anxiety as many large stretches of fertile land were still under the control of the Muslims; however, he is also hope- ful about conquering the nearby regions by establishing a stronghold in Goa. Pires is fully aware that subjugating seaports helped in acquiring the surrounding provinces. Pires also intelligently points out to the political instability and dis- cord amidst the neighbouring provinces of Goa which in turn make them vulnerable to downfall. He speaks of the resistance which Goan rulers were planning to put up and the favourable conditions for military war- fare from their perspective: “It (Goa) was especially suited to the business of raising armadas which was carried there, on account of the wood and of the craftsmen” (Pires 57). Orientalism is based on exteriority. Representation is a product of this exteriority. In the process of analysing exteriority, noting the explicit gen- eralised statements and labels is vital. Pires rejoices in the success of the Portuguese who managed to annex the territory in spite of all the hurdles

151 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

and comments, “Just as the Moors used to go on conquering kingdoms, they are now losing them” (Pires 57). In describing the failureof the rulers to protect their territories from the Portuguese, Pires subtly underlines the lack of military strategy among Oriental rulers. Though they had the necessary resources and skills of shipbuilding, the leaders were at fault in not having the foresight and sense of utilising the opportunity. Pires generalises while assigning a term for the ‘enemies’ of the Por- tuguese. He calls all the non-Whites ‘Moors’ irrespective of their ethnicity, whether it was African or Asian. Pires refers to Goa as ‘the heart of India’ with a flourishing trade in spices and horses. He appreciates the native seamen and their seafaring skills which, according to him, could be exploited since Goa had been an- nexed to the Portuguese territories. Many a times, he also distinguishes the people of Goa based on their religious affiliation and employs terms such as ‘heathens’ and ‘pagans’. “There are a great many heathens in this kingdom of Goa, more than in the kingdom of the Deccan” (Pires 58). It is likely that he uses the term ‘heathen’ for Hindus or those following the indigenous set of beliefs as Muslims have been specified distinctly in the course of describing the Deccan. Pires provides a detailed account of the Goan social fabric. He mentions, the

rich heathen landlords or revenue collectors ... (who) are very honoured men with largefortunes; and almost thewholekingdomlies in their hands, because they are natives and possess the land and pay the taxes. Some of them are noblemen with many followers... and are personsof great repute, and wealthyand they live on their estates (Pires 59).

While scrutinizing the Goan religious affairs, Pires speciﬁcally describes the Brahmins, maybe because in the caste-ridden society they were at the helm of the affairs. He enlists the characteristics of this community which was devout and did not compromise the tenets of their religion at any cost.

They have priests or Brahmans of many kinds. There are some very honoured stocks among these Brahmans. Some of them will

152 Tomé Pires’ description of Goa | Ambika Kamat

not eat anything which has contained blood and anything prepared by the hand of another.... They are clever, prudent, learned in their religion. A Brahman would not become a Mohammedan (even) if he were made a king. (Pires 59)

Pires states that endurance is a prime quality of Goans while describing their temperament especially when subjected to torture. “They can bear a great deal, and when they are being tortured with different tortures they will die rather than confess anything they have made up their minds to keep to themselves” (59). This description does indicate that Portuguese as the colonisers of Goa did employ forms of torture to subdue the natives. One of the ways of justifying the colonialrule was by portraying social evils practiced by the natives. Towards the end of the description, Tomé Pires refers to the practice of Sati among Goans.

It is mostly the custom in this kingdom of Goa for every heathen wife to burn herself alive on the death of her husband.... And if they do not want to burn themselves to death, their relatives are dishonoured and they rebuke those who are ill-disposed towards the sacriﬁce and force them to burn themselves (59).

However, there seems to be some confusion in Pires’ understanding of the practice of Devdasis and sexual exploitation of widows. “And those who will not burn themselves on any consideration become public prostitutes and earn money for the upkeep and construction of the temples in their district” (Pires 59). There seems to be a tinge of generalisation and exaggeration in this part of the description. Xavier notes that the practice of Sati was prevalent in Goa till 1560, even after the Portuguese had legally banned it. He refers to Duarte Barbosa, Pires and Careri witnessing Sati along the West coast of India. However, region-wise official figures are not available. Sati stones can be found even today in villages such as Bhuim- pal and Surla in Sattari, Paliem in Pernem and Colamb in Quepem. Mar- ried women have been worshipping them for generations and passing down their details through folklore (Kerkar). However, no specific records are found to corroborate Pires’ description that practice of Sati was so widespread during 1512-1515 when Pires wrote Suma Oriental nor formal records of dating of all the possible Sati stones are available. There is also

153 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

a possibility that some horrifying incidents may have prompted Pires to write about the practice and draw a generalized conclusion. The Devdasi system is “a religious practice... whereby parents marry a daughter to a deity... The marriage usually occurs before the girl reaches puberty” (Chattaraj). Pires, linking the Devdasi system to widows, seems to have got caught up in a major misunderstanding. It is definitely true that the widows who escaped self immolation were condemned to live a lifeof suffering, given thatmanya timestheywereconfinedto dark rooms, their heads were tonsured and they had to face sexual exploitation. How- ever, Devdasis were young girls married to the deity before they reached puberty and not the widows abandoned by their families. Moreover, “because these women were married to the deity, they could never be widowed; thus they were known as nityasumangali (“eternal wife”...). They played a ritual role in marriages because it was believed that a bride blessed by a Devdasi would not be widowed” (Rinehart 288). To conclude, the essay analysed Tomé Pires’ description of Goa in Suma Oriental in the light of Orientalism propounded by Edward Said. The analysis was based on the parameters such as strategic location of the writer; objectification of Goa; generalisations about the colonised and jus- tification of colonisation by foregrounding certain social evils of the natives. Suma Oriental, written in early sixteenth century, is one of the many travel accounts written by Westerners which contributes as much to the practice of subjugating the Orient in “scholarly discovery, philological reconstruction, psychological analysis, landscape and sociological description” (Ashcroft, Griffiths and Tiffin 90) as it is a product of the same ideology.

Works Cited

Ashcroft, Bill, Gareth Griffiths and Helen Tiffin. The Post-Colonial Reader. Lon- don: Routledge, 1995. Borges, Charles J and Helmut Feldmann. Goa and Portugal: Their Cultural Links. New Delhi: Concept Publishing Company, 1997. Chattoraj, S. “The Devadasi System: Genesis and Growth”. Interactive Media Lab. University of Florida. Kerkar, Rajendra. “Saving History, Not Sati”. Times of India. Panjim, 2 Nov 2014. Web. 1 Oct. 2017 timesofindia.indiatimes.com/ city/goa/Saving-history- NOT-SATI/articleshow/45016268.cms

154 Tomé Pires’ description of Goa | Ambika Kamat

Pires, Tomé. The Suma Oriental: An Account of the East from the Red Sea to Ja- pan, Written in Malacca and India in 1512-1515. II vols. London: Hakluyt Society, 1944. archive.org/details/McGillLibrary-136385-182 Rinehart, Robin. Contemporary Hinduism: Ritual, Culture and Practice. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2004. Said, Edward W. Orientalism: Western Conceptions of the Orient. Gurgaon: Pen- guin Books, 2001. Xavier, P.D. Goa: A Social History 1510-1640. Panaji: Rajhauns Publication, 2010.

155 In fact, this is only ﬁction: unusual ‘visitors’ who came Goa’s way

FREDERICK NORONHA1

Goa, with a high profile as an international tourist destination, has been the setting for some unusual fictional work. This region has been ‘visited’ by characters like Bahadur, India’s attempt at building a comic superhero, and Tintin, the reporter-adventurerwhose global travelstaughtchildren abouttheir worldat atime when direct forms of colonialism were on the way out. There has also been debate over how depictions in films have shaped the global, national, and even local understanding of Goa.

OA, a travel destination for millions of visitors each year in recent G times, has generated a colourful if a little-noticed range of ‘ﬁc- tional’ work, which depicts the region in strange, unusual and mystical ways. Just as the travel writing of earlier centuries shaped the global perception of Goa, today too it is these new depictions that set the tone.

Kachka deﬁnes a “ﬁction travel book” as

a book in which a place is as important a character as the protagonist; it’s a book so informed by the writer’s culture that it’s im- possible to read it without uncovering the life of the author behind it; it’s a book that has shaped the way we see a certain place; it’s a book whose events and characters could be set nowhere else.

In the context of Goa, in addition to the above type of ﬁction travel books, one comes across texts in which a ﬁctional character visits this region. One could also study texts where Goa is the setting for a story which is

1 Assistant Professor (2017-18), Department of English, Goa University and Research Scholar. [email protected] In fact, this is only ﬁction | Frederick Noronha

fictional yet believable. The issue of stereotypes has been discussed elsewhere in this volume. At times, fictional travel stories have been difficult to distinguish from travel literature. This was the case with the Venetian merchant-explorer- writer Marco Polo (Wood) or the fourteenth-century travel memoir The Travels of Sir John Mandeville, which was at one time thought to have been written by a person with the same name (Manuscript...). The reverse is also true when a place gets ‘visited’ by completely fictional characters. Goa has grown into a widely visited tourist destination in recent decades, on account of government promotions as well as other factors. In 2017, provisional figures for tourist arrivals in Goa were set at almost 6.9 million domestic tourists and .8 million foreign tourists, totalling 7.7 million visitors, a figure which amounts to over four times the State’s entire population (Department of Tourism). Goa’s beaches, or thinly dis- guised versions of them, have been ‘visited’ by Bahadur. The latter was the comic book superhero often seen fighting dacoits, published by Indrajal Comics and created by Aabid Surti in 1976. The fictional Bahadur’s story is set in ‘Calunge Beach’ in 1988. While there is no specific indication that Calunge is closely connected with a similarly-named beach in Goa, the reader is left without the need for much guesswork. This 32-page comic contains a story of gang- sters, drugs, full-moon parties in fancy dress, a murdered clown and even protests against tourism (Uppal and Brahmania). In its story-line, the Chief Inspector at ‘Calunge’ is Rui, and there’s a gang war going on between Rocky and Yusuf. Calunge has, we are told,

miles of clear sands and sea, and warm sunshine (that) attracts

157 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

foreigners from colder climes. Earlier, it was popularised by the ﬂower-children – the hippies. But later with the easy availability of hash and drugs, it became the haven for drug addicts and smugglers (1).

Sounds familiar? Bahadur incidentally was meant to be India’s answer to the big four foreign comics that then ruled the country -- The Phantom, Mandrake, Flash Gordon and Tarzan. Bahadur’s storylines obviously gotitscues from its foreign counterparts like Phantom, especially when it came to mix- ing up fact with fiction. For those who came in late (Samudrala), The Phantom was created by the American writer, theatre director and producer Lee Falk in 1936. Initially, Phantom was to find his home in a ‘fictional’ ‘Afro-Indian country’ which Falk called Bengala. Later its name was changed to Denkali; the place was filled with rajas and, initially, even ‘Singh’ pirates and Bandar pygmies (Sanghvi). Inspite of these coincid- ences, Phantom remained a “comic book hero for the masses” in India and was the character a generation and more of Indians grew up on inthe latter half of the 20th century. Beyond the commercial and mainstream world of comics, Goa in- spires the creation of ‘literature’ in other unusual ways too. For instance, the tourism boom here has led to the creation of artistic if counterfeit covers, some apparently inspired by tee-shirt designs, that playfully seek to pass-off their creativity as books from the Tintin series. The once widely popular Tintin comic albums were created by the Belgian cartoonist Georges Remi (1907-1983), using the pen name Hergé. His work is said to have resulted in creating one of the most popular European comics in the twentieth century. In Goa, a series of Tintin ‘covers’ exist in the online world for books which were never actually published. These include ‘Tintin in Goa’,‘Tintin Loses the Plot in Goa’ and another variation of ‘Tintin in Goa’. The first (Tintin--fake) shows an apparently intoxicated yet shocked looking Cap- tain Haddock seated at a cosy table by the beach with Tintin. Surrounding them are coconut palms. A dazed Tintin is smoking what appears to be a giant chillum. The second (Tintin Loses...) has a bottle-clutching Captain Haddock, grabbing by the arm a Tintin clad in hippy style, as the fictional

158 In fact, this is only ﬁction | Frederick Noronha boy-reporter appears to be himself consuming alcohol. The homes in the background depict the old Goan tiles, and one can also see banana trees and silhouettes of coconut palms. The third (Les Aventures...) in the series has Tintin riding a large, Enﬁeld-like motorbike with a garishly dressed Western woman tourist seated on the pillion.

‘Goa’ does get a number of other travellers from disparate other fictional worlds too. One’s interest in this field was sparked as a post- graduate student of the then just-launched Goa University, almost a generation ago. At the newspaper organisation where the present writer was then employed, a colleague came across a German soft-porn magazine Praline depicting “the wild, man-hungry girls" who supposedly make "Carnival in Goa ... something very special” (Tourism 4, Qtd in Desouza). Another university fellow-student then pointed with surprise to the fiction of Chamberlain’s Gates of Fire, and how it depicted Goa. Chamber- lain’s is one of the relatively early fictional works in this style of writing, dating back of the 1980s, soon after the hippy boom. It describes Goa as “an explosive mixture of violence, sex, drugs and mysticism”. The latter part of the book is set in Goa. The protagonists reach Goa (Chamberlain 286) with Jeff seated on the “first-class deck of the Goa steamer [looking] out over the glittering sea”. His companion Laura, doing “some sort of meditation” in the cabin, has asked him to leave. She has been through "an affair with a Sikh and ... all this guru business". There are hippies on the lower deck dancing and smoking drugs. In no time, Jeff gets an offer for casual sex from a young blonde speaking English with a French ac-

159 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

cent and, because of the crowded setting of the steamer, they talk about hooking-up at Anjuna. Yoga, conﬂict among travelling couples, misunder- standings as the West encounters India, and comparisons of the place are among the more tame themes focussed on in these pages. The place en- countered is described thus:

Goa looked more like Christianstadt or Montego than the dreary India Stan had expected... The taxi sped down shady palm-lined avenues where massive houses, built in an era of splendour, lay decaying now behind bright hedges of bougainvillea and hibis- cus. Across rice paddies that looked like magniﬁcent green meadows, whitewashed spires of Christian churches loomed above the coconuts. Laura could have sworn she was in Mexico (290).

The region gets described in what might superﬁcially appear to be a ﬂat- tering manner:

Goa’s a good place. Good Christian smugglers, not those Hindus. You can buy anything here: privacy, protection, immunity -- you name it. It’s a tradition or something (291).

The latter partof the book sets much of its action in Goa, paintingit outto be a place subsumed in crime and sleaze. But this is not the only kind of depiction that emerges about Goa, along with the place’s obvious ascent in the global tourist destination during the 1980s and thereafter. In the world of film too, there has been some discussion about the projection of Goa and how this shapes perceptions. Gahlot (85) mentions some of the films shot in Goa, including international movies, big commercial films, potboilers, quickies, and alternative movies. She argues that “films too numerous to list have been shot in Goa”, and points out that “Hindi films have had many characters with names like Pinto, Braganza, Fernandes, Gonsalves, D’Costa and D’Silva; lots of Monicas, Rosies, Michaels and Mo- nas” (86). Trikal, a film by the director and screenwriter Shyam Benegal who is credited with creating ‘middle cinema’ in India, has drawn praise for its sensitive portrayal of a Goa. Gahlot says: "This was one of the few films that accurately caught the ethos, lifestyle and languageof Goa" (94). Renu Iyer calls Trikal (or Trikaal) a film “which provides a layered account of the changes wrought upon Goa and its various classes by different rulers

160 In fact, this is only ﬁction | Frederick Noronha

-- from the Portuguese to the Indian government” (191). Trikal has been contrasted against the cliches otherwise widespread in Bollywood. Film- maker Benegal has himself discussed ﬁlms dealing with the “contemporary Muslim experience” and others dealing with Anglo-Indians, the Brit- ish, or a Goan Catholic family in Mumbai (Albert Pinto Ko Gussa Kyon Ata Hai?), saying:

...I made a film called Trikal (1985), about a privileged Catholic family set in a Goan village at the time of the Liberation of Goa. The earlier diffidence that filmmakers felt in tackling subjects dealing with minority communities was replaced with a new con- fidence. Sterile representations of minorities, very much part of the Indian cinema before 1971, were replaced by depictions of ordinary people grappling with problems of life and change in a modernising world. Several of the films I mention had a favourable audience response and some of them were reasonable box office successes (Benegal 236).

But this movie, when watched with a critical eye, could itself face debate over its own depiction of Goa. The film begins with the disclaimer: “All the characters and situations in this film are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual events and people is purely coincidental and entirely unintentional.” Nonetheless, the “revolutionary Ranes” mentioned in the movie carry the same name as the clan from North Goa that was politically influential before and during parts of the Portuguese era, as also at the time the film was in the making. There are other names which might sound familiar to local audiences. The film begins with the unlikely scene of an impoverished peasant carrying an empty coffin balanced on his head, as he races through rice paddies and coconut groves. Other workers are (symbolically, perhaps) readying the grave for a funeral. In between these scenes, the rich scion of a landed family is returning to Goa, and to the elite village of Loutulim, after an absence of 24 years. Bells toll in the background. The old elite is, as expected, Portuguese-speaking, depicted at times as eccentric, and some of its members appear often inebriated. They are steeped in intrigue or jealousies and bear names like Erasmo, Aurora, Renato, Milgrinia or Ernesto. Some of their lives come with the hint of scandal never far away. The old and fading elites in the movie are sometimes depicted in an un-

161 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

ﬂattering light, even as tributes seem to be paid to their lifestyle, music, achievements and the loss of their fast-vanishing world. One can notice the contrast between the dis-empowered elites of the Goan world, and its subalterns. At one point, one of the servants of the afﬂuent family say: “The masters keep changing, we always stay there.” Robert S. Newman, the anthropologist who has studied a range of issues on Goa from the late 1970s, described earlier in this book, has a chapter in his two-book compilation on Goan themes, exploring the same subject. He writes:

Goa has been repeatedly mythologized over the centuries and Goans’ image has been consistently dominated by others -- first by the Portuguese and occasional foreign travelers, then by the anti-colonial forces in Delhi, then by hippies and those interested in their lifestyle, and finally by Hindi language films (99).

There are other depictions of Goa too, as for instance in the eponymous play by Asif Currimbhoy. He has been called a controversial ﬁgure, though when his play was being staged in Bombay, the Times of India (Bombay Edition, 17 August 1997) slotted him “among India’s best-known dramat- ists writing in English”. Currimbhoy penned some 30 plays between 1955 and 1975, and his play Goa was read by a theatre group in 1997, three years after his death. Currimbhoy swims strongly against the tide of perceptions in this part of the world, when the play was written. When it was staged at The Hindu MetroPlus Theatre Festival in August 2006, the event’s spon- soring newspaper critic saw the play thus:

The characters are stereotypes -- Maria of mixed blood, her innocent daughter, colonisers political and religious, aggressive na- tionalist, pimp, smuggler, street loungers... Add to this simplistic symbols -- cross, prayer beads, liquor and rose; and the two rivals (Alphonso, Krishna) representing Portugal and India, greedy for the land, while Rose stands for Goa. Symbols, unlike images, are hardly capable of conveying multiplicities. The blurb claims that the play raises questions about the concept of nationalism, and political machinations which rob the people of freedom and choice. This Theatrecian production did not go beyond naive statements about these complex issues.... (Ramnarayan)

Other writers have also made Goa home to their ﬁctional works. At the age of 29, Colin Fernandes got his ﬁction published by Penguin India. Viva

162 In fact, this is only ﬁction | Frederick Noronha

Santiago is set in Goa, and it is largely the Goa of the expat Goan and the national media stereotype. Its blurb reads: “Replete with the sights, sounds andflavoursof Goa, and a gooddose of sex, drugsandrock music, Viva Santiago is the story of Alonso Gonzalez and his colourful, dysfunc- tional family.” Its location is Divar, and one can even run into the Bon- deram flag festival on its pages. Fernandes has been a journalist at India Today and The Hindustan Times, and features editor at Maxim India. Authors like Paul Mann have written ‘fictional’ works that found echoes in subsequent real-life cases like the death of the teenage British tourist, Scarlett Keeling. Other books which follow such depictions include Grave Secrets in Goa by Kathleen McCaul. London-born McCaul, 33 when the book was published, has been a journalist, a freelance reporter for BBC World Ser- vice, involved with starting-up Iraq’s first post-invasion English-language newspaper, and was a news producer for Al Jazeera English. McCaul paints a mosaic of beaches, full-moon parties, deep religiosity, religious rivalry, murder, mystery, corrupt policemen, and dubious politicians. What entangles fact and fiction is how the book manages a close mimick- ing of reality and allusion to real-life events, places and believable characters. “An Indian paradise with murder in its heart,” says the subtitle of the book Grave Secrets in Goa. Chapter 1 starts off with: ”The head of the bull had been hacked off cruelly; it looked like the work of a chainsaw.” By the third paragraph, we’re into:

Goa. Paradise Lost. We’re getting used to news of drugs, Russian gangs, murders of foreigners, corrupt land deals. But this crime is entirely new to the state. Idol Theft.

Another book from recent times is Khushwant Singh’s -- a text classified sometimes as fiction, and at other times as Asian/Indian literature, adult fiction or erotica (Goodreads). Among the many sexual encounters the protagonist Mohan Kumar indulges in, is one with “Molly Gomes of Goa”. She is depicted as having claimed to be a trained nurse specialising in physiotherapy, using massage to treat those with partial paralysis or having limbailments. KhushwantSinghwas knownto have a longfascination with Goa. For instance, Amardeep Singh comments that some pictures of “bikini-clad free-love kids in Goa” that Kushwant Singh “splashed on the

163 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

pages of The Illustrated Weekly were rather more like tabloid sensational- ism than serious journalism”. Stepping up the trend to a new level, are the depiction of Goa in adult- focussed writing. Nagvenkar has highlighted the case of a ﬁctional “toon porn star” venturing into Goa. He writes

India’s biggest and outrageous toon porn star Savita Bhabhi has set foot in the sands of Goa – of course, in cyberspace. And the state government is not too happy. Already banned by the Indian government, the website showcases the adventures of the seduct- ive, sari-clad Savita, who is the face of Indian graphic porn art. The latest edition of ‘Savita Bhabhi – The sexual adventures of a Hot Indian Bhabhi’ has the much-married protagonist visiting a Goa resort with her female friends and ending up in a series of sexual encounters with resort owners, masseurs and sundry.

In conclusion, one could say that the image of Goa is often created by forces external to the region. Leave aside being able to set its own agenda and image, this region has till now found it difﬁcult to even track and understand in what ways the perceptions of others continue to shape it.

Works Cited Bailancho Saad. Tourism -- Its Effects on Women in Goa: A Report to the People. Goa. 1988. Benegal, Shyam. ’Secularism and Popular Indian Cinema’. In The Crisis of Sec- ularism in India. Needham, Anuradha Dingwaney, and Rajeswari Sunder Rajan (Eds). Orient Blackswan, 2009. Chamberlain, Elwyn. Gates of Fire. Fontana/Collins. 1987. Currimbhoy, Asif. Goa and Abbe Faria. Soraya Publishers. 1967. Department of Tourism. ‘Tourist Arrivals (Year-Wise)’. Government of Goa, nd, www.goatourism.gov.in/statistics/225. D’Souza, Tony. The Konkans. Rupa & Co. 2008. Desouza, Shaila. Organising Women for Empowerment: a study of an experi- ment in Goa. Diss. Goa University. 2009. Web. hdl.handle.net/ 10603/2722 Fernandes, Colin. Viva Santiago. Penguin Books India, 2008. Gahlot, Deepa. ‘My Top Twenty’.In Location Goa, Mario Cabral e Sa (ed.). Panaji: Department of Information and Publicity. 2006. Goodreads: Singh, Khushwant. “The Company of Women.” www.goodreads. com/book/show/109201.The_Company_of_Women. Iyer, Renu. ’Take One: Goa’. In Location Goa, Mario Cabral e Sa (ed.). Panaji: Department of Information and Publicity. 2006.

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Les Aventures de Tintin -- Album Imaginaire -- Tintin in Goa. nd. Online image. Pinterest. http://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/ 860187597549659763/ Mann, Paul. The Ganja Coast. Pan Macmillan Australia, 2013. ‘Manuscript of The Travels of John Mandeville showing headless men, 1430.’ The British Library, 23 Sep. 2015, www.bl.uk/collection-items/manuscript- of-mandevilles-travels- showing-headless-men-1430. McCaul, Kathleen. Grave Secrets in Goa. Piatkus. 2012. Nagvenkar, Mayabhushan. “Goa on alert! Banned ‘Savita Bhabhi’ is here.” Yahoo! News, Yahoo!, 21 Sept. 2010, in.news.yahoo.com/goa-alert- banned-savita-bhabhi.html. Newman, Robert S. ’Goa At The Movies’. In Goan Anthropology: Festivals, Films and Fish. Goa,1556. Forthcoming, 2018. Noronha, Frederick, and Pamela D’Mello. “Goa in creative writing.” Soc.culture.indian.goa, 16 Mar. 2010, groups.google.com/forum/ #!topic/soc.culture.indian.goa/24YS6cw9XTM. Ramnarayan, Gowri. “Goa, in slow motion.” The Hindu, 14 Aug. 2006, www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/goa-in- slow-motion/article3197939.ece. Samudrala, Ram. “The Phantom.” The Phantom movie review, www. ram.org/ ramblings/movies/phantom.html. Sanghvi, Vir. “Mr Walker’s last mile.” The Telegraph, Kolkata, www. telegraph- india.com/990321/editoria.htm#head2. Shemaroo. “Trikal Past-Present-Future.” YouTube, 25 Sep 2017. youtube. com/watch?v=lI6szXB7aR4 Singh, Amardeep. “Khushwant Singh’s Journalism: The Illustrated Weekly of India.” Amardeep Singh, 4 Aug. 2006, www.lehigh.edu/~amsp/2006 /08/khushwant-singhs-journalism.html. Singh, Khushwant. The Company of Women. Viking Penguin India. 1999. Tintin--fake: Tintin in Goa. nd. Online image. Pinterest. www.pinterest. co.uk/pin/93027548537599553/ Tintin Loses The Plot In Goa. 2006. Online image. India Mike Forum. www. indiamike.com/india/chai-and-chat-f73/tintin-loses-the-plot-in-goa- t26088/ Uppal, Jagjit (story) and Pramod Brahmania (illus.). The Calunge Beach. In- drajal Comics. A Times of India Publication. Vol 25 No 26. June 26-July 2, 1988. www.mediaﬁre. com/ﬁle/mxfn0zzw3wb/V25N26-1988-Bahadur- The+Calunge+Beach+%28SR%29.cbr Trikal (Past, Present, Future). Dir. Sham Benegal. Blaze Film Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. 1985. DVD. Wood, Frances. Did Marco Polo Go to China? Westview Press. 1998.

165 Index

Agassaim, 86 Cambay, 49 aggarbatis, 36, 41 Candolim, 64 Ahmednagar, 17 cartaze, 47, 48 alvara, 37 Castisos, 100 Anjuna, 80 Castro, Maria João, 68 Arambol, 102 Ceylon, 17, 49 Archbishop Aleixo Menezes, 50 Chakravarti, Sudeep, 65 AVC (Assolna-Velim-Cuncolim), 8, 31, Chandor, 111, 132 33–42 Chardo (Kshatriya) caste, 34–36, 38, Axelrod, Paul, 99 40–43 Chaul, 49 Baga, 132, 137 China, 8, 49 Barbosa, Duarte, 119, 130 chourisso, 105 Barreto, Adeodato, 22, 24, 25, 27 Christian, 16, 17, 35, 41, 73, 74, 106, Bassein, 17, 49 111, 160 Bastos, Cristiana, 97 Cidade de Goa, 96, 100 Battuta, Ibn, 6, 61, 129 Cochin, 17, 47, 49 Benaulim, 80, 134, 135 Collins, Maurice, 72 Bengal, 21, 25, 49, 158 Colloquios, 55 Bernier, François, 96 Colva, 62 bhaillo, 62 Colvale, 63, 109, 133 bhajans, 111 Bollywood, 62, 133, 134, 138, 161 congee, 58 Bombay, 21, 56, 61, 64, 71, 92, 162 Consua, 92 Bonneau, Anne, 10, 102–106, Contacto Goa, 9, 94, 102, 103, 108–110, 125, 127, 107–111 130–133, 135–139 Cook, Captain James, 6 Borkar, Bakibab, 24, 27, 74 Correia Afonso de Figueiredo, Brahmins, 40, 152, 153 Propércia, 25 Burton, Sir Richard F., 71–73, 75, 121, Costa, Constancio Roque da, 99 126, 129 Cottineau de Kloguen, Rev. Denis L., 9, 52, 53, 55–58, 121, 129 Calangute, 64, 82 Coutinho Powell, Melinda, 64

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Coutinho, João da Veiga, 65 Gadgil, Vidyadhar, 61 Couto, Maria Aurora, 65 Gates of Fire, 159 Cuncolim, 8, 85 gaunkari (village community Cunha Rivara, 99 organisations), 33, 98, 104, Currimbhoy, Asif, 162 134 Geertz, Clifford, 32 da Orta, Catarina, 63 Ghosh, Amitav, 65 Dabul, 49 Gill, Vikram, 75 Dalrymple, William, 61 Ginsberg, Aimee, 63 Daman, 49 Goa Dourada (Golden Goa), 71, 129 Davorlim, 64 Goa Historical Archives, 47–49 de Laval, François Pyrard, 8, 9 Goa Indica, 37, 38 de Orta, Garcia, 8, 12, 14–18, 55, 63, Goa is not India, 9, 94 97, 98, 129 Goa Travels, 9, 10, 60, 61, 115, 117, Deccani Sultans, 97 118, 122–124 Delhi, 21, 64, 82, 86, 88–90, 92, 162 Goa, and the Blue Mountains, 71, 129 Della Valle, Pietro, 118, 120, 130 Goa, Now and Then, 74 Dellon, Charles, 98 Goekarponn, 73 Desai, Lord Meghnad, 65 Goem, 73 devchar (spirit), 39 Gomes, Francisco Luís, 108 Devdasis, 153, 154 Gottsberger, Rudolf, 102, 106, 110 dhalo, 107 Goykar, 73 Dhangar, 136, 137 Grave Secrets in Goa, 163 Dharbandora, 85 Greene, Graham, 61, 121 Diu, 17, 45, 49 gulal, 38 Dona Paula, 137 Guzerate, 57 Dutch presence in Goa, 46, 47 Hamilton, Captain, 72, 73 English Jesuit Thomas Stephens, 50 Hapsi, 39 Estado da Índia, 49, 96 Henn, Alexander, 70 Hindus, 152, 160 Falk, Lee, 158 Hippie In Heels, 80 Fernandes, Remo, 109, 133 Fernandes,Jason Keith, 66 Ifeka, Caroline, 71 Ferry Crossing: Short stories from Indo-Portuguese, 109 Goa, 69 culture, 69 ﬁdalgo, 49, 119 Indochina, 68 Fonseca, Angelo da, 25 Indrajal Comics, 156, 157 Foral de Usos e Costumes dos Inside/Out, 9, 60, 61 Guancares, 98 Instantanés du Monde, 127, 130 fortresses in Goa, 46 Itinerario, 98–100 French Jesuit Étienne de la Croix, 50 Iyer, Pico, 60, 66 Fryer, John, 129 Fuerch, Michelle A., 99 jambul, 57, 65

167 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

Japan, 8, 49 Mendes, Anabela, 8, 12, 14, 15, 17, 18, Jaywant, Sheela, 63 27–30 Jewish, 16, 17, 63, 96, 97, 104 Menezes Bragança, Luís de, 105 Menezes, Helene Derkin, 62, 122 Kakar, Sudhir, 65 Mesticos, 100 Kale, Pramod, 37 Mexia, Afonso, 98 Kapoor, Diviya, 64 Miramar, 64 Kathiawar, 17 Miranda, Mario, 133, 138, 139 Katkar, Kimmy, 64 Mocambique, 49 Kelekar, Ravindra, 24 Mocquet, Jean, 98 kokum, 57, 65 Modern Goan Short Stories, 73 Konkani, 133 Moira, 133 Kubiˇnáková, Karina, 72 Mughals, 96 Kunbi, 42 Muslims, 150

Nagaski, 49 Last Bus to Vasco, 9, 85–87 Nagoa, 92 Laval, François Pyrard de, 45–50, Naipaul, V.S., 7, 10, 61, 142–147 52–54, 96, 98, 100, 119, 120 Naique, Prof. Ramchandra, 23, 25 Le Blanc, Vincent, 129 Narayan, Rajan, 138 leilão, 100 nau, 50 Les Instantanés du Monde, 9, 94, 102, Nazareth, Peter, 65 107 Netorlim, 131, 136, 139 Linschoten, 56, 57, 71, 96, 98–101, Newman, Robert S., 8, 31–42, 65, 162 103, 129 nirvana, 90 Lotus Production, 102 Lusophone, 14, 21, 102, 109 Old Goa, 92, 146 Orientalism, 70, 148–150, 154 Macau, 49, 68 Ormuz, 49, 57 Madeu, 39 Outre-Mer, 127, 130 Malabar, 8, 47, 49, 120 pirates, 47 pão, 104, 105, 135 Malacca, 45, 49 Palolem, 63 Mandelslo, Johan Albrecht de, 54, 96, Pandit, Heta, 65 120, 129 panditos, 98 mando, dulpod, 139 Panjim, 62, 74, 86, 92, 97, 103, 105, Mangalore, 61 108, 111, 133, 138, 140 Manrique, Friar Sebastião, 72 Parobo, Parag, 65 Mapusa, 136, 139 Paz, José, 8, 12, 14, 20–24, 27–29 Margão, 22, 132, 135, 136, 139 Peace Corps, 31, 32 Mascarenhas, Telo de, 21, 22, 24, 25 Pegu, 49 Maugham, Somerset, 61 Pernem, 85, 153 McCaul, Kathleen, 163 Pessoa, Fernando, 28 Melo, Froilano de, 23 Phantom, 158

168 In fact, this is only ﬁction | Frederick Noronha

Pintos’ Revolt, 108 soldiers and seamen, 50 Pires, Tomé, 61, 72, 150–154 speakers of, 161 Polo, Marco, 6, 157 trade, 46, 49 Ponda, 56 translations, 21–23, 25 Portuguese, 9, 17, 41, 55, 59, 73, 75, treaties, 47 96–101, 107–111, 118–121, writings in Goa, 26, 27 135, 136, 138, 146–149, Punjani, Bina, 64 151–153, 161, 162 armadas, 48 Quepem, 31, 80, 153 capital in Asia, 72 channel RTP,102 Rajasthan, 108 chronicles, 50 Rangel-Ribeiro, Leonor, 66 colonial government, 37 Rangel-Ribeiro, Victor, 65 colonialism, 22 reportage, 85, 131 colonisation, 145 Rodricks, Wendell, 63, 108 conquest, 70, 95 rosquilhas, 55 culture in Goa, 32 Rua Direita (main street), 100 Discoveries, 18 Rushdie, Salman, 66 empire, 52 Russia, 108 era, 103, 161 expansion, 146 Sahyadri Khanda, 99 face of Goa, 107 Saibin, 38 fleet, 45–48 Said, Edward, 6, 70, 144, 149, 150, 154 food, 54, 58 Saldanha, Mariano José de, 23, 25 former colony, 132 Saligão, 106, 112, 132 fortresses, 46 Sambhaji Nagar, 86 Goa, 17 Sangolda, 132, 133, 138 heritage, 134 Santa Cruz, 62 Indo-Portuguese Goa, 109 Santa Rita Vas, Luís, 60, 73, 78 influence on food, 55 Santa Rita Vaz, Isabel da, 108 influences, 59, 145 Santeri, 39, 40 language, 8, 12, 14, 22, 28, 78 Santo Estevam, 57 legacy, 80 Santoro, Kornelia, 63 lifestyle, 54 Sardesai, Rajdeep, 66 marriages with, 97 Sati, 98, 120, 130, 153, 154 naval organization, 8 saudades, 89 navigation, 45, 47–50 Shah, Adil, 151 Orientalists, 99 Shantadurga, goddess, 31 physicians, 98 Shetty, Manohar, 9, 27, 60, 61, 69, 117, Portuguese Goa, 71 118 Portuguese India, 71, 119 Shrivastava, Rahul, 66 prosperity in India, 72 Singh, Dayanita, 65 publications in Goa, 24 Siolim, 87, 109, 132, 134, 139 rule, 65, 72, 96, 129, 138, 145 Slovush, Elena, 106

169 GOA, THROUGH THE TRAVELLER’S LENS

sontrios, 31, 36, 42, 43 tiatr, 37, 64, 105, 133, 138 Sousa, Martim Affonso de, 16 Timor, 68 Sousa, Nalini de, 102, 109, 111 Tintin, 156, 158 Sousa, Nora Secco de, 74 tribals, 136 Sousa, Prof. Eduardo de, 69, 74 Trikal, 160 Souza, Teotonio de, 65, 72 Tsang, Hiuen (Xuanzang), 6 stereotypes, 128 dimwitted Sardaji, 128 Vagator, 81 effeminate Bengali, 128 Vaidya, Dada, 103 Goan drunk, 128 vaidyas, 98, 103 shrewd Marvadi, 128 Vasco da Gama, 86 sura, 57 Velim, 8 Surat, 8, 49 Veni, Vidi... Goa, 78 susegaado (susegad), 10, 125 Viscount de Torres-Novas Goa, 99 Visscher, Jacobus Canter, 120, 129 Tagore, Rabindranath, 8, 14, 18–29 Viva Santiago, 163 Tavernier, Jean-Baptiste, 96, 119, 129 terra incognita, 126 Waugh, Evelyn, 61 The Colloquies on the Simples and Drugs of India, 17 Xavier, St. Francis, 146 The Land of the Great Image, 72 The Suma Oriental, 10, 72, 148–151, zatras and feasts, 33, 40, 42 153, 154 Županov, Inês G., 16, 18

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