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Al-Zulaij Exclusive, Interventions

Secular — Vishnu Surya Wagh

Secular

I was unaware
Of their technique
To sniff people’s caste

One day, visiting a friend’s house
Encountered his uncle,
Lounging on the balcão
And we began conversing

“Wagh? You’re one of us,”
Uncle smirked.
I felt a pang of anxiety.

Yet, he sought absolute certainty.
So he inquired,
“The Kamat Waghs of Ribandar, kin to you?”

“No,” I replied.

“Hailing from Karwar?”

“No, I’m from Goa.”

“Indeed? Which part?”

“From Dongri? Perhaps the Mahajans of the Rama temple?”

“No. Our goddess is Sati[1].”

Still unable to deduce,
He probed once more.
“Who is your family deity?”

“Shivnath,” I offered.

“From Shiroda?”

“Yes.”

“So…so you are not a GSB.”

“No, uncle, we are Bhandaris.”

A chuckle escaped him.
“Don’t take offense! I asked out of curiosity.
We renounce caste.
Come, have tea.
Caste system has marred Goa.
Who is Baman? Who is Shudra? Who cares?
These divisions hold no meaning.
We should be secular.
We must have a casteless society, you know?”

Uncle waited, anticipation in the air,

I merely nodded

Sipping tea

My gaze, firm on his sacred thread’s descent

Translated by Kaustubh Naik. Illustration by Siddhesh Gautam.

[1] Not to be confused with the practice of Sati. Sati (with a retroflex) is worshiped across southern Konkan and is believed to be a goddess that writes the destiny of newborns on the night of their birth.

Interventions, Talks

What’s going on in India? Contemporary perspectives from Portuguese India By Jason Keith Fernandes

Overview

India seems to be scarily slipping into outright majoritarian rule where an apparent secular liberal democracy is transforming into a Hindu dominated caste polity. It is my argument that this situation did not simply come to pass by some recent accident but is the result of the Hindu nationalism that is hardwired into Indian nationalism since even before British India gained independence. To demonstrate this case, I will draw on the history of citizenship in Goa, former capital of Portuguese India.

I argue that because of its distinct political and legal history Portuguese India offers a useful perspective to appreciate, and critique, the way the structures of British India have impacted on contemporary Indian history. For example, the perspective from Portuguese India allows us to see how a review of the citizenship experiences of Catholics fracture the established Hindu-Muslim binary when discussing the collapse of secularism in India. Additionally, this perspective may also offer opportunities to contemplate the possible futures for India.
Bio note

Jason Keith Fernandes is a researcher at the Centre for Research in Anthropology (CRIA) at ISCTE, Lisbon. He obtained a PhD in Anthropology in 2013 for his research on the Citizenship Experiences of Catholics in Goa. This work was the basis of his book, Citizenship in a Caste Polity: Religion, Language, and Belonging in Goa, published in 2020 which has recently won the Society for Hindu-Christian Studies Book Award (2017-2022).

Jason’s prior degrees include a Masters in the Sociology of Law, from the International Institute for the Sociology of Law (Oñate – Spain), and a Bachelor’s degree in Law, from the National Law School of India (Bangalore – India). His research interests include comparative post-colonial theory, with a special emphasis on Portuguese-India via Goa, his preferred research field, through which he observes citizenship practices, and the operation of secularism in India. More recently he has developed an interest in Catholic theology, convinced that it has lessons to offer us in the current assault on (and collapse of) liberal democracy.

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Al-Zulaij Exclusive

The arrest of Pastor Dominic

The spectre of ‘forced conversions’, the unfortunate and dubious legacy of the Niyogi Committee (1954), has begun to haunt Goa. On the night of Friday, 27th of May, Pastor Dominic D’Souza, a Pentecostal preacher, and his wife Joan, were arrested at their home in Siolim. Pastor Dominic and his wife lead the Five Pillars church in Siolim, a hub of Pentecostal activity in Goa which has been gaining a huge number of followers from among both Catholics and members of other faiths, notably bahujan Hindu. Acting on complaints that the couple were “luring” people to Pentecostal Christianity, on the basis of money, relief from illness, or other “false promises”, the couple were arrested and charged with offences registered under sections 153-A, 295-A, 506 (II) read with 34 of the Indian Penal Code and sections 3, 4 of the Drugs and Magic Remedies (Objectionable Advertisements) Act, 1954. (more…)

Books

Citizenship in a Caste Polity: Religion, Language and Belonging in Goa wins the Selva J Raj book award

The Al-Zulaij Collective takes great pride in announcing that its member, Dr. Jason Keith Fernandes has been awarded the Selva J. Raj Book Award (2017-2022) for his book Citizenship in a Caste Polity: Religion, Language and Belonging in Goa.

The Society for Hindu-Christian Studies is a Related Scholarly Organization of the American Academy of Religion and publishes the Journal of Hindu-Christian Studies, an annual scholarly journal dedicated to the study of Hinduism and Christianity and their interrelationships. The Selva J. Raj Book Award is awarded every two years, for the “Best Book in Hindu-Christian Studies.” The award, which includes an honorarium, will be presented at a special session of the American Academy of Religion in November 2022 in Denver, USA. This session will also feature a panel discussion of the book by eminent scholars, with Dr. Fernandes who will be invited as respondent.

Previous winners of this award include eminent scholars like David Mosse, Diana L. Eck, Chakravarthi Ram-Prasad, Francis X. Clooney, and others.

Recognising the book as “theoretically astute, rigorously researched, and lucidly argued,” the Award Committee recognises that Citizenship in a Caste Polity, which was published  by Orient Blackswan in 2020, “makes a pathbreaking contribution to Hindu-Christian studies by providing an analysis of Goa, a region… whose stories unsettle notions of a monolithic colonial and postcolonial Indian experience… [and] takes readers into the understudied plight of linguistically and culturally marginalized classes of Goans, and in so doing, casts light upon broader issues of citizenship, humiliation, and belonging among many classes of Indians.”

Citizenship in a Caste Polity studies the struggle of Konkani language activists to obtain official language status for Konkani’s much used Roman script. In discussing the demands for, and resistance against, the Roman script’s official recognition, Dr. Fernandes offers a well-researched history of the language, Goan politics, and demonstrates the experience of Catholics in Goa, especially those from labouring caste and class backgrounds, as that of second-class citizens.

The Al-Zulaij Collective is an association of scholars and professionals, who believe that Goa’s complex history and cultural encounters do not easily fit into the mainstream imagination of the territory. Goa has been a part of many ‘worlds’, but the Al-Zulaij Collective finds that many of those culturally enriching encounters are now being deliberately forgotten. Determined to rectify this misrepresentation, the Collective brings together diverse voices on Goa, and varied capacities to articulate issues about Goa, and to look at the world through Goan culture and history.