PUCCA GOEMCAR NAMES

I make a suggestion which may sound a mite outdated nay even one coming from a bigot. I have travelled around a few countries in the world and almost every nationality celebrates their ethnicity with great pride. All nationalities want to hark back to their ancestry and delve deep within their past ethos and explore their ancient mores. Now we Goemcars are equally proud of our heritage. Both the Catholic and Hindu traditions proudly and sometimes even heatedly proclaim and pronounce their history. The one thing wrong with the Catholic tradition's history is that it is so recent. Five hundred years, however deeply etched and however glorious is not enough to really mark out national character. Why if Catholics are honest, they will admit that their habits and habitat have been and are still being moulded by our Hindu heritage. All the Goan Catholic feasts and functions have been made to coincide with what used to be our forefathers' Hindu celebrations. This does not mean that we are slaves to the jingoistic Hindutva slogans of todays Jana Sanghi/BJP 'Ravans'. Hell no. But even the caste system that defined and ruled Goemcar society still prevails and though on the wane, still dictates our social paths. And would we not much rather take justifiable pride in what is over many millenia old rather than just concentrate over five centuries however influential and defining they may have been? After all why should we let our dislike and abhorrence for the bigoted and fundamentalist intolerance of the Bajrang Dal devils make us disown what is our proud and glorious civilization and heritage. The civilization of Sanskrit, of Manu, of the magnificent ages that have defined and given the world cultures and discoveries that are our heritage. Our Aryavatra!! Let us not permit some jumped up advanis and parrikars to tell us that we are not the inheritors and heirs to the great civilization that is and that has made India. One of the ways of reclaiming our heritage proudly and vocally is for everyone of us Goemcars to 'double-barrel' our names by adding before our Portuguse surnames our original Goemcar surnames. For example, Pai-Souza or Sardessai-Souza or whatever your original name was alongwith with Souza , a hyphen between the two.A simple and effective way to reclaim our heritage and to celebrate what we are and what we were. Old church records should easily give us details of what we used to be named, as each 'vangodd' was given a Portuguse surname.

What do Goemcars think of this?

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