[Goanet-news]THE OTHER GOA: Gouly -- Goa's Neglected Pastoral Tribals (Nandkumar Kamat)

[Frederick Noronha (FN)]

Gouly -- Goa's Neglected Pastoral Tribals

by Nandkumar Kamat
 
It was in September 2002 that the former leader of opposition, Dr Kashinath
Zalmi contacted me to take up the anthropological studies on the pastoral
community of Goulys, mistakenly called as 'Dhangars'.
 
I was shocked to read the so-called report on the community sent by the then
government to the central government. It had not adopted a survey-based
scientific approach.
 
Naturally, the Registrar General of India had raised several queries and had
refused to accept the case of 'Dhangars' as a distinct tribal community.
Many developments took place after this meeting. A big gathering of the
community elders was organised at Molem forest resort in October 2002 and
along with Keri-Sattari based cultural and natural historian, Mr Rajendra
Kerkar, we made some efforts to gather preliminary sociological and
anthropological information about Goulys.
 
Later, several delegations met the minister for social welfare and the Chief
Minister and the government agreed to appoint a new committee of experts to
prepare an ethnological/anthropological study report. The government
accepted my suggestion that Dr Bernadette Gomes, sociology lecturer from the
Government College, Quepem, could chair the committee as I knew about her
interest in the field work and familiarity with local cultural ethos.
 
The committee was notified on December 13 and had knowledgeable members. The
members extensively toured and surveyed the tribal hamlets. The committee
found 113 hamlets having a total of 1,474 Gouly households with 7,583
people. Out of these, details were collected by visiting 82 hamlets
representing 6,801 people.
 
Socio-economic survey data was tabulated and analysed. Photo and video
documentation was done and a 30-minute video film was scripted by Dr. Gomes
for the social welfare department to enable the government to present the
case forcefully in New Delhi.
 
Unfortunately, the social welfare department did not prepare any time frame
for following the case at the central level. The committee presented the
report on April 28, 2003. But it gathered dust till June 24. When a
delegation of the community met the minister concerned in October 2002, it
was revealed that the central ministry of tribal affairs did not get the
copy of the report. Another copy was sent and the government received a
reply in January 2004 from the then minister of tribal affairs that the
report had been received.
 
In the meantime, the Chief Minister provided a budget of Rs 25 lakh for the
welfare of the community for the financial year 2003-04. But this money i= s
still lying unused. The Gomes committee had made 10 interim recommendations
for the speedy socio-economic justice. But the government did not take these
seriously. The recent discussion in the legislative assembly did not come
out with any specific solutions.
 
Once again, the issue of including this most deserving, backward tribal
community in the schedule of our Constitution was exploited by opportunistic
politicians. It does not matter, who takes the credit for including this
community in the central ST list. But the issue has been pending for past 40
years.
 
Among all the four communities which deserved ST status, the case of Goulys
of Goa is very strong on the basis of criteria set by the central
government. The committee discovered that members of the community build a
typical habitat called 'Gouvals', from which their ancient, traditional
identity as 'Goulys' is derived. A 'Gouval' is a typical tribal habitat with
co-occupation of the milch animals and humans.
 
'Dhangar' is a term which came in use only after the liberation of Goa.
Having examined the data on other pastoral communities in the country as
recorded by the Anthropological Survey of India, the Gomes committee, came
to the conclusion that the small population of Goulys of Goa can not be
linked or compared to any Dhangar community.
 
The committee also discovered that considering their geographical isolation,
primitive practices, socio-economic backwardness, it could be one of the
most endangered pastoral tribal community in India and the world. The
anthropometric features of Goulys places them in the Mediteranean gene pool,
an area from which the Dravidians migrated several thousand years ago. The
community is animistic, nature worshipping and has its own elders' council
and a judicial system.
 
The deeper the committee went into anthropological aspects of some of the
remote hamlets in the Western Ghats, it was a rediscovery of the tribal
roots of Goa's culture. Their marriage preferences are different, forms of
marriage are varied and interesting. The Gouly social organisation is
composed of 28 exogamous clans. They have a kinship pattern through which
sisters, brothers and cousins are identified. Spouse selection is done from
the clan of the mother and father. Divorce, remarriage, widow remarriages
are permitted.
 
Until recently Gouly practised child marriages. Though polygyny is no longer
a norm today, it was very common in the past. Six cases of polygyny have
been found. The pre-Aryan and protohistoric antiquity of this tribe is
proven by the fact that Goulys do not have temples, nor do they visit any
temple in the neighbouring villages. They are so close to nature that they
worship Dudhsagar waterfalls and the peaks of tall mountains such as Wagheri
and Catlanchi Mauli. These are invoked during their community prayer,
'gharanem'. Their clan deities are natural stone symbols. Some are now
replaced by coconut. All their Gods and the chief Goddess Malchi Pander are
aniconic. Gouly's also hold many trees to be sacred.
 
What 42 years of liberation has given to this community? The committee found
high-female illiteracy. So far, the community could produce 27 graduates, 83
with education upto XIIth std and only 177 with SSC qualification. Among the
72 members of the community employed by the government 64 are class 'D'
employees.
 
The Gomes committee found 2,005 members of the community working as casual
labourers without any social security. The self-employed are mainly engaged
in the sale of milk. The 113 hamlets of the Goulys are either on private,
Comunidade or government forest lands. So they have no title to the their
lands and no legal protection against eviction.
 
Their traditional pastures have not been notified, conserved and protected
under national policy and these are likely to be converted for developmental
purposes.
 
The state government is dithering to implement the interim recommendations
of the Gomes committee, but rapid steps are being taken to legalise the
thousands of encroachments all over Goa. Unfortunately, the endangered
community of Goulys of Goa, do not have the political nuisance value owing
to their small numbers and dispersed hamlets.
 
Instead of making them pawns on political chessboard, urgent and time-bound
efforts have to be made to uplift them by including in the ST list and by
implementing the Gomes committee recommendations.
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The Navhind Times 5/7/04 
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