Belongs with post 72:
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Festivals of Resistance</b>
The <i>Konkanakhyana</i>, an eighteenth century Marathi language chronicle of the Saraswat Brahmans in Goa, celebrates the escape of the deities from the areas of Portuguese control. It tells of the 'calamitous happenings in Goa's most important villages' at the hands of the 'filthy Europeans' and the ensuing relocation of the gods from their sacred places, and boasts that these acts 'secured the honor' of these gods and 'confused and spoiled the efforts of the defiled foreigners.'14 Since Portuguese policies sought conversion to Christianity of all the inhabitants under their control and the elimination of Hindu practices altogether, these temples, by attracting both Hindus and newly converted Catholics from the area of Portuguese rule, were a continual source of frustration for Portuguese officials. They were the venues for apostasy and reconversions to Hinduism as well as a safe haven for orphans who were much sought after by the Portuguese for rearing in the Catholic faith, and they supplied Hindu priests for ceremonies within the areas of Portuguese jurisdiction.15 Remarkably, ties between the temples and the villages of origin were kept intact and it is this once illegal connection that is marked in a number of temple rituals. Moreover, for Hindus who fled the Portuguese and were scattered throughout Western India, these temples became the symbols of their ties to villages under Portuguese jurisdiction in the old conquest areas of Goa.
The annual cycle of celebrations at these temples provides rich ethnographic evidence for the structure of resistance: they literally and dramatically portray the Hindu defiance of the Portuguese conversion policies and the Inquisition.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The annual return of the goddess Bhagvati to the Tiswadi district village of Chimbel provides an instructive example of the tenacity of the culture of resistance. In the Hindu month of Chaitra (which comes at the end of April or beginning of May), the procession of the deity of Bhagvati leaves her temple in the <i>novas conquistas</i> village of Marcel, Goa by truck and bus on a ten kilometer journey to the village of Raibandar, where it is transferred to a palenquin for the remaining three kilometer journey to the village of Chimbel. Until recently, the deity was carried the entire distance on foot. The deity is brought to a temporary shelter, not far from the church built on the site inhabited by the goddess more than 400 years ago. There it is placed on a pedestal. The deity came to Marcel in 1673 from the village of Mahem, where it had originally been secretly taken from Chimbel in the mid-sixteenth century at the time of the Christianization of Goa during the first century of Portuguese rule.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Such ritual connections between Hindu deities secretly installed in temples outside of the region of Portuguese control and their village of origin permeate life all over Goa. The villages of Fatorpa and Cunculim in the adjoining talukas (districts) of Quepem (which is part of the <i>novas conquistas</i>) and Salsette (in the <i>velhas conquistas</i>) also celebrate an annual festival in which the historical connections are ritually reenacted. The goddess Shantadurga is brought by procession from Fatorpa to Cunculim. She had been taken by Hindus from Cunculim in the 1570s at the time of the destruction of the temple by the Portuguese.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In Siolim, Candolim and Anjuna, all Bardez villages, deities have also been formally returned to new temples in their original villages after being moved during Portuguese persecution in the mid-sixteenth century. These Hindu deities are only a few of the many that were transported into the neighboring Hindu and Muslim states in the face of the destruction of Hindu temples by the Portuguese during the middle part of the sixteenth century.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The attachment, after 450 years of separation between deity and its village of origin, suggests that the importance in Hindu thought of the substantive link between place and person, described so brilliantly by Daniel,19 applies to the relationship between deity and place as well. The veritable semicircle of Hindu temples of the transported deities around the old conquests of Goa, amazingly enough, was not the product of any particular centralized political control or coordinated plan of defiance. Though many of the temples operate under the aegis of one of several Saraswat gurus of various philosophical orientations, there was no organized conspiracy or master plan that led to the Hindu resistance. On the other hand, the mass exit of deities from virtually every village in Goa in the sixteenth century to territory outside the orbit of Portuguese control was more than a spontaneous panicked reaction to religious persecution: rather it is testimony to a process of Hindu thinking which connects persons in complex, substantive ways to their deities, and, in turn, persons and deities to the soil.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Goa's colonial experience under the Portuguese was quite different. Though the Padroado, the state-backed church system, and the military and commercial interests of the Estado da India were clearly bent on dominating and transforming Goan religious life, they paradoxically did not bring about the massive rural structural and economic dislocations seen in the New World and Africa: their focus, so far as native Goans were concerned, was mainly on conversion.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin--><b>Festivals of Resistance</b>
The <i>Konkanakhyana</i>, an eighteenth century Marathi language chronicle of the Saraswat Brahmans in Goa, celebrates the escape of the deities from the areas of Portuguese control. It tells of the 'calamitous happenings in Goa's most important villages' at the hands of the 'filthy Europeans' and the ensuing relocation of the gods from their sacred places, and boasts that these acts 'secured the honor' of these gods and 'confused and spoiled the efforts of the defiled foreigners.'14 Since Portuguese policies sought conversion to Christianity of all the inhabitants under their control and the elimination of Hindu practices altogether, these temples, by attracting both Hindus and newly converted Catholics from the area of Portuguese rule, were a continual source of frustration for Portuguese officials. They were the venues for apostasy and reconversions to Hinduism as well as a safe haven for orphans who were much sought after by the Portuguese for rearing in the Catholic faith, and they supplied Hindu priests for ceremonies within the areas of Portuguese jurisdiction.15 Remarkably, ties between the temples and the villages of origin were kept intact and it is this once illegal connection that is marked in a number of temple rituals. Moreover, for Hindus who fled the Portuguese and were scattered throughout Western India, these temples became the symbols of their ties to villages under Portuguese jurisdiction in the old conquest areas of Goa.
The annual cycle of celebrations at these temples provides rich ethnographic evidence for the structure of resistance: they literally and dramatically portray the Hindu defiance of the Portuguese conversion policies and the Inquisition.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The annual return of the goddess Bhagvati to the Tiswadi district village of Chimbel provides an instructive example of the tenacity of the culture of resistance. In the Hindu month of Chaitra (which comes at the end of April or beginning of May), the procession of the deity of Bhagvati leaves her temple in the <i>novas conquistas</i> village of Marcel, Goa by truck and bus on a ten kilometer journey to the village of Raibandar, where it is transferred to a palenquin for the remaining three kilometer journey to the village of Chimbel. Until recently, the deity was carried the entire distance on foot. The deity is brought to a temporary shelter, not far from the church built on the site inhabited by the goddess more than 400 years ago. There it is placed on a pedestal. The deity came to Marcel in 1673 from the village of Mahem, where it had originally been secretly taken from Chimbel in the mid-sixteenth century at the time of the Christianization of Goa during the first century of Portuguese rule.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Such ritual connections between Hindu deities secretly installed in temples outside of the region of Portuguese control and their village of origin permeate life all over Goa. The villages of Fatorpa and Cunculim in the adjoining talukas (districts) of Quepem (which is part of the <i>novas conquistas</i>) and Salsette (in the <i>velhas conquistas</i>) also celebrate an annual festival in which the historical connections are ritually reenacted. The goddess Shantadurga is brought by procession from Fatorpa to Cunculim. She had been taken by Hindus from Cunculim in the 1570s at the time of the destruction of the temple by the Portuguese.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->In Siolim, Candolim and Anjuna, all Bardez villages, deities have also been formally returned to new temples in their original villages after being moved during Portuguese persecution in the mid-sixteenth century. These Hindu deities are only a few of the many that were transported into the neighboring Hindu and Muslim states in the face of the destruction of Hindu temples by the Portuguese during the middle part of the sixteenth century.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd--><!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->The attachment, after 450 years of separation between deity and its village of origin, suggests that the importance in Hindu thought of the substantive link between place and person, described so brilliantly by Daniel,19 applies to the relationship between deity and place as well. The veritable semicircle of Hindu temples of the transported deities around the old conquests of Goa, amazingly enough, was not the product of any particular centralized political control or coordinated plan of defiance. Though many of the temples operate under the aegis of one of several Saraswat gurus of various philosophical orientations, there was no organized conspiracy or master plan that led to the Hindu resistance. On the other hand, the mass exit of deities from virtually every village in Goa in the sixteenth century to territory outside the orbit of Portuguese control was more than a spontaneous panicked reaction to religious persecution: rather it is testimony to a process of Hindu thinking which connects persons in complex, substantive ways to their deities, and, in turn, persons and deities to the soil.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->
<!--QuoteBegin-->QUOTE<!--QuoteEBegin-->Goa's colonial experience under the Portuguese was quite different. Though the Padroado, the state-backed church system, and the military and commercial interests of the Estado da India were clearly bent on dominating and transforming Goan religious life, they paradoxically did not bring about the massive rural structural and economic dislocations seen in the New World and Africa: their focus, so far as native Goans were concerned, was mainly on conversion.<!--QuoteEnd--><!--QuoteEEnd-->