Gauda and Kunbi: Difference between revisions

{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2021}}

|url=https://m.timesofindia.com/city/goa/back-to-the-cradle-of-tribal-civilization/articleshow/56709454.cms

They are categorised as Scheduled Tribes by Government of India along with Velip community. Original Gaud (गौड) community is now known as Gawada (गावडा) community.<ref>Gazette of India Extra-ordinary part-II, section-I dated 08-01-2003 by Ministry of Law and Justice and Official Gazette of Government of Goa, Supplement Series – I, No.3 dated 17-04-2003.</ref>

Gaudas, Kunbis, Velip and another shepherding tribe called the [[Dhangar]], have organised themselves into an aboriginal-focussed network, called ''The Gauda, Kunbi, Velip and Dhangar Federation'' (GAKUVED). Another [[Adivasi]]-rights resource center, called ''MAND'', also works for their betterment.<ref name="gakuved">{{cite book|last=Mani|first=Kalanand|author2=Frederick Noronha|author2-link=Frederick Noronha|title=Picture-Postcard Poverty: Unheard voices, forgotten issues from rural Goa|publisher=Goa1556|year=2008|series=Poverty,Rural poor,Social Science / Poverty|page=9|isbn=978-81-905682-8-9 |id={{ISBN|9788190568289}}}}</ref>

In the late 1920s, prominent Goan Hindu Brahmins requested Vinayak Maharaj Masurkar, the prelate of a [[Vaishnava]] [[ashram]] in [[Masur, India|Masur]], [[Satara district]]; to actively campaign for the 're-conversion' of Catholic Gaudas to Hinduism.<ref name="Masurkar">{{harvnb|Kreinath|Hartung|Deschner|2004|p=163}}</ref> Masurkar accepted, and together with his disciples, subsequently toured Gauda villages singing devotional ''[[bhakti]]'' songs and performing ''[[Puja (Hinduism)|puja]]s''.<ref name="Masurkar"/>  

On 23 February 1928, many Catholic Gaudas were re-converted to Hinduism notwithstanding the opposition of the Church and the Portuguese government.<ref name=shuddhi>{{cite book|last=Ghai|first=R. K.|title=Shuddhi movement in India: a study of its socio-political dimensions|year=1990|publisher=Commonwealth Publishers|isbn= 9788171690428|page=103}}</ref> The converts were given Hindu names but the Portuguese government put impediments in their way to get legal sanction to their new Hindu names.<ref name=opo>{{cite book|last=Ralhan|first=Om Prakash|title=Post-independence India: Indian National Congress, Volumes 33-50|year=1998|publisher=Anmol Publications PVT. LTD.|isbn= 9788174888655|pages=304–305}}</ref> 4851 Catholics from [[Tiswadi]], 2174 from [[Ponda, India|Ponda]], 250 from [[Bicholim]] and 329 from [[Sattari]] Catholic Gaudas were re-converted to Hinduism after nearly 400 years. The total number of the converts to Hinduism was 7815.<ref name=godbole>{{cite book |last=Godbole |first=Shriranga |title=Sanskrutik Vartapatra |language=marathi |year=2010 |publisher=Sanskrutik Vartapatra |location=Pune |pages=61–66}}</ref> The existing Hindu Gauda community refused to accept these neo-Hindus back into their fold because their Catholic ancestors had not maintained caste purity, and the neo-Hindus were now alienated by their former Catholic coreligionists.<ref>{{harvnb|Shirodkar|Mandal|1993|p=23}}</ref> These neo-Hindus developed into a separate endogamous community, and are now referred to as ''Nav-Hindu Gaudas'' (New Hindu Gaudas).<ref name="Gauda">{{harvnb|Lusotopie|2001|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=e-0qpQGi0R4C&pg=PA458 458]}}</ref>