Crumbling village house in India and Cuncolim’s centuries old land issue

Goan houses have been the handiwork of some remarkable artisans. My neighbor late Indunberg Gama, an engineer by profession had a lot of fond memories associated with old ancestral house in Sanvorcotto Cuncolim. He passed away four years back in Mumbai. With his death spelt the death knell for his ancestral house. His children who were born and brought up in Mumbai had no idea how his forefathers had toiled to build the house.

On the death of Gama, the house was not periodically repairer and the house constructed in old traditional style with the aid of lime and sand crumbled under its own weight two years back. And the inevitable happened the debris of the house were cleared and then the children decided to sell the plot to an originally Karwari family settled in Goa for the last twenty years.

Like Edinburg house a number of houses surrounding my house lay unoccupied., with some toying with plans to sell their land and settle elsewhere. Call it migration or work call demands. The bottom line is village houses are being deserted in Goa in villages far away from the beach.

A few prospective owners like Shanti Gama is waiting for buyers. But many a buyers have been turned their back for the lack of motorable road leading to the house.

Shanti’s house is not the only one which lies closed in the vicinity of our house. Former Mumbai corporate  Nolasco Gama is one such house along which till date has not faced the ace. Nolasco and his children having migrated to somewhere in Canada or Australia and it has been ages that the family have visited their old ancestral house.

If some houses remained locked in my vicinity, there are some owners who have still managed to keep their houses a coat of paint and make them dazzling. One such house is that of late Arnuf Fernandes, which has been properly maintained by its owners now based in Portugal. A few metres away the professor Babu Fernandes house has been gifted by his niece to a charitable home. But no one has since moved into the palatial house and call it lack of repairs or any other thing, a portion of the house has crumbled and one is not sure when the entire house will crumble.

If it crumbles then a large part of the history will be lost along with the grandeur and identity the house gave to the small Sanvorcotto ward. The house where many children learnt their first lessons in Portuguese under the professor during the Portuguese rule.

Another palatial house which welcomes you to my ward owned by Rui Fernandes begs for attention. The owners who have settled in Chinchinim occasionally come to collect their revenue from their by now almost sold properties in and around Cuncolim. They have maintained and repairer the house. But will Rui’s sons do it.

One way for the local residents concerned about heritage will be to approach the Tourism Department in a bid to protect the old grandeur of Sanvorcotto.

But if old constructions are crumbling and lie unoccupied, a number of new RCC construction and old ones are being converted into plus one structures. Bang opposite my house local councilor Devendra Dessai has constructed two houses. A few metres away Juliet D”Souza bungalow is getting the  finishing touches, while my class mate and childhood friend teacher Ajay Dessai’s family is converting their roof tile house in a plus one structure.

In all the schemes of things our house and the adjacent house of goldsmith Raikar looks like a dwarf.

To understand Cuncolim’s building spree one has to have a look at the land ownership history of the village. Most of Cuncolim’s land including some parts of Sarzora is shown in the survey books of records as ‘court receiver’. The  ‘court receiver’ came into the pictures owing to the century old dispute between the Sociedade Agricola dos Gauncares de Cuncolim e Veroda and Condado of The Marquis of Fronteira.

In Cuncolim land ownership did not rest in Communiade hands but in Sociedade Agricola dos Gauncares de Cuncolim e Veroda, an association of the original settlers the village.

To look at the land dispute one has to flip through the history books and one comes across interesting facts. This is what I found out.

In 1583, the Cuncolim villagers had to face the fury of the Portuguese for having killed the five priests and five laymen who were forcibly converting the Hindus and also destroying their temples. The Portuguese destroyed orchards in the village and unleashed many atrocities on the local population. More trouble was in store for them.

The village chieftains were invited for talks at a fort in the neighboring village of Assolna, where the church of Assolna stands today. All except one was executed. The one who survived did so by escaping through a toilet to swim across the "River Sal" and fleeing to the neighboring Karwar district, which now forms part of the southern state of Karnataka.

As part of the memory of the murdered village chieftains, Cuncolim as recently as six years ago erected a "chieftains' memorial" thanks to the initiative of Vermissio Coutinho, who took the lead in the building of the memorial. The chieftains' memorial stands close to the martyrs' chapel.

The subsequent execution of the chieftains -- cold-blooded murder -- did not diminish the fighting and valorous qualities of the villagers. If though the Khastriyas of Cuncolim failed to match the superior armed forces of the colonial rulers, who destroyed their orchards and unleashed other atrocities, the villagers continued the struggle through a non-cooperation movement of not paying taxes to the Portuguese.

Centuries later, Mahatma Gandhi would launch a similar movement of not paying taxes to British rulers.

The villages of Cuncolim, Velim, Assolna, Ambleim and Veroda refused to pay taxes on the produce generated from their fields and orchards. As a result, their lands were confiscated and entrusted to the Condado of the Marquis of Fronteira.

The villagers waged a strong struggle but it was through the efforts of the visionary Dr. Rogociano Rebello, a general medical practitioner who studied law, that they got their land back.

He took their case from the Goa law courts established by the Portuguese to the highest court in Portugal. Finally, it bore fruit.

The "martyrdom" and conversion of Cuncolim did not end the exploitation by the vested interests. New ones replaced the older ones and the conversion does not seem to have made a great difference. The later history of Cuncolim-Veroda as Condado of The Marquis of Fronteira since its donation in perpetuity to João da Silva and his descendents in 1585 could be the theme for a long study and it will require access to the records of the House of Fronteira and to many case files in the court (julgado) of Quepem of the comarca of Salcete. There are also records among the Mhamai House Papers at The Xavier Centre of Historical Research pertaining to the administration of the revenues by Narayan Camotim Mhamay as Rendeiro of the Condado frorn 1809 to 1818 or so, writes historian Tetonio De Souza in one of his papers.

 Apparently, the administration of the Condado was more benevolent than that of the Jesuits in the neighbouring Assolna-Velim-Ambelim. But only a more detailed study could establish the truth of the appearances, because even for the short period of the administration of revenues by Narayan Mhamai Kamat one comes across umpteen cases of confiscation of lands and other personal possessions of several village inhabitants who are sued in the court of law as bad debtors to the revenue far-mer. I have come across instances of popular representations against the administration of the Condado, and there are cases of Rendeiros complaining against the abuse of authority and funds by the procurators of the House of Fronteira in Goa. Such complaints seem to be motivated by the rivalry among the candidates for the revenue-farming of the Condado , he adds

The Portuguese chronicler Diogo do Couto describes Cuculi (sic)"The leader of rebellions" and its people as "The worst of all villages of Salcete". The prosperity of this village seems to have been derived from its fertile land that had abundant and fresh waters from rivers descending from the New Conquests and crossing it before they became brackish in the neighbouring villages nearing the coast.  

Surplus agricultural production had enabled this village to develop crafts of a very skilled order. Cuncolim is still known for its skilled metal works. But already in the letters of Afonso de Albuquerque one reads that guns of good quality were manufactured in Cuncolim, and he finds them comparable to those made in Germany.

A century later the viceroy D. Jeronimo d'Azevedo was banning the manufacture of guns in Cuncolim under penalty of four years in the galleys and even gallows! This kind of developed crafts can give us some idea of the economic interests that had developed in Cuncolim when the Jesuits arrived.

The village also had other important economic resources. One of these was its permanent bazar at the end of more than one caravan routes connecting it with the mainland through the Ghats of the Ashthagrahar province. One of these cut through the Donkorpem Ghat and another through the Kundal Ghat, leading to Netarli and Naiquini respectively. Besides these two Ghat passages there was another coming from Dighi Ghat to Veroda via Talvarda. It was frequented by caravans bringing cloths and other provisions.

Cuncolim bazar needs to be considered as an important factor in its socio-economic development. In keeping with the traditional fairs connected with temple and religious festivities, also the bazar economy of Cuncolirn depended upon its temple and religious celebrations. One should analyse against this background the reaction of the dominant class of Cuncolim to the destruction of its temples and to the attempts of  the Jesuits who sought to establish Christianity in Cuncolim and its satellite villages of Assolna, Velim and Ambelim in 1583.

In the present day retired government official Madhukar Dessai  who donned different hats of a freedom fighter, Excise official and also chairperson of Cuncolim Municipal Council is the president of Sociedade Agricola dos Gauncares de Cuncolim e Veroda.  The Sociedade runs an English-medium school, higher secondary school and a college, which is situated opposite the Church run school of Our Lady Of Health.

But is Sociedade Agricola dos Gauncares de Cuncolim e Veroda authorized to execute lease agreements and are prospective buyers who dole lakhs and lakhs of rupees to some agents in respect of property prudent enough. That is a legally debatable issue.  

But then what are the rights and privileges of the apartments and shops owners which have come on the land leased by the Sociadade to the builder. That is another grey area.