The Gawda/Kunbi Socio-Cultural Identity: A Study in Continuity and Discontinuity

Abstract

'Identity' refers to that which is unique about a person or region. It stands for the distinct characteristic features or traits that distinguish a particular person or region from the other. In the case of a person, it is the individual personality traits, while in the case of a region; it is the community cultural traits that give one an identity. My present paper involves the study of a socio-cultural identity of a particular set of people, believed to be the aborigines of the region or state of Goa, namely, the Gawda/Kunbi community of people. Within the general state of Goa, I wish to particularly focus on the taluka of Salcete, where the majority of the population of this tribe resides. Goa is the smallest state in India, comprising of 3,702 kilometer square with 13.44 Lakhs as its total population of natives as per the census 2001, (Census 2011 puts it to 14.59 Lakhs), which comprises of "Hindus (65%), Christians (30%), Muslims (2%) and Jains, Buddhists, Sikhs (3%) (Government of Goa 2004:9). These natives also include the Gawda/Kunbi community, which “anthropologically has been classed as belonging to the Munda section of the Proto-Austroloid race,” (Mascarenhas 1987: 20), who, today are found to be professing or practicing three different religions, Hinduism, Christianity, and a third minor category called the Nav-Hindu Gawdas, those who were converted to Christianity but later got re-converted to Hinduism as a part of the Shuddi Movement.