Gaudas and Kunbis are aboriginal people residing in the coastal Indian state of

Goa Goa () is a state on the southwestern coast of India within the Konkan region, geographically separated from the Deccan highlands by the Western Ghats. It is located between the Indian states of Maharashtra to the north and Karnataka to the ...

. They are believed to be the original inhabitants of

Konkan The Konkan ( kok, कोंकण) or Kokan () is a stretch of land by the western coast of India, running from Damaon in the north to Karwar in the south; with the Arabian Sea to the west and the Deccan plateau in the east. The hinterland ...

. Most follow

folk Hinduism In religious studies and folkloristics, folk religion, popular religion, traditional religion or vernacular religion comprises various forms and expressions of religion that are distinct from the official doctrines and practices of organized rel ...

, but many were converted to

Catholicism The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

by the

Portuguese Portuguese may refer to: * anything of, from, or related to the country and nation of Portugal ** Portuguese cuisine, traditional foods ** Portuguese language, a Romance language *** Portuguese dialects, variants of the Portuguese language ** Portu ...

missionaries during the Christianisation of Goa while still keeping their folk tradition and culture alive. kunbi

Current social status

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.

Modern organisations

Gaudas, Kunbis, Velip and another shepherding tribe called the

Dhangar Dhangar is a herding caste of people found in the Indian states of Maharashtra, Karnataka, Goa, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. They are referred as Gavli in southern Maharashtra, Goa and northern Karnataka, Golla in Andhra Pradesh and Karna ...

, have organised themselves into an aboriginal-focussed network, called ''The Gauda, Kunbi, Velip and Dhangar Federation'' (GAKUVED). Another

Adivasi The Adivasi refers to inhabitants of Indian subcontinent, generally tribal people. The term is a Sanskrit word coined in the 1930s by political activists to give the tribal people an indigenous identity by claiming an indigenous origin. The term ...

-rights resource center, called ''MAND'', also works for their betterment.

Shuddhi movement

In the late 1920s, prominent Goan Hindu Brahmins maliciously requested Vinayak Maharaj Masurkar, the prelate of a

Vaishnava Vaishnavism ( sa, वैष्णवसम्प्रदायः, Vaiṣṇavasampradāyaḥ) is one of the major Hindu denominations along with Shaivism, Shaktism, and Smartism. It is also called Vishnuism since it considers Vishnu as the ...

ashram in Masur,

Satara district Satara district (Marathi pronunciation: aːt̪aɾaː is a district of Maharashtra state in western India with an area of and a population of 3,003,741 of which 14.17% were urban (). Satara is the capital of the district and other major towns ...

; to actively campaign for the 're-conversion' of Catholic Gaudas to Hinduism. Masurkar accepted, and together with his disciples, subsequently toured Gauda villages singing devotional '' bhakti'' songs and performing '' pujas''. On 23 February 1928, many Catholic Gaudas were re-converted to Hinduism notwithstanding the opposition of the Church and the Portuguese government. The converts were given Hindu names but the Portuguese government put impediments in their way to get legal sanction to their new Hindu names. 4851 Catholics from

Tiswadi Tiswadi ( pt, Ilhas de Goa, lit=Islands of Goa, or simply ''Ilhas'') is a sub-district in the district of North Goa, situated in the Indian coastal state of Goa. It is the largest and populous island of Goa situated in the basin of the Zua ...

, 2174 from 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. 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. These neo-Hindus developed into a separate endogamous community, and are now referred to as ''Nav-Hindu Gaudas'' (New Hindu Gaudas).

References

Works cited

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gauda And Kunbi Goan society Hinduism in Goa Indian castes Social groups of Goa