Korlai - A Village in Maharashtra where People Still Speak Portuguese Language

The same article was published in Spectrum, The Tribune on 19 May, 2019 

https://www.tribuneindia.com/news/archive/going-going--774920

Enjoying the cold breeze of the Arabian Sea overlooking Korlai Fort on the top of the hill, Rekha and Albert D’Souza are chatting with their neighbour from the porch of their house at Korlai, a village 135 kilometres south of Mumbai. They are conversing in a language undecipherable to majority of Indians. This couple and nearly 237 families of their Catholic community speak a Creole language of Portuguese origin, formed from the contact of the Portuguese with the Marathi natives.

This small community, clustered around the three centuries old church at upper Korlai village in Raigarh district of Maharashtra has embodied the Portuguese legacy in unison with Marathi culture. The village is surrounded by non-catholic communities yet the imprints of Portuguese rule on the cultural landscape of Korlai are exhibited through ‘Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church’ and standing crosses in every nook and corner of the village. Popularly known as Portuguese or Kristy and referred to by its speakers as nɔ liŋ “our language”, Korlai Creole Portuguese (KCP) is amongst the several vestiges of the Portuguese era in India. KCP, the primary language of conversation within families and community and the first language for children of Korlai, has a history of coming into being that dates back to the sixteenth century.

One might wonder, but in awe, how the cultural heritage of this farmer Indo-Portuguese community stood the test of time for more than three hundred years. Also, what kind of socio-cultural and linguistic transformations the people of Korlai would have gone through that were instrumental in the occurrence and evolution this Creole language.  

Professor Joseph Clancy Clements, who has done extensive research on this Creole language, explains that during early sixteenth century the Portuguese started establishing fortified settlements in India. This led to large scale domestic slavery, and Portuguese army men started engaging in multi-partner relations with low-caste Hindu women. By the mid of the century, lot of Portuguese soldiers had settled in India by marrying these women and converting them to Christianity. This resulted in the origin of a new generation of Indo-Portuguese Catholic community. Korlai fort and its surroundings was one of such settlements, and the Creole language emerged as a solution to the problem of intercommunication between Portuguese men and the native Marathi speakers. In 1740, when Portuguese were defeated by Maratha at Korlai, a handful of Indo-Portuguese families around the fort settled on a nearby hillock, spoke the Creole language and continue to live at the present day upper Korlai village.

In Korlai, however, there exist a variety of narratives around the history of this Creole. Youngsters like Thomas and Sweenal feel that the language came directly from Portugal. On the contrary, elderly women like Mrs. Veronica claim with certainty that it came from Goa. She says “some families speaking this language came from Goa and settled in Korlai”. While the version of educated ones such as Albert seems closer to what the historians and researchers have claimed.

It is interesting to observe that the factors that contributed to the sustenance of KCP are in contradiction to the factors that led to its origin.  KCP occurred as result of the need for social interaction between people from two different communities who were later joined by matrimony. Conversely, the Creole evolved and survived because of the social and geographical isolation of this Indo-Portuguese community. Prof. Clements suggests that strong barriers created by the caste system, religion and occupation led the Indo-Portuguese community to remain isolated from other communities residing near Korlai. This has been a close-knit community and marriages strictly happened within the community with exception of Portuguese-speaking Christians from Vasai, Daman & Diu and Goa. Further, this community solely relied on agriculture for sustenance, unlike the coastal villages nearby where fishing related activities were the primary livelihood option. This created a notion of class contributing more to the community’s strict adherence to within-community marriages. Even today fishing is considered as menial job by the inhabitants of upper Korlai, as Albert D’Souza says “our ancestors had purchased land in nearby areas, since then we are into agriculture only. Fishing is carried by Kolis and others, not us”. These factors resulted in the continuous cultural transmission from one generation to the next.

Nevertheless, urbanisation and aspirations of the younger generation are posing a threat to this centuries old way of life and cultural transmission. Despite the dependence of majority households on agriculture, better access to transportation and development of good roads are paving way for the younger generation towards higher education and better employment opportunities outside Korlai. The recent trend of inter-community and inter-faith marriages, non-existent till the end of last century, is further threatening the exclusivity of this community. Exposure to Marathi in the local school has hastened the linguistic shift from KCP towards Marathi. Today, majority of the religious ceremonies are held in Marathi. Till 1960s Portuguese was the official language of the Church, but now even the Parish Priests speak either Marathi or English. For those settled outside, the lure of learning English and urban lifestyle act as disincentives to speak KCP and maintain traditional values. Such developments are creating a more diverse cultural and economic base in the Korlai where the functional use of KCP is gradually losing its relevance.

The older generation though is making efforts to maintain their culture and language. It is ensured that woman from other community/caste getting married in a household at Korlai adheres to community’s religious and cultural practices, which includes learning KCP. ‘‘Every time my grandchildren visit us, I teach them a few words and sentences of nɔ liŋ” says Mrs. Phelomena. Children from the new generation who are being raised outside Korlai get exposed to the language only during their short stay at time of vacations, and the short-term learning easily fades away from their memories.    

Few years ago, Portuguese classes for youth were started with an objective of retaining interest towards the language, but the project didn’t turn successful. Another attempt has been made by introducing Sunday prayers in Portuguese language at the Church. The younger generation is keen that their cultural heritage, KCP in particular, be preserved; but the pressing needs of their career leave them short of time and ideas to take any initiatives. 

Short term solutions to keep KCP alive may provide a ray of hope, yet pose a big question mark on the future of this Creole language. The Portuguese Creole of Cochin died in 2010 with the death of William Rozario, the last fluent speaker of this language. The situation of Creoles from Daman and Diu is also not so encouraging. So do we really assume that a similar fate is awaiting this language as well? Commendable efforts made by the likes of Prof. Clements have brought KCP and other Creoles to the world view, yet their work is primarily an area of interest for academicians and linguistic scholars. Since KCP is not an officially recorded language, in order for it to survive for many more centuries, more concerted efforts involving government agencies and linguistic experts are required. If the mothers at Korlai continue to speak KCP with their children, we can hope that some years down the line when children from next generations visit this small quaint community, they may again find a new generation of Rekha, Anthony, Sweenal, Phelomena, Albert or Thomas conversing with each other in KCP.

Kalpana Bindu