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