Portuguese Korlai Fort and Korlai Village where people still speak Portuguese

Ruins  of the Poutuguese Fort at Korlia 

View of Arabian Sea from Korlai Fort

Panoramic view of the Arabian Sea

Walls of the Majestic Fort

Church at the Upper Korlai Village

Inside the Church 

Outer view of The Church 

Portuguese Speaking Older Generation 

Women Discussing about their language  'Nau Lin'

The village Lane 

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

Izmir - Visit to Pergamon and Ephesus

World's second most steepest amphitheater

 The Asclepieion, a thriving healing centres of Roman era 

Broad boulevards of the Curetes street, Ephesus

Great Theatre’, the Greek amphitheater of Ephesus

 Snake head Medusa at Temple of Hadrain 

The Library of Celsus

 The most iconized structure of Ephesus

Red Basillica which was originally the Red Hall temple of Egyptian Gods

Trajaneum, the Temple of Roman Emperor Trajan

 Trajaneum, restoration work undertaken in the year 1976

 Trajaneum, from the sides

ना उम्मीद नहीं दिल नाकाम ही तो है 

लम्बी है गम की शाम, मगर शाम ही तो है 

Izmir- A Trukish province where past comes alive

The shorter version of the article was published in Spectrum, The Tribune Jan 12, 2020

https://epaper.tribuneindia.com/m5/2505813/Spectrum/SP-12-January-2020?fbclid=IwAR22pKOf_1fTQiu7MJNCuaIBF_wja309SKzMIcY-oslw4rrwjhBcYAMC6PQ#dual/3/1

Turkey often invokes in images of Blue Mosque, Hagia Sophia, hot air balloons at Capadocia, or the white travertine terraces of Pamukkale. However, the province of Izmir, often ignored, in western part of the country is home to ancient structures and heritage sites since it hosted numerous civilizations and communities. In in this province, and Izmir city in particular,  one can experience conflation of regal history of Byzanitne Greek era and modern shared cosmopolitan culture with Europe.

On our first step on its land, the city presented us with double surprises. The first one came in the form of free Izban (local train) journey from Airport till Bayrakali. After deboarding the train Gulbeg, our friend and host during our stay in Izmir, informed that July 15 was Democracy and National Unity Day of Turkey and we were fortunate to enjoy the freebie of celebration.

Imprints of ancient history were visible in every nook and corner of the city. Hidden with buildings and residential complexes was a 7^th century BC fortification wall of the ancient Smyrna city a few hundred meters away from Bayrakali station. Sipping the cup Turkish tea at the tenth floor of our friend’s apartment, in a single frame we captured the wide expanse of Agean sea, high rise buildings, mountains, and juxtaposed within another excavation site of Agora or market frequented by students and professors of archeology or history and sometimes public too.  

The next morning, we embarked on a 110 kms journey North of Izmir to the ancient Acropolis of Pergamon, once the capital city during the Hellenistic and Roman era. We opted to visit this UNESCO world Heritage site through public transport; needless to say, this mode was way too lighter on the pocket and gave us an opportunity to sneak peek in the life of Turkish locals. Anxiety of being on a foreign land was looming while we entered the Izban, but our five-year-old daughter instantaneously made friends with a Turkish child traveling with his family. As we observed the kids at play, a feeling of connect was visible on their faces where language and ethnicity were no more a barrier.

    

The picturesque landscape with shimmering water of the Northern Agean sea and windmills dotted all over the promontory were like a slice of serenity enroute our one-hour bus journey from the last train station. Rejuvenated despite our hectic journey, we were ready to venture into a great time travel in the Helenistic Era.

After the short twenty minutes Taxi ride through the quaint town of Bergama, we were enraptured with the panoramic view of Bergama town from the Arcolpolis. As we entered the table top of the hill, relics of the gatehouse ‘Gate of Eumenes’ made us feel as if we were exported to the Hellenistic era, where we were walking on the paved mosaic road, flanked by the colossal marble buildings on both sides. Among them the most impressive was the majestic and towering Trajaneum, the Temple of Roman Emperor Trajan. Thanks to the restoration work undertaken in the year 1976, some of the pillar of this Greek style temple built during 1^st and 2^nd century CE have been reconstructed.

From the boundary of Trajaneum we could see the 10000-seat amphitheater on the steep slope of the hill. The amphitheater that might have hosted countless political assemblies was intriguing by the sheer steepness of its stairs running till the end of the hill. While walking down the amphitheater we decided to search the second-largest ancient Greek library which according to the legend housed 200,000 volume of manuscript but till date the ruins have not unraveled the secret of its location. Although, our short search did not yield any result, we hope in future some travelers would discover its location.

Back to Bergama, we stopped at Red Basillica originally the Red Hall temple of Egyptian Gods Serapis, Isis and Herpokrates. Though severely ruined, the majestic walls of that largest surviving roman structure have stood the test of time for past two Millenia.

Our last stop at Pergamon was the Asclepieion, a thriving healing centres of Roman era established on the lines of the Asclepieion at Greece. The place had few intact structures such as the healing spring; underground passageway; open theater with a capacity of 3500 and remains temple of Asclepius and a circular treatment center. The colonnaded street was donned by few remaining pillars standing tall as memoirs of the glorious past. The journey in Bergama ended on a sweet note with a dessert called Lor, which seemed like an alliance between roshogulla and gulab Jamun, suggesting of some traditional and cultural exchange between the two nations. 

The next morning, at the break of dawn we boarded a tour bus to visit the famous Ephesus museum. During our short stop for breakfast, serendipity was at play again. We ordered Gözleme that turned out to be a variant of our very own aloo ka parantha, with an addition of cheese in it. Savoring the taste of Gözleme we got ready to witness the ancient Greco-Roman Metropolis of Ephesus. Our tour guide, Hussein, a postgraduate student of theology, told us that despite decades of excavation, archeologists were able to unearth only 15% of this vast actual Byzantine city.

Our tour bus dropped us at the south gate from where we walked down the broad boulevards of the Curetes street, leading to the Hercules gate with its two monumental lintels. Dedicated to Greek hero Hercules, this gate is supposed to be built in the 4^th century BCE.

Our daughter was thrilled to see the structure of Medusa having multiple snakes on head at gate of the famous Temple of Hadrain dedicated to Emperor Hadrain. As informed by our guide, for its excellent state of preservation, the temple was rebuilt with original building elements in late 1950s.

Making our way down the hill, we were mesmerized with the view of the most iconic structures at Ephesus, Library of Celsus. Constructed in honor of Roman Senator Julius Celsus, during its heydays the library had 12,000 scrolls and was the third richest library in ancient times. Striking Façade with statutes of women celebrating virtues of learning and wisdom, main gallery with double walls and niches along the inner walls and intricate carvings, the structure was designed not only meant to preserve scrolls but was also the final resting place of Senator Celsus. Built in 117 A.D., the structure was destroyed by fire and earthquakes several times and what we witnessed was the result of restoration work undertaken between 1970 and 1978.

Walking up Arcadian Street, we experienced a monumental sight of the Great Theatre. First constructed in the 3rd century BC, the amphitheater was enlarged during the Roman Period and formed to its present style with a seating capacity of 25,000. As we all sat to get the moments captured through our lenses at the great theatre, our guide told us “it was here that Apostle Paul instructed Ephesians not to worship man made gods and he wrote a letter instructing the same, which is found in the Bible.”

Leaving Ephesus, we decided to visit Selcuk town on our own and we left the tour bus. Walking through the deserted streets of the town, we chanced upon the remains of a Byzantine aqueduct, which had turned into a nesting place for storks. A few yards ahead of the aqueduct was an open-air café where nearly seventy men across age groups were playing a board game called ‘Okay’. After refreshing ourselves with Turkish tea we boarded the train back to Bayrakli. While we were recollecting the memories of our trip to these two UNESCO World Heritage sites, we felt that a few hours trip was not sufficient to understand the vastness of the place and greatness of the culture that had created the city.