Kudumbi - History - Goan Legacy

Goan Legacy

The Kudumbi originate from the aboriginal Kunbi tribe of Goa, South West India where the prominent tribes are the Kunbi, Velip and Gowada, largely settled in the southern Canacona administrative region of the state.They are of Proto-Australoidstock and are believed to be the original inhabitants of Konkan. These communities do not fall either in the Chaturvarna System or Pancham Varna like Scheduled Caste or Out Castes. Kunbi, Velip and Gowada communities from Goa, have been categoriesed as tribes by sociologists and historians from time immemorial. Social historians and researchers on Goa have emphasised that custom, rituals and religious patterns of Kunbi,Gowada and Velip communities are similar to Gonda and Kol Tribes and other descendant tribes in other parts of the country.The Portuguese who ruled over Goa for over 500 years, considered the Kunbi, Velip and Gowada communities as Tribu, which means tribes. A grave injustice meted out to the said Tribal communities as the Center Govt. failed to extend the Constitution (Scheduled Tribes) Order 1950 to the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu immediately after the liberation of Goa in 1961. (See.Parliamentary Committee Observation /recommendation regarding inclusion of Gowada, Kunbi, Velip and Dhangar Communities of Goa in the list of Scheduled Tribes). Kunbis are included in ST list in Goa state only in the year 2002 Caste system in Goa. It is mentioned in the Book “People of India by Suresh Kumar Singh, Anthropological Survey of India (2003), Gujarat, ( at Page 731) that the term Kunbi is derived from kun and bi meaning “people” and “seeds”, respectively. Fused together, the two terms mean "those who germinate more seeds from one seed"..In the Book “Caste and Race in India” learned Author Sr.G S Ghurye has opined (at Page 31) that “Kurmi, Kanbi and Kunbi perhaps signify the occupation of the group, viz., that of cultivation, though it is not improbable that the name may of tribal origin..

In 1510 A.D, Goa was captured by the Portuguese general Alfonso Albuquerque from the Adil Shah dynasty of Bijapur, and the Portuguese rule was established. St. Francis Xavier, in a 1545 letter to John III of Portugal, requested an Inquisition to be installed in Goa. The inquisitor's first act was to forbid any open practice of the Hindu faith on pain of death. The Portuguese colonial administration enacted anti-Hindu laws to encourage conversions to Christianity.Prohibition was laid on rituals of Hindu marriages,cremation etc. All the persons above 15 years of age were compelled to listen to Christian preaching, failing which they were punished. Several Hindu Temples were destroyed. Over 42 Hindu practices were prohibited. An order was issued for suppressing the Konkani language and making it compulsory to speak the Portuguese language. The law provided for dealing toughly with anyone using the local language. Following that law all the non-Christian cultural symbols and the books written in local languages were sought to be destroyed. In the first hundred years, the Inquisition burnt at stake 57 alive and 64 in effigy. Others sentenced to various punishments totalled 4,046..The Kudumbi were forced to migrate from Goa following religious persecution by the Portuguese during the said infamous Goa Inquisition. The Kudumbis, along with Gouda Saraswat Brahmins (Malayalam: ഗൌഡ് സാരസ്വത്), Daivajnas and Vaishya Vanis who wanted to preserve their religious and cultural identity, migrated from Goa along the west coast of India, primarily through sea voyages.

One of the first exodus groups landed on the island of Cherai, near Paravur Taluk in the Ernakulam district of Kerala. They slowly migrated southwards from Ernakulam and settled in coastal areas including Kochi, (Cochin) Vypeen, North Paravur, Mala, Kerala, Kodungallur, Trichur, Kozhikode, Tellicherry, Kannur, Tripunithura, Alapuzha, Changanacherry, Kottayam, Thuravoor, Cherthala, Kayamkulam, Kollam and Thiruvananthapuram. The largest Kudumbi settlement is in Vypeen near Kochi. They were experts in paddy cultivation, especially in the low lying fields of the Kerala Backwaters and pioneered cultivation of the well-known "Chettiverippu" strain of paddy rice, which was brought from Konkan . A small number of the Kudumbi are also found in cities like Bangalore, Mangalore, Mumbai and Delhi, particularly those members of the group who migrated from Kerala in search of better prospects and livelihood.