Arabs, Jains, Mammon and Osama

"The Navayaths, for example, never ate after sunset. "

this is not the unique feature of navayaths, nobody would like to eat in the dark!! as you see there was no electricity in the old days dude!!

Admirable story and a travellogue, Harish. Congratulations and I wish you would write more about these things as you travel through the country.
West coast of India a strip of land is steeped in history like so many other parts of India. ( I have been to many places in this land!)Most Indians are not aware of these things and don`t take interest in their splendid history. I do not wish to bring in here some distractions. But let me say next time you may like to write a bit about great Indian religious philosophers of the West coast who travelled through this land. Madhva Acharya- proponent of Dvaita school who further strenghthened Vishnavya school. Of course our great Adi Shankara of Advaitya who must have walked across this land and established Srigeri Muth not far from coast! Now Jainism is in retreat but if you go to places like Sravana Belagula you will see the great statue of Bhujabali of Jainism. In Karkala a smaller statue and Venur even smaller statue. These are 3 hors away from Mangalore.

Mingling of religiuons and foreign rules brought starnge fusions and confusions. For instance the former Defence minister Fernandez is descendent of Hindus who were forced to Christianity. He actuall belongs to so called ``Brahmin Catholics`` . They do not marry outside that caste even within Catholic domain and have retained many customs.

BTW you forgot the clan of Panikkers!

Anyway a paionately written story. Readers would need such writings! And don`t worry ignoramussses who critic you. Keeo on going.
Kamath

Harish:

…thank you…an informative and absorbing read on the navayatis…

on taraz and sima you write And eventually, when his children find the language more and more useless in their surroundings, both passion and industry for the language will diminish….

it is a number’s game…reality being a hard mistress

we can juxtapose…but perhaps another time

rgds

t

Fascinating - keep the info coming!!

ps. papeti mubarak everyone (parsi new year according to some calendars)

Wow, what an article!!!!!!!!

Harish:

In this piece I found an information overload, and also your poetic touch is missing. It no doubt tells a lot, but I felt that you skipped the nuances of things like ``their lust for greener pastures``. In almost all the other pieces in the series, your USP was precisely developing this together with a marvellous use of language (typos notwithstanding!).

But ``there is enough to look forward to...``

PS: You understanding no? I not meaning bad things. When I was reading comment, ``..what a good looking pair....:))`` I was saying myself what this man is doing, what pairing he`s making. I was thinking, thinking only.

PPS: Have lost your email addy. Dead cert you have lost mine too...so please be so kind as to drop me a line when you can at farzanavee@chowk.com. Since you are travelling, I am not punching any other keys...

rahulmal,

I agree with you. The rise of the BJP alone cannot be the holdall reason for communal flareups in the country. That is like always supplying a traumatised childhood to all serial killers...In fact, i agree that the BJP is merely stepping into a pre-existent crack and widening them to reap political benefit. And, cynical though it might seem to some... it is a legitimate way to political power, especially in electoral politics, if it stays within the laws.

Bhatkal`s is in fact an illustration of one such situation. In fact that is why I said, probably too late in the piece, that Bhatkal`s glorious, almost fable like history, did not help it negotiate modernity, electoral politics and the divides it brings, better. In that, they were like Orissa`s pattachitra artists....

HN

I am travelling, therefore have been off these instalments for sometime. A quick peek, and here`s a scattershot response.

Jageesh,

Thanks for liking it.

Feroz,

There is an excellent piece on the Parsis available online by Sooni Taraporewala...the screenplay writer of Salaam Bombay. Besides, India`s most famous immigrant legend is firmly Parsi. And there is a piece by Farzana on them right now.

BeeJay,

Thanks for a good idea. Will consider it.

Jang,

That was dead sharp....about sub-continental English. :)

Nadeem,

If the cat really drags that sequel onto chowk, it will get a lot of goats. Thanks.


I think this piece needs some polish. Will attend to it in time. Lucky temporal has not roasted me already.

Will try to get another peek in again if the thread develops.

HN

#9 is not me

simbhly nice usage of inidian sub-continental english..

``The custom is to make sure that all expenses, including the services of the mid-wife and her assistants, and other medical expenses are borne by the woman`s in-laws only. ``

..what a good looking pair....:))

Harish,

A very informative article! I had never heard of these people - the Navayaths. Come to think of it, there might be so many such communities in this vast land, gives one goose-bumps :-)

Have you ever been to Coorg/Kodagu as it called in Kannada. These people have their own Kodava language, which I was reminded of on reading this description of Navayath language. The Kodava language is a mix of Kannada, Tulu, Malayalam and Konkani. They don`t have their own script, and use Kannada script for writing purposes.

In the second part of your essay, you seem to be attributing communal violence to BJP. This brought back memories of a heated discussion I had with a friend, who had fallen for this propaganda hook, line and sinker. As per his version of History, things were hunky-dory till BJP arrived on the national stage - people were fighting wars of independence under the command of 82 year old kings, breaking bread together, basking in the glory of our great syncretic traditions and all that bunkum. It doesn`t take much time to dispel the misconceived notions which don`t stand to rigorous scrutiny. In the worst-case scenario, BJP exploited and stoked the fire of communalism that was simmering in the minds of men. They merely used the prevailing currents in the society to their advantage, as any political party is expected to do. By pointing fingers in their direction, we are paying the buck-passing game again.

A lot of interesting trivia in this part! I truly regret having never had a chance to visit South India. Well, maybe some day!

Assuming this is all going to come out in book form at some point, it will be worthwhile to cite the sources for some of the historical factoids. Another suggestion would be accompanying some of these excerpts with maps and figures, to let the reader get a better handle on where one is. Also, for outsiders like me, perhaps a description of some of the terms – e.g., what does Kazi mean?

[“We are descendents of Arab men and Jain women”]
Why not “Arabs and Jains”? I presume the Arab traders DID have some girl children?

what a boring article!useless,just useless

Excellent piece again, Harish. Nice to be reminded what washed up on our shores. Now let me do a seaquel. ``Islamists, Missionaries & Ram Rajas: Look what the cat dragged in.``

rgds,
NfP

Harish, this was a very interesting and, for me, a highly educational article.

Just one question. What happened to the Parsis? Were they not also immigrants to the west coast of India? :)

Ciao