Bomoicar: Stories of Bombay Goans, 1920-1980
Armenia Fernandes
Sajan Venniyoor
When I first saw the cover of Reena Martins' book, I assumed in my innocence that the Bomoicar in question was Lata Mangeshkar, but of course the focus was on the other Goan in the picture, Anthony Gonsalves, a music arranger for Bollywood films from the 1960s-80s. (Most of us know him only from the hugely popular tribute song, ‘My name is Anthony Gonsalves’ from Amar Akbar Anthony).
Bomoicar: Stories of Bombay Goans, like Teresa Albuquerque's Goan Pioneers in Bombay, makes me wonder if 'Bomoicar' (and indeed, 'Goan') is narrowly defined as 'Goan Catholic'.
'Goan Aunties' may have set up the first speakeasies in Bombay in the 1930s, but there had been distinguished Goans in Bombay even fifty years earlier, from the late 19th century.
Mario Cabral e Sa's 'Wind of Fire - The Music and Musicians of Goa' lists a number of very accomplished Goan musicians in Bombay from the late 1800s. As Cabral e Sa says, few would know “Goa produced some of the most accomplished singers and musicians of Indian classical music. Kesarbai Kerkar, Mogubai Kurdikar, Kishori Amonkar are all Goans”. And all of them found fame and fortune in Bombay.
And, perhaps, anonymity. But more of that later.
As feminist
scholar Tejaswini Niranjana points out, "Already
by the late 19th century, a whole community [of musicians] formed [in Bombay]
that included both men and women. […] But, the women who did go out and perform
were the Goan students of the Muslim Ustads. By the 1890s you have a large
number of women coming in from Goa. By 1890, Khadim Hussain Khan and his two
brothers come from Moradabad and establish their own Bhendibazaar
Gharana, and train up to 60 Goan singers, all women. These were women
from devadasi backgrounds, and these ‘naikins’ and their kalavant families
move en masse to Girgaum.
They move there because other Goans have already come there. They found patrons
amongst the Gujarati seths, the Bhatias in particular. So the women would often
be in some form of monogamy, they would be associated with one patron. Kesarbai
Kerkar, Mogubai Kurdikar are the most famous examples — they would sometimes
rise to prominence within those households and get power. But they got these
patrons to pay for their lessons with the ustads.
Many of them came encouraged by the success of those they heard about from
Bombay, who had become performers. You can then see that the next generation
has a Gujarati father and Goan mother — which people like Kishori Amonkar have.
So when you’re looking at the public performance space in the early 20th
century or even later, you are really looking at Muslim ustads and Goan
naikins."
And it wasn’t just musicians, but Goan dancers and actors who also found a home in Bombay. There are astonishing numbers of them – musicians, singers, dancers, actors, all seemingly forgotten in present day Goa – whose names come up frequently in the cultural history of Bombay. You can find many of them, for instance, in Prajal Sakhardande’s remarkably eccentric history book, Goa Gold Goa Silver (which I, though sorely tempted, will refrain from reviewing for fear of being sued and/or banned by Khalil, who published it).
Very few of these amazing Goans feature in Bomoicar or Goan Pioneers in Bombay, and are at best mentioned only in passing.
Perhaps the demi-monde world occupied by pioneer Goan musicians and singers have obscured their origins for too long. Lata Mangeshkar, for instance, has almost never acknowledged publicly that she is Goan. And given the treatment of devadasis in India, I am not surprised that they, and their children and their children’s children, might wish to forget their past. Mogubai Kurdikar was honoured in her later years with the Padma Bhushan, and there is an annual Gaan Tapasvini Mogubai Kurdikar Smruti Sangeet Sammelan in her memory in Goa. But her Wikipedia entry says with chilling brevity, “In 1913, when she was ten years old, her mother, Jayashree, took her to the temple at Zambaulim…”, which can mean so many things that do not bear scrutiny.
As Faulkner said a long time ago, "The past is never dead. It's not even past."
Sajan
Armenia Fernandes
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Frederick Noronha
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