 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 962,640 (2011) | |
| Languages | |
| Liturgical: Sanskrit Native: Konkani Also spoken: Marathi, Hindi, Gujarati, Kannada |
Hinduism is the majority religion of people living in Goa. According to the 2011 census, in a population of 1,458,545 people, 66.08% were Hindu. [1]
Due to the Christianisation of Goa, over 90% of the Goans in the Velhas Conquistas became Catholic by the 1700s. The Novas Conquistas, which came under Portuguese rule later, remained majority Hindu. Goan emigration to British India and the rest of the world, and corresponding immigration of non-Goan labour from India to work in mines in 1950s [2] led to Hindus eventually becoming the majority of people residing in Goa by the 1960 census carried out by the Portuguese. [3]
The massive influx of non-Goan immigrants from other states of India since the Annexation of Goa has further increased the Hindu population resident in Goa. [4] [5] Traditions of ethnic Goan Hindus after 1961 include festivals with processions wherein the deities are taken from the newly built temples in the Novas Conquistas to their original sites in the Velhas Conquistas. [6] In 2022, the Goa government announced plans for reconstruction of temples destroyed during the early colonial Portuguese regime. [7]
While the Caste system in Goa is still a major factor among Goan Hindus, the egalitarian Indian constitution and the resulting affirmative action has helped to a perceived degree. [8]
Goan Hindus celebrate the festival of Shiva and Shantadurga (Durga) besides those of other deities. The festival of Holi is called Shigmo in Goa and celebrated with gaiety. Chavath or Ganesh festival as it is called by Goan Hindus is a major festival in Goa. Deepavali is celebrated with the lighting of the deepastambhas in the temples and with the burning of effigies of Narakasura, who is regarded to have been vanquished on the day before Deepavali by Krishna.
The Goan Hindu community is composed of Saraswat Brahmins, Chitpavan Brahmins, Karhade Brahmin and rest of the Daivadnyas and Marathi Brahmin along with the Konkan Kshatriya Marathas (Chardos). Other castes are Bhandari (caste), Vaishya Vanis, Kunbis, Gaudas, etc.
The majority of Indian residents are Hindu in both districts of Goa, with 76.06% of the total population of North Goa and 53.34% of South Goa. [9]
Old Goa is a historical site and city situated on the southern banks of the River Mandovi, within the Tiswadi taluka (Ilhas) of North Goa district, in the Indian state of Goa.
Canacona is an administrative region in the district of South Goa, Goa state, India.
Salcete or Salcette is a subdivision of the district of South Goa, in the state of Goa, situated by the west coast of India. The River Sal and its backwaters dominate the landscape of Salcete. Historically, the sixty-six settlements south of the Zuari River formed the original Salcette territory. Salcete forms a part of the bigger Konkan region that stretches along the western shoreline of peninsular India.
Bicholim, is a small town and a municipal council in North Goa district in the state of Goa, India. It is the headquarters of the Concelho (county) of Bicholim, one of seven that make up the Novas Conquistas, territories added to Goa comparatively later than the first three of the Velhas Conquistas. The town is located about 30 km (19 mi) from the state capital of Panaji. It is in the mining heartland of Goa.
The Goa Inquisition was an extension of the Portuguese Inquisition in Portuguese India. Its objective was to enforce Catholic orthodoxy and allegiance to the Holy See. Conversions took place through the Goan Inquisition with the persecution of Hindus and the destruction of Hindu temples.
The Konkani people are an Indo-Aryan ethnolinguistic group native to the Konkan region of the Indian subcontinent who speak various dialects of the Konkani language. Konkani is the state language of Goa and also spoken by populations in Karnataka, Maharashtra, Damaon and Kerala. Other Konkani speakers are found in Gujarat state. A large percentage of Konkani people are bilingual.
Shri Manguesh temple is hindu temple, located at Mangeshi Village in Priol, Ponda taluk, Goa. It is at a distance of 1 km from Mardol close to Nagueshi, 21 km from Panaji the capital of Goa, and 26 km from Margao. Shree Mangueshi is the Kuldeva of Saraswat Brahmins and other gotras. Shrimad Swamiji of Shri Kavale Math is Spiritual chief Of Shri Manguesh Saunsthan, Mangueshi. This temple is one of the largest and most frequently visited temples in Goa.
The caste system in Goa consists of various Jātis or sub-castes found among Hindus belonging to the four varnas, as well as those outside of them. A variation of the traditional Hindu caste system was also retained by the Goan Catholic community.
Goan Catholics are an ethno-religious community of Indian Christians adhering to the Latin Rite of the Catholic Church from the Goa state, in the southern part of the Konkan region along the west coast of India. They are Konkani people and speak the Konkani language.
Goans is the demonym used to describe the people native to Goa, India, who form an ethno-linguistic group resulting from the assimilation of Indo-Aryan, Dravidian, Indo-Portuguese, Austro-Asiatic ethnic and/or linguistic ancestries. They speak different dialects of the Konkani language, collectively known as Goan Konkani. "Goanese", although sometimes used, is an incorrect term for Goans.
The Daivadnya,, is a community from Goa and Karnataka, who claim to have descended from Vishwakarma. Although they claim themselves to be Brahmin, but these claims are not accepted by others including local Brahmin castes. They are native to the Konkan and are mainly found in the states of Goa and Damaon, Canara, coastal Maharashtra, and Kerala. Daivadnyas in the state of Maharashtra and Karnataka are classified by National Commission for Backward Classes as an Other Backward Class.
The Kadambas of Goa were a dynasty during the Late Classical period on the Indian subcontinent, who ruled Goa from the 10th to the 14th century CE. They took over the territories of the Shilaharas and ruled them at first from Chandor, later making Gopakapattana their capital.
Roman Catholic Brahmin is a caste among the Goan, Bombay East Indian and Mangalorean Catholics who are descendants of Konkani Brahmin converts to the Latin Catholic Church, in parts of the Konkan region that were annexed into the Portuguese East Indies, with the capital (metropole) at Velha Goa, while Bombay was the largest territory (province) of Portuguese India. They retain some of the ethno-social values and customs of their ancestors, and most of them exhibit a noticeable hybrid Latino-Concanic culture. They were known as the Brahmins among the "New Christians".
A Goan temple is known as a dēvūḷ (देवूळ) or sansthān (संस्थान) in the Konkani language. These temples were once the centres of villages, cities, and all the other social, cultural and economic gatherings in Goa. These were known as grāmasansthās (ग्रामसंस्था) in Konkani.
Gomantak Maratha Samaj is a Hindu community found in the Indian state of Goa. They are known as Nutan Maratha Samaj in the Sindhudurg district of Maharashtra and Naik Maratha Samaj in Maharashtra, Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka, also Telangana respectively.
The indigenous population of the erstwhile Portuguese colony of Goa, Daman and Diu underwent Christianisation following the Portuguese conquest of Goa in 1510, which was followed by the Goa Inquisition from 1560 onwards. The converts in the Velhas Conquistas to Roman Catholicism were then granted full Portuguese citizenship. Almost all present-day Goan Catholics are descendants of these native converts; they constitute the largest Indian Christian community of Goa state and account for 25 percent of the population.
The Christian population of Goa are almost entirely Goan Catholics, whose ancestors converted to Christianity during the Portuguese rule in India. Christianisation followed the Portuguese conquest of Goa in 1510, which was followed by the Goa Inquisition from 1560 onwards. The Hindu population is mostly descended from immigrants from other states of India, who have been arriving in Goa since the last century There is a higher proportion of Christians in Velhas Conquistas than in Novas Conquistas.
The Goan Muslims are a minority community who follow Islam in the Indian coastal state of Goa, some are also present in the union territory of Damaon, Diu & Silvassa. They are native to Goa, unlike recent Muslim migrants from mainland India and are commonly referred to as Moir by Goans in Goan Konkani.[a]Moir is derived from the Portuguese word Mouro. The Portuguese called them Mouros because they were in contact with the Moors, people of predominantly Muslim Maghreb country, who had conquered and colonised the Iberian peninsula for centuries.
Jainism flourished in Goa during the rule of Kadamba dynasty of Karnataka. Broken sculptures of the Jain Tirthankara Suparshvanatha, belonging to the period of the Goan Kadamba ruler Shivachitta Permadi Dev, were discovered in an old Jain temple in Jainkot, Naroa.
Xenddi, sometimes spelled as Xendi, was a discriminatory religious tax imposed on non-Christians by the colonial era Portuguese Christian government in Goa, Daman and Diu in 1704 and expanded to all of Portuguese colonies in the Indian subcontinent by 1705. It was similar to the discriminatory Jizya religious tax imposed on Hindus by Muslim rulers in the region.
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