Goans

Epigraphical evidence

A copperplate dating to the early 4th century found in Shiroda, mentions one Devaraja of the Gominas, which is a reference to the Bhoja king ruling from Chandor, who is hailed as the ruler of the Goans or Gominas.

Language

Goans mainly speak the Konkani language, a Prakrit based language belonging to the Southern group of Indo-Aryan Languages. Various dialects of Konkani spoken by the Goans include Bardeskari, Sashtikari, Pednekari, Antruj bhasha, whereas Konkani spoken by the Catholics is notably different from those of the Hindus, with a lot of Portuguese influence in its vocabulary. Konkani was suppressed for official documentation use only not for unofficial use under the Portuguese governance, playing a minor part in education of the past generations. They are mostly multilingual and Marathi has played a significant role for Hindus near the borders of Goa close to Maharashtra and parts of Nova Goa conquest. They use Devanagari and Latin script for education as well as communication (personal, formal and religious). However the entire liturgy of the Catholic church is solely in the Latin script. In the past Goykanadi, Modi, Kannada scripts were also used which later fell into disuse owing to many social, political and religious reasons.

Portuguese is still spoken by a number of Goans .

Religion

Goans are predominantly Hindus followed by Roman Catholics and a small Muslim community. Hindus in Goa are divided into many different castes and sub-castes, known as Jatis. They use their village names to identify their clans, some of them use titles. Some are known by the occupation their ancestors have been practicing; Nayak, Borkar, Raikar, Keni, Prabhu, Kamat, Lotlikar, Chodankar, Mandrekar, Naik, Bhat, Tari, Gaude are examples.

The Catholics display Portuguese influence in the form of a hierarchy due to being for 451 years, a Portuguese Empire overseas province. Portuguese names are common among the Christians. The Caste system is followed to a lesser degree as compared to other Indians mainly of peasant class. However, there is a distinct Roman Catholic Brahmin community in Goa that is mainly endogamous. Many Catholic families also share Indo-Portuguese ancestry.

The native Muslims are small in number and are popularly known as Moir although Muhamedan was the word used in Portuguese to identify them, they are descendants of Mughals and Arab tradesmen. (Konkani: मैर ).

Geographical distribution

Goans have been migrating all along the coast and across the world for the last six centuries because of socio-religious and economic reasons. The diaspora are commonly known as the Konkani people, residing in the states of Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala, and do not refer to themselves as Goans. Many Goans have settled in Mumbai (Bombay) in the last century and still identify themselves as Goans. Besides Mumbai, India's Goan population is mainly concentrated in the major cities like Bangalore, Kolkata, Delhi, Chennai and Pune.

Until the early 1970s there were substantial populations of Goans in the Middle East, Africa and Europe. There have also, historically, been Goans in former British colonies of Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania, and Portuguese colonies of Mozambique and Angola. The end of colonial rule brought a subsequent process of Africanisation and a wave of expulsion of South Asians from Uganda (1972) and Malawi (1974) forced the community to migrate elsewhere, however. The Gulf News put the number of Goans residing outside India as approximately 300,000.