Meet original Mumbaikar

This is part of a slew of initiatives by East Indians to preserve their culture and create awareness among community members and Mumbaikars.

Around 1887,native Christians,then known as Portuguese Christians,adopted the name East Indians.

“A dedicated group from the community sought this identity and the queen granted the wish on the golden jubilee of her coronation in 1887. East Indians were preferred by the British government. But very little is being done to ensure the voice of our community is heard and our concerns addressed. The full-fledged museum is an urgent need to create awareness about our culture and rich tradition,” said Gleason Barretto,coordinator of Mobai Gaothan (village) Panchayat (MGP). MGP was started in 2010 to ensure East Indian views on political,civic and social matters are heard and their basic rights guaranteed.

“The aim was to have a panchayat-style functioning with a sarpanch for every village. The process of selection was also changed to ballot voting in 2011. We have 27 sarpanchs across 15 East Indian villages. Of these,only nine villages are performing well. While awareness and responsiveness have not increased as expected,community entry into civic and social issues has been satisfactory,” Barretto said.

There are over 500 gaothans in Mumbai,Thane,Vasai and Raigad.

A dictionary documenting the East Indian language in English and Marathi is also expected to be ready by yearend. The community is planning to set up stalls in each village that will serve East Indian food as well as culture.

“We have a great history as the natives,but awareness about the community is sadly low. The East Indian dictionary will promote the language and demand government recognition for it,” Barretto said.

A charter submitted by the community to the state government seeks one-window permissions to repair gaothan structures,subsidies to maintain houses as heritage structures and better infrastructure. “We want BMC to allow East Indian stalls in every ward to promote employment and entrepreneurship. We also want community space in each gaothan,besides incentives to those who want to preserve homes as heritage structures,” said Barretto.