The Khanapur Deanery and Uzvadd magazine will organise an awareness meet for Konkani-speaking Goan Catholics, who have settled in Belagavi, Dharwad and Kolhapur districts, on Milagris High School premises in Khanapur on Sunday at 11 a.m.
Entitlement
According to a press release issued here on Friday, the Goans settled outside Goa were entitled to an annual revenue known as Zon yielded from the farms and properties of their ancestors in Goa. These settlers are therefore known as Zonkars or Gaonkars.
Augustine Pereira, an entrepreneur from Mumbai and an expert on the issue, would speak. Bishop of Belagavi, Peter Machado, would be present. ‘Ghatmaathyavailya Zonkarancho Ekvott’ (Unity of Zonkar’s above Western Ghats), a movement aimed at restoring the rights of Goan settlers, would be launched.
Louis Rodrigues, spokesman for the event, said that thousands of Konkani-speaking Catholics left Goa due to inquisition and other reasons during the Portuguese rule in Goa and migrated to paddy growing region on other side of the Western Ghats in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Their names along with their ancestors were still maintained in the registers of the comunidades of Goa.
These registers were updated every year when members visit their representative comunidad.
The need for the awareness was felt in view of the attempts by a section in Goa to erase their names and also sell the properties belonging to comunidades in Goa, he added.
