Invited for lunch at the Feudal mansion in Curtorim fewweeks ago, I sat on the century-old chairs sipping old wine and listening toyet another narrative on the predicament of the big houses in Goa. MariaLourdes Figueredo, an erstwhile MP from Portugal, served the exquisite dishesconcocted from recipes handed down the family line, as the guests went intoecstasies over the rare vintage heirlooms in her house. The Grand Lady, adescendent of the Figueredo family, spoke with presentiment of state apathy tothe future of old houses.
Goan society and its people are in a state of flux. Those inmajority hail from different socio-economic strata and often professirreverence for the big houses, sometimes perceived as part of the feudalaffluence at the cost of certain segments of society. On the other hand, thegrand old Goan home or the ‘Portuguese house in Goa’ is being sought today with increasing impiety by thewealthy barons or the neo-rich Indians elsewhere who equate such potential possessionas an add-on to their money power and cultural tastes.
On my way home, pondering over such cries for help with darkforeboding, I put down some thoughts. Wehave to recognize that the big house is a tangible reminder of olden way oflife and that chunk of Goa’s history has to be passed on to the youngergeneration. We need a people-orientedpolicy to make these houses the repositories of knowledge that the young canrevisit. It is one thing to drool over the beauty and antiquity of oldartefacts; it is quite another to decipher their histories and make the bighouse speak.
Every house cannot be converted into a heritage house so oneof the primary tasks would be to identify those that can be considered uniqueand integral to a particular village or the region. These houses must be leasedout by the government or a policy needs to be evolved through public debate toallow the government to function as a stakeholder. Thereafter, the authoritieshave to work in tandem with teams of trained professionals to restore/open upthese grand old houses.
What I am suggesting is a difficult task, primarily becausethese houses are owned by the multiple inheritors some of whom may not sharethis dream, i.e. passing on history to the next generation as a publicly-ownedasset. The late Matanhy Saldanha hadindeed conceived such a plan in his earlier tenure as Tourism Minister in2004. In fact, I was asked by him todraft a discussion paper on the Restoration of Heritage Homes soon after myreturn to Goa from a year-long Fulbright Fellowship with the George WashingtonUniversity and Smithsonian Institution in the USA.
Flushed with ideas at the time, I agreed, kept my word andMatanhy kept his. I prepared the draft and Matanhy finalised it with inputsfrom professionals and others. Unfortunately, few days before the policy couldbe made public, the BJP government fell. However, the need for such a policyremained very much on the mind of Matanhy. When he was re-elected earlier thisyear, Matanhy once again approached me to rework the draft policy so that hecould push it this time around.
Today, such a policy requires a pre-policy thinking. We needto work in tandem with the ministries of education, culture and human resourcedevelopment. Tourists frequent Goa only 3-4 months a year, in peak season. Butmandatory heritage home visits for school and collage children along with thoseby the locals can be conducted all throughout the year. Heritage-house trailscan be made a special attraction. This will not only create awareness among theyoungsters, but serve to dispel derision about such homes prevalent among somelocals. The policy needs to involve younger Goans and senior citizens togenerate dynamism and access to heritage. The time is ripe for a debate on apeople-oriented heritage and education tourism framework.
