Department of Chemistry, Goa University, Goa-403206
Saleli is a small village in the taluka of Sattari of north Goa District. It has a population of around two thousand. Its Panchayat is situated in the neighboring small town of Honda being 3 Km. away.
Its belong to the Pariye constituency with nearly thousand voters. It has four waddows (Sub-units) named Deul, Maddhala, Kelmikhalsa & Bodunwaddo.
All the 12 crushers (Locally called Kesar) are located in the Bodunwaddo. The establishment of the 13unit against the vehement and angry admonishments of the suffering villages resulted in the elimination of the son of the land lord.
SENSITIVE DEPENDENCE ON INITIAL CONDITIONS SDIC I :-
Transformation of naturalism into institutionalised religion. This tree locally called Payer Ped is a Keystone species (Ficus experima / Plomerata) It has relation with nearly 2 Thousand life forms. It is called a sacred tree which is revered by the people.
It is likely that indigenous people used to inhabit the village longtime back, very few of them are still there. The indigenous people still come to pay visit to this plant once in a year. Near to this tree stands the Temple(?) of Santeri which also belongs to the indigenous people. The Pujari comes from a neighboring village and the landlord families (3-4) have very little relation with it.
LAND AND ENVIRONMENT :-
Land and environment was common property from times immemorial. The system of land sharing for production and surrounding forest area for hunting gathering was a common practice called Gauncary.
Its mean an indigenous ancient association as a community of villagers and represented by men from the first settlers or inhabitants of Goa inter alia with inherited common contractual responsibility in a given locality. Rules were made to be obeyed and to carry out common duties / obligations in order to promote their own welfare and that constituted its society or Gaunponn.
This was prevalent in almost all parts of Goa and other parts of the country. With the rise of Portuguese colonialism, the rulers could not but retain the system of Gauncary and renamed it Communidade with certain changes.
However, Pedne and Sattri talukas were not covered in communidade system (only three villages in Sattari taluka) have patches of communidade land system. The present codigo das communidades by the Diploma Legislativo is in Portuguese language (1961). The first written codification of the customs and culture of the people of Goa are found in the Foral or character of Affonso Mexia (1526). The prevalence of common ownership of land and land usage is found in the same character. This character also speaks of the treaty of (1510) where it vouches for states obligation to protect the traditional and customary laws (oral promulgation) and defend the Gauncary against any aggression from outside. Only taxes and tributes from such system were to be accepted by the state.
SDIC II :- TRANSFORMATION OF GAUNCARY TO
MOKASOLAND
All the Gauncary Land was transferred into the hands of 12 Rane families in places like Saleli, Thane , Kumarkhand, Odvoi, Pariye, Maulinguem, Kumbharjue, Keri, Tamdisurla, Sanvordem, Khadki Velge & Wadavar.
From the common ownership of land in the Gauncary system it belonged to the Landlord families of the Rane’s. they had migrated from Udaypur of Rajasthan. They had history of revolting against of Portuguese for political and socio economic games. This transformation of the land system along with all traditional customs had brought about bitterness amount the common inhabitants of these villages, Saleli being one of them.
From egalitarian society of the Gauncars, feudal system was imposed from the top where the Gauncars became serfs working in the Mokaso land of the Landlords
SDIC III :- ESTABLISHMENT OF 13TH CRUSHER :-
Already there were 12 crushers in the village which had brought about drastic environmental changes in the village. The people were already facing great deal of difficulties because of the crushers. They requested the son of the landlord not to start the 13th crusher. In spite of repeated requests the project went ahead and the villagers had great tussle with the landlord son and in the process, he had to lose his life.
EFFECT OF CRUSHERS :-
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT :-
Nest Pictures, Advocate Jatin Naik,
Ms. Chaya Gawas, Zilla Gauncar & villagers of Saleli,
Activists of Nature, Environment Society & Transformations
ADDITIONAL Reading material available at Preetu Nair's writings also there is an article by her called Saleli ki Rani.
Saleli villagers are looking for support. Please volunteer to contribute to Saleli.
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