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Crossroads of Religions: Shrines, Mobility and Urban Space in Goa

ALEXANDER HENN International Journal of Urban and Regional Research, Volume 32.3 September 2008: 658–70

‘The definitive version is available at www.blackwell-synergy.com’.

Abstract Wayside shrines — representing Hindu and Catholic divinities and saints — show an astonishing dynamic in the cities of Goa and India. Not only do they persist in a milieu of drastic modern change that often seems to be at odds with their traditional locations, aesthetics and purposes, but also some of them surpass temples, churches and mosques in popularity. The popularity of these seemingly marginal religious monuments is a response to three forms of mobility characterizing modern Indian urban environments: cultural mobility — the diversification and fluctuation of religious ideas and practices; social mobility — the diversification and fluctuation of people from different castes, social classes and geographical regions, as well as the change of caste and class status due to socio-economic change; and physical mobility — the movement of and movement around increasingly dense and complex flows of motorized traffic. The shrines modify and transform the centuries-old spatio-religious system of Hindus and Catholics to fit the conditions of late-modern city life. They allow a culturally diversifying, socially changing and geographically fluctuating population to engage with a variety of personalized deities and saints whose charismatic authority is not only quite independent from formalized local social hierarchies, but often also cuts across orthodox divisions between religious traditions. Introduction One of the most conspicuous errors of modern social theory has been the assumption that modernity would gradually eliminate religion from the public sphere. This indicates that modernization theory and Marxist theory both erred considerably in arguing that religion would retreat into the private sphere of individual belief or be replaced by the demystifying objectivity of scientific rationalism. Notably, however, the evidence today showing that this prognosis was wrong comes not only from a late-modern ‘religious resurgence’ (Sahliyeh, 1990), which raises concerns about an increase in religious conflicts and violence in many parts of the world (Juergensmeyer, 2000). Arguably, significant proof of the fact that religion is standing its ground in modernity can also be found in its persistence and growth in many cities where, at times, it plays a rather reconciling and appeasing role (Mayaram, 2005). In order to argue the case for the persistence of religion in the modern urban space, in this article I explore wayside shrines in the cities of Goa. Goa, to begin with, marks a special region within the Indian nation (Newman, 1988). Its peculiarity is owed to the fact that it was under Portuguese rule and Catholic hegemony for almost half a millennium I owe thanks to Alito Siqueira MA for his continuous support in my research in Goa. Jose Lourenco deserves gratitude for helping me locate and understand some fine shrines in Margao. I also thank Gabriele Henn for contributing the photographs.

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(1510–1961), making it the longest-held European colony on South Asian soil. The remnants of this history, an odd blend of Hindu and Catholic, Konkan and Lusitan traits, marginalized Goa within India to the extent that, after its liberation in 1961, it was on the verge of being absorbed by neighboring Maharashtra. Interestingly, however, the changes that India is experiencing today, after the end of the Neruhvian planned economy and with the opening up of the global market (Das, 2002), render Goa’s once defamed colonial heritage into a remunerative asset of its fast-growing tourist industry. The successful marketing of Goa’s exotic East–West blend to domestic and international tourists is demonstrated by the number of tourist arrivals increasing from 380,000 in 1980 (Government of Goa, Daman and Diu, 1981: 89) to 1,263,000 in 2000 (Government of Goa, 2001: 115). The number of tourists visiting Goa every year, therefore, roughly equals its population today, which is 1,343,998 (ibid.: i). More important still, the tourism boom exposes Goa to a dynamic of urbanization that, notwithstanding the comparatively small total figure of its urban population of 668,869 (ibid.: 3), compares with India’s metropolitan cities. This can be highlighted by three observations. First, Goa considerably exceeded all-India figures for decadal urban growth in the period 1991–2001 (Goa 39.77%, all-India 31.13%) (ibid.: ii). Second, with regard to other urbanization markers, such as cultural diversification, media exposition, consumer culture and motorized traffic, Goa’s figures are disproportionately increasing due to the impact of its tourism industry and the large number of domestic and international tourists. Finally, urbanization and urbanization-like processes are developing in Goa, not only in the vicinity of its four major cities — Panjim, Mapusa, Marmagao and Margao — but also in a number of coastal areas where tourism agglomerations are formally under village administration yet, for practical purposes have an urban character. Wayside shrines are neither exclusively urban nor modern phenomena, but are rooted in an old tradition of associating religious monuments and, more precisely, gods or saints believed to reside at particular localities with spatially defined communities. This notwithstanding, I would point out that the shrines constitute a form of religiosity that today serves the needs and articulates the concerns of the urban population in a particular way and, therefore, has become especially popular in Goan cities. I will attempt to show that, even though the shrines are generally quite simple structures, many of which seem to be stylistically at odds with modern milieus or placed at locations where they almost founder in the midst of heavy traffic, they not only persist in the rapidly changing urban environment, but have even grown in number and public appeal in recent years to such an extent that some of them are competing in social significance with long-established temples and churches. How can this striking persistence and popularity of seemingly marginal religious monuments in the urban space be explained? I would suggest that the religiosity dedicated to the shrines successfully negotiates centuries-old structures and values that manifest the sacred in locality and space with the needs and concerns of people facing rapid socio-cultural change and mobility. In particular, the shrines, more successfully than the temples and churches, respond to three forms of mobility that occur more markedly in the urban environment: cultural mobility — the diversification and fluctuation of religious ideas and practices; social mobility — the diversification and fluctuation of people belonging to different castes, social classes and coming from different geographical regions, as well as the change of caste and class status due to socio-economic change; and finally, physical mobility — the movement of and movement around increasingly dense and complex flows of motorized traffic. Religion, space and social order The relationship between sacred beings, geographical space and social order is deeply rooted in Goa (Henn, 2005), and India for that matter. This means not only that all significant spaces and locations within and outside Goan settlements are associated with

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one or several sacred patrons, but also the worship dedicated to the territorial patrons distinctly reflects and enacts the social order of the communities worshipping them. For Hindus, the center of this spatio-religious structure of social order is marked by the gramadevata,1 that is, village gods who are believed to be the founders and protectors of the villages and whose main residences are the central village temples. Gramadevata closely identify with ‘their villages’, and their icons, images and signatures can be found in countless shrines located at significant public places and buildings, as well as in and outside private homes and shops throughout the village. The territory associated with gramadevata is clearly defined by ritual boundaries (sime) and regularly asserted by space-marking rituals (yatra, sime band). From the village temple center, the spatio- religious organization extends into larger, or connects to equal size or breaks down into smaller territorial units. Thus, gramadevata are commonly seen as local manifestations of one or other of the great Hindu gods who are associated with the Hindu cosmos at large. More specifically, Shanta Durga, the sanskritized form of the ancient Konkan village goddess Sateri, is seen by many Goans as the patroness of the whole of Goa. At the inter-village level, gramadevata are related to other village deities who are regularly ritually honored as their neighbors and often considered their sisters or brothers. At the sub-village level, gramadevata are related to little or tutelary deities seen as their subordinates or servants. Known either as jage-veile, literally ‘those from the spot’, or shimeveile, literally ‘those from the border ’, these little deities are either associated with sub-village territories such as village or town wards (vade), or mark liminal sites such as the boundaries between villages or between the inhabited and cultivated land (vado) and the wilderness (ran), or can be found on river banks, sea shores, bridges, hill tops and, most commonly, crossroads. The wayside shrines, which may represent either village deities or little deities and, not infrequently, show images of both, have various shapes. These range from aniconic spots (jago), marked by a tree or a rock or nothing conspicuous at all, to grotto-shaped shelters (gumpti), to smaller and bigger temple-like structures. It is the shrines, therefore, that mark the most variegated and dynamic sites in the spatio-religious system, since they not only constitute the intersection of the territories of village gods and little deities, but they also mark all significant locations at the center, periphery and boundaries of the village and outside the village territories. Socially, the worship of the gramadevata enacts, if not constitutes, the social order of the village communities. In particular, it distinguishes ganvkar — villagers considered the descendants of the original settlers of the village — from castes and clans who are said to have settled in the village later. Thus, the ganvkar consider the village gods (gramadevata) their family gods (kuladevata) and are the trustees (mahajan) of the village temples. As such, they enjoy distinct ritual honors and privileges (man) in the temple festivals and rituals, such as being the first to receive the blessed food (prasada) or having the right to carry the paraphernalia (murti, tarang) of the village deities during ceremonies and processions. The ritual honors are stratified (first man, second man, third man, etc.), therefore reflecting the hierarchy of caste or seniority in the village community. Comparing the worship centered in the temples with the worship dedicated to the shrines, the latter, to some extent, reiterates the spatio-religious scheme and social order set up by the former. Thus, the shrines are maintained and most frequently visited by people living in their vicinity who are considered their patrons and who believe that the sacred beings residing in them protect the territories and locations they are associated with. It should be emphasized, however, that the worship at the shrines, as will be described in more detail below, neither with regard to the composition and sectarian affiliation of their sacred occupants, nor the composition and social hierarchy of the communities worshipping them, shows the same exclusivity and formality as the worship in the temples.

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A peculiar feature of Goa is that the spatio-religious organization of Roman Catholics, who constitute approximately 30% of its population, shows striking resemblances with the spatio-religious organization of Hindus, who constitute approximately 65% of the total population (Government of Goa, 2001: 16). Hence, each Goan village and town also has one or several Catholic patron saints whose iconographic representation and ritual veneration is centered in the village churches, while numerous crosses (khuris) and chapels dedicated to them are scattered around the village territory. Socially, the worship of the patron saints is organized by members of confrarias or brotherhoods who, like their Hindu counterparts, the ganvkar, enjoy the status of genuine settlers and hold distinct honors in the village ceremonies and festivals, which for the Christians take place in the local churches. This not only implies that confraria members are entitled to wear special ceremonial dresses and to lead the community of devotees during church festivals and processions, but also the group of Catholic ganvkar, as a rule, is stratified in confrarias maiores and confrarias minores, which reflect the hierarchy of castes in the village community. The organization of Catholic patron saints, like the organization of Hindu village gods, forms a comprehensive religious map that extends to the supra-village and breaks down to the sub-village level. Goan patron saints represent historical or mythic persons who first of all embody European traditions, since they all belong to the body of Catholic saints canonized by the Vatican, and only secondly do they embody Goan traditions, having gained a particular Goan mythology or iconography. The most salient example is St Francis Xavier (1506–22), the co-founder of the Jesuit order. Successfully propagating the Christian doctrine in early modern India, Japan and China, Xavier, who died in 1522 in China, was canonized by the Vatican in 1622 and henceforth venerated by the global Catholic community as the Apostle of the Indies. In Goa, however, to which his mummified body was transferred in 1553 and is preserved to this day in the cathedral of Old Goa, Xavier is known and venerated as Goencho Sahib, the Lord of Goa. At the sub-village level a large number of additional saints, sometimes called santos minores, are worshipped in chapels and at crosses (khuris) where their icons and images can often be found next to those of the respective patron saints. Urban shrines and cultural mobility Wayside shrines are especially popular in cities and although it is impossible to give exact figures, the shrines outnumber temples and churches by far. There are hundreds of wayside shrines in the four major Goan cities: Panjim, the capital, and Mapusa, Marmugao and Margao, the capitals of the provinces of Bardes, Marmagao and Salcete, respectively. Moreover, new shrines continue to emerge in the urban areas and some of the older urban shrines — such as the Holy Cross Shrine on the outskirts of Panjim and the Shri Dev Bodgeshvar Shrine in Mapusa, discussed in more detail below — have gained a degree of popularity in recent years that exceeds even that of the local temples and churches in terms of numbers of regular devotees and architectural visibility. Arguably, one of the features contributing to the appeal of the shrines in the urban space is their openness to devotional diversity. The shrines not only relate to the veneration of a multitude of major and minor, local and translocal Hindu gods and Catholic saints, but also many of them represent Hindu deities and Catholic saints in close contiguity or in one and the same shrine, thereby inviting lateral or even syncretistic worship. Prominent, although not at all unique examples of shrines located in close proximity are those representing the Hindu Sri Dev Bodgeshvar and the Catholic Lady of Vailankanni in the heart of the market of Mapusa. Located back to back to a tree, both shrines actually claim one and the same spot (Figure 1). More commonly, hybrid shrines shelter Hindu and Christian icons in one and the same shrine or under one roof.

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A prominent example of this type of shrine is that of Our Lady of Vailankanni located at the central plaza of Margao, which also shows an image of Shri Dev Damodar, the Hindu gramadev of the city. Lateral or syncretistic shrines are neither exclusively modern nor urban phenomena. There is strong evidence that they were facilitated as early as the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries by the iconoclastic nature of the Portuguese-Catholic conquest. The conquerors not only destroyed the Hindu monuments in Goa but systematically replaced them with Christian churches, chapels and crosses, and although unintentional, produced an exact Catholic replica of the spatial order of Hindu monuments and sites (Mitterwallner, 1983). Thus, when Hindus, in the late nineteenth and throughout the twentieth centuries, reinstated their claim on the Goan landscape by (re)building temples and shrines, if not in the very same places, following the same pattern of their old spatio-religious system, this led to a close contiguity of Hindu and Catholic monuments in many places. Although an old phenomenon, lateral and syncretistic worship has particular appeal today to the diversified and fluctuating communities and crowds of Goa’s urban dwellers, businesspeople, clients and visitors. This is supported by the fact that lateral and hybrid shrines especially flourish at locations where public and private forms of worship intersect, as is the case in many urban contexts. Two patterns of this intersection are worth elaborating. First, in service and business locations, due to the multi-religious constitution of the staff or the clientele or both, images or idols of tutelary figures and religious scenes from various religious traditions are displayed. Especially conspicuous are the shrines at urban hospitals and taxi stands that, obviously reflecting the physically critical nature of their services, are usually very elaborate and multi-religious, commonly displaying images of Hindu gods, Christian saints and often also a picture of the Muslim Kaaba (Figure 2). Similar hybrid displays can be found in grocery shops, workshops, travel agencies and at business locations that are frequented by a multi-religious population (Figure 3). The other common pattern of lateral or syncretistic urban worship is shown in public shrines displaying images of sacred beings that have become popular with Goans for personal reasons, rather than due to territorial or family associations. These sacred beings, whose images may be found at individual shrines or together with images of local gramadevata and patron saints, vary from local figures such as the Catholic Father Agnello or the Hindu holy man Arjudh Anand, both of whom gained fame in Goa in the early twentieth century due to their miraculous healing powers, to figures of supra-local, national and even international reputation. Most popular among the latter in Goa today are Shirdi Sai Baba and Our Lady of Vailankanni, two saints who, at first glance, seem to embody quite different characters. Shirdi Sai Baba was born in 1872 in Shirdi, a town in central Maharashtra where he lived the life of a religious ascetic and became recognized and worshipped as a saint for his siddhis or supernatural powers. Our Lady of Vailankanni, also known as Our Lady of Good Health, represents an incorporation of the Christian Mary who, according to legend, manifested herself in a series of apparitions and miracles in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries in Vailankanni, a coastal town in Tamil Nadu. A closer look, however, reveals certain similarities between these two saints, which suggests that urban shrines gain their popularity, among other things, by allowing for devotional fluidity and diversity. First of all, both saints have a distinctly charismatic appeal — a reputation of miraculous power, that radiates beyond their respective home region. One may argue with Max Weber (1978) that it is precisely this charismatic power —detachment from any specific genealogy or territory — that gives special authority to both saints. In other words, they are predestined to become autonomous spiritual patrons functioning largely independently from the territorial confines and social order associated with gramadevata and patron saints. Shirdi Sai Baba is worshipped in countless public and private shrines in Goa and other parts of India and, interestingly, even in a series of devotional centers in the USA, Canada, Cuba and othe

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Figure 1 Hindu–Catholic twin shrines, Mapusa (source: photo by Gabriele Henn)

Figure 2 Multireligious shrine at a taxi stand, Panjim (source: photo by Gabriele Henn)

Figure 3 Multireligious shrine in a grocery shop, Taligao (source: photo by Gabriele Henn

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international locations (Sai Baba, http://www.saibaba.org/).2 Likewise, Our Lady of Vailankanni is very popular in Goan shrines and draws millions of pilgrims from all over India to worship her at her Shrine Basilica in Vailankanni, Tamil Nadu every year. Another significant commonality of the two saints is their distinct cross-religious reference and followers. Shirdi Sai Baba was born a Hindu Brahman, yet, orphaned as a child, was brought up by a pious Muslim and, in his later teaching and practice, combined elements of Hindu bhakti and Muslim Sufi devotion that made him popular among Hindus as well as Muslims (White, 1972; Babb, 1991). Vailankanni, who unifies in her person numerous characteristics of the Virgin Mary and the Hindu Devi and is worshipped in a distinctly ‘Indic’ way that combines Catholic and Hindu iconographies and practices, not surprisingly, has become famous for attracting Catholic as well as Hindu devotees (Newman, 1993; Meibohm, 2002; 2004). Finally, both saints are embedded in hagiographic narratives that, while stereotypical in their respective Hindu or Catholic contexts, address a particular common sociological audience. Hence, while Shirdi Sai Baba embodies the familiar Hindu evolution from ascetic to avatar and Vailankanni, also known as the Lourdes of the East, represents the typical Catholic apparition to the shepherd boy, both manifest their powers outside established — Brahmanical or clerical — frameworks, thus becoming particularly appealing to the proverbial ‘ordinary people’. In sum, the two saints most frequently worshipped in wayside shrines in Goa thus demonstrate the shrines’ devotional diversity in three ways: first, they exhibit a distinctly charismatic — independent and personal — authority; second, they refer to distinctly hybrid, Hindu–Muslim and Hindu–Catholic traditions, respectively; and third, they are accessible outside established — Brahmanical, clerical and to some extent even territorial — frameworks. Urban shrines and social mobility Due to their tentatively autonomous status in the spatio-religious system, the shrines are accessible and attractive to worshippers belonging to diverse castes and classes, and also to people whose social status changes due to shifting socio-economic conditions. This also implies that the shrines are open to worshippers from different geographical regions. Two urban shrines that have experienced an extraordinary evolution in Goan cities in postcolonial times illustrate this social and geographical diversity and fluidity of shrine worshippers. First, the shrine and now Temple of Shri Dev Bodgeshvar in the city of Mapusa. This shrine originated in the mid-1930s, when people started to pay ritual homage to a tree on the outskirts of the city. Judging from its location, paraphernalia and mythology, it was associated with a sacred being belonging to the category of either shimeveile (border guardians) or of holy men — sanctified Hindu ascetics. In the years to come, and in particular after Goa’s independence from Portuguese domination in 1961, the shrine continued to grow in popularity and size until by 1966 it had evolved into a small temple that was officially recognized and registered in Mapusa. The Gazetteer of the Union Territory: Goa, Daman and Diu (1979: 787) mentions Bodgeshvar’s temple as the only Hindu sanctuary under the category ‘places of interest’ in Mapusa, obviously because its annual festival in December/January was considered ‘one of the biggest fairs in Goa’. In 1993, construction work was completed to replace the small temple with a large temple, showing a life-size anthropomorphic icon of Bodgeshvar, who by then had been ennobled as Shri Dev Bodgeshvar. As I have described in greater detail elsewhere (Henn, 2006), the extraordinary evolution of this shrine was, and still is, closely related 2 It is to be mentioned here that Sathya Sai Baba (born 1926), a contemporary Hindu Holy Man figure with a national and international reputation, claims to be an avatar or successor of Shirdi Sai Baba (Urban, 2003; Srinivas, 2008). The Goan and, as far as I can see, Indian followers of Shirdi Sai Baba, however, do not relate, let alone confuse the two.

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to the demographic growth and socio-economic prosperity that Mapusa, like other cities in Goa, has experienced since the end of Portuguese rule. More precisely, the shrine appealed to the highly dynamic, socio-economically mobile and ethnically diversifying urban population of Mapusa. Hence, unlike the other temples in the city — whose trustees are either Gaud Saraswat Brahmans, belonging to Goa’s largest caste of Brahmans, or Vani, belonging to a long-established merchant caste of Mapusa — Bodgeshvar’s trustees represent members of the Vani, Bhandari and Maratha castes. Thus, Bodgeshvar’s trustees not only constitute a heterogeneous caste group, some of which belong to the subaltern rank of Shudra, but also owe their positions to their recent professional success and socio-economic prosperity, rather than longstanding establishment in the city. Not surprisingly, therefore, and obviously encouraged by the fact that his iconography and mythology refers to a local god and a mendicant monk, Bodgeshvar also enjoys great popularity among Mapusa’s growing migrant labor force from Karnataka and other Indian regions. Another wayside shrine that has experienced an extraordinary evolution in recent years is the shrine and now Church of the Holy Cross of Bambolim, also known as Fulancho Khuris, the Flower Cross, on the outskirts of Goa’s capital, Panjim. Memories of this shrine go back to the 1940s, when people started to pay homage to a small white stone cross located next to the mud road that was eventually to become India’s National Highway 17, connecting Panjim with Mangalore and Mumbai. Legends explaining what singled out this particular cross from the thousands of crosses scattered over Goa’s landscape and settlements to become a prominent religious landmark in the area of the capital vary in detail, but they all refer to the miraculous interventions by which the cross is said to have protected people from danger and accidents, or cured them of illnesses. Among those reporting early miracles of the Bambolim cross were miners working in nearby quarries, farmhands harvesting cashew fruits in the surrounding forests, construction workers building the highway, and one Cassiano Afonso from the nearby village of Siridao, whose wife was miraculously cured of cancer. These stories recur down the decades and document, above all, the ever-growing and changing population worshipping what later became known as Milangrincho Khuris, the Miraculous Cross. Regular devotees became, in particular, the communities of Gavde from the nearby villages of Bambolim and Siridao, who once formed part of Goa’s tribal population, although today, for various reasons, they constitute a rather diverse group. The Gavde are divided into three religious communities: those who adhere to Hinduism, those who converted to Christianity in historical times, and those who collectively reconverted to Hinduism in the early twentieth century. In addition, the fact that they earn their living today partly from agricultural labor and fishing, partly from employment in the service sector and small businesses, and partly as migrant labor in Europe and the Persian Gulf marks the visible social, cultural and economic differences among them. Obviously, however, the popularity of the Bambolim Cross was further increased by still more diversified and changing groups of worshippers, such as the soldiers from the nearby military camp and colony, who reportedly adorned it with a metal canopy and marble tiles in 1969; the patients, visitors and staff of the nearby Goa Medical College and Hospital; and last, but not least, the innumerable crowd of drivers and passengers of private cars and two-wheelers, taxis, buses and trucks stopping on their way in and out of Panjim to pay homage to the miraculous cross. Eventually, therefore, the committee of the Bambolim Cross, which was formed by an enterprising priest of Siridao and a couple of lawyers and businessmen from Panjim, successfully cleared the legal ground and raised the money necessary to make the small cross into a church in 1996. The intangible and material support that made this transformation of an inconspicuous cross into an impressive church possible, as the resultant Souvenir (Shrine of Holy Cross of Bambolim, 13 October 1996) shows, came to a large extent from private people and businesses in Panjim and, in remarkable numbers, also from Goans working and living in the Persian Gulf.

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Urban shrines and traffic The appeal of wayside shrines to urban populations ultimately is built on their relationship with traffic. At first glance, this relationship seems rather awkward, given the fact that many shrines are obviously technically or aesthetically at odds with their urban environment. Hence, many old shrines are literally in the way of the expanding construction of urban roads, almost foundering amidst the heavy traffic surrounding them, and sometimes more seriously creating dangerous traffic hazards and bottlenecks. Similarly, old shrines can be found next to modern houses, business centers and shopping malls, where their archaic outlook starkly contrasts with the late-modern style of the architectural environment (Figure 4). Conspicuously, however, these technical and stylistic oddities usually do not lead to the demolition of the shrines, but rather to their ‘integration’ into the new urban design. A particular case in point occurred in 1993, when the small chapel of St Anthony in the village of Soccorro (Bardes) was planned to be demolished to give way to the widening of National Highway 17 leading to Mapusa. The plan triggered a vociferous public protest that filled the local newspapers for weeks and was settled only when the government agreed not to demolish the chapel, but to carefully dismantle it and exactly rebuild it alongside the widened highway (Dias, 1993; Mahambre, 1993). A similar case involving another chapel located at the highway entrance into Margao has been pending for years. No agreement has been reached so far, with the result that the chapel, still located at its original spot, now encroaches onto the highway space and seriously impedes the flow of traffic. Another very common sight is old wayside shrines, crosses, chapels and even entire churches being located right in the middle of busy crossroads, roads and highways, with heavy traffic flowing around them left and right (Figure 5). In the heart of Goa’s modern cities, the uneasy integration of the shrines into the urban architecture is evidenced in some odd views and perspectives. Not only does the integration of old shrines into late-modern architecture often create the impression of an anachronistic blend, but also new or remodeled shrines that adapt to the architectural style of their modern environment curiously stand out from the traditional shapes of shrines (Figure 6). The ‘odd’ location and appearance of wayside shrines, and their tenacious persistence in the urban space, is due to their traditional ‘functions’. The shrines traditionally either represent local village gods and patron saints or little deities and minor saints, and therefore, are located at literally all significant locations in and around the villages and cities. Since central and liminal locations such as settlement plazas and market places, borders, bridges and crossroads are traditionally predestined for wayside shrines, their

Figure 4 Wayside shrine in Margao (source: photo by Gabriele Henn)

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present-day locations at critical traffic points is inevitable. Locals commonly believe that the sacred beings associated with territories and locations act as protectors of their inhabitants and the people living nearby or passing by. Traditionally, this protection was perceived to be comprehensive in nature, extending from natural calamities to social disharmony and human maliciousness, with a focus on illnesses and accidents. In

Figure 5 Wayside shrine in Panjim (source: photo by Gabriele Henn)

Figure 6 Shrine in a bus, Panjim (source: photo by Gabriele Henn)

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addition, protection while moving and traveling, be it on roads or by sea, was a special function attributed to the territorial patrons. Both Hindus and Catholics have particular spiritual patrons who are famed for their protection of travelers. For Goan Catholics this is Nossa Senhora de Boa Viajem, Our Lady of Safe Travel; for Hindus, the entire class of little deities known as rakhne or guardians, some of whom are said to continuously walk the village territories and therefore are ritually offered leather sandals in certain villages. Another aspect reflecting that the territorial patrons are associated with protection while moving and traveling is their location at liminal sites such as boundaries, bridges and crossroads. While here too traditional concerns were comprehensive, making, for instance, ritual precautions necessary when transgressing village boundaries by marrying across them, the actual physical dangers when moving in liminal territory and public space were always taken seriously. During the last three decades of the twentieth century, motorized traffic underwent a dramatic increase in Goa, and the whole of India for that matter. From just 35,205 vehicles in operation in Goa in 1981 (Government of Goa, Daman and Diu, 1981: 77), the number increased to 125,965 in 1991 (Government of Goa, 1989–91) and 333,666 in 2001 (Government of Goa, 2001: 101). This increase in motorized traffic not only intensified the concerns of Goans relating to injury or death caused by traffic accidents, but also their appreciation of deities and saints traditionally known for protecting them from precisely these dangers and threats. It is no surprise, therefore, that, the shrines of tutelary beings located at crucial points in the city traffic, such as access and exit roads, bypasses, crossroads, central plazas and market places, are the most frequently worshipped of all shrines today. In addition, many places that are related to travel and traffic, such as taxi stands, bus and railway stations, landing stages for boats and ships, and travel agencies, have sumptuous and often multi-religious shrines. Finally, the images, idols and signatures of protecting patrons can be found in or on most private cars and two-wheelers, boats and ships, as well as taxicabs, rickshaws and buses. Especially noteworthy is the Panjim office of Indian Airlines, which provides spiritual protection for its clientele by displaying a life-size statue of St Francis Xavier. Conclusion: urban shrines and late-modern religiosity The religiosity dedicated to wayside shrines in Goa’s cities has modified and transformed the centuries-old spatio-religious system centering on Hindu gramadevata and Catholic patron saints to fit the conditions of late-modern city life. In particular, a culturally diversifying, socially changing and geographically fluctuating population engage with a variety of personalized deities and saints whose charismatic authority is not only quite independent from formalized local social hierarchies, but also often cuts across the orthodox divisions between religious traditions. Moreover, the shrines, and the tutelary beings believed to reside in them, have become sites for the articulation of concerns emerging from the increasing hazards of urban motorized traffic and provide some reassurance against them. The shrines express and enact a form of religiosity that proves to be especially apt for cities in which cultural, social and motorized mobility mutually enhance each other in the generation of a rapidly changing modern world. Refuting earlier modernist and Marxist theories, the urban shrines also supply evidence that religion stands its ground publicly in modernity. This evidence does not add to the concerned, if not alarmist report of a late-modern increase in religious intolerance, conflict and violence (Juergensmeyer, 2000), but rather reveals the less dramatic and therefore often missed qualities of a religiosity that mediates and reconciles cultural and social difference and appeases rapid change (Mayaram, 2005). These qualities have also gained distinctly modern features by simultaneously narrowing and widening traditional community-based religious orientations. Hence, the religiosity dedicated to the shrines on the one hand widens the local hierarchies and orthodox boundaries of and between

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ganvkar and confrarias, as well as gramadevata and patron saints, by allowing and, in the Goan case, increasing the social and cultural diversification of both the worshipping communities and the worshipped beings. More generally, the religiosity dedicated to the shrines shows a flexibility that lives up to late-modern urban conditions and concerns that are experienced not only in Goa but worldwide. On the other hand, the religiosity dedicated to the shrines narrows the community-based interaction between worshippers and worshipped by tending to reduce it to an interaction between individualized worshippers and personalized gods and saints. This also reflects a tendency not only in Goa but worldwide. Eventually, therefore, the Goan case suggests that late-modern urban religiosity realizes individual approaches to global conditions and concerns. Alexander Henn (ahenn@exchange.asu.edu), Department of Religious Studies, Arizona State University, Tempe, AZ 85287-3104, USA. References

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