Asian Ethnology 83-1 | article The Bourgeoisie Comes from Elsewhere The Gauḍa Sāraswat Brahmins and Catholics of South Kanara

Harald Tambs-Lyche

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South Kanara, the region around Mangalore, Karnataka, lacks an indigenous merchant caste. The bourgeoisie here is mainly constituted by two groups—the Gauḍa Sāraswat Brahmins (GSB) and the Catholics. Both came from Goa and speak Konkaṇī, an Indo-European language, while the local speech is Tuḷu, a Dravidian language. Both groups are external to the regionalist “Tuḷu movement” and to the “bhūta cults” that define regional religious traditions outside of mainstream Hinduism. Though they have lived for several centuries in South Kanara, both groups tend to be seen as “immigrants.” This constellation of an identity-conscious Tuḷu society representing “traditional” culture and a “foreign” bourgeoisie, together with the present assertions, particularly by the GSB, toward Hindu dominance, might seem to threaten plural society in the region. Yet South Kanara, accustomed to cultural pluralism for centuries, seems able to maintain a discourse on the region as an object characterized by its multiple cultures and religions.