Mr Benegal was speaking after releasing the book, Kaleidoscope Goa — A Cultural Atlas, by Dr Pandurang Phaldessai and edited by Dr Nandkumar Kamat at a function held in a city hotel, this evening. The chairman of the Dempo Group of Companies, Mr Shrinivas V Dempo, who is also the trustee of the Vasantrao Dempo Education and Research Foundation and a member of the Dempo Research Fellowship Trust, Mr M S Usgaonkar were present on the occasion.

Mr Benegal was speaking after releasing the book, Kaleidoscope Goa — A Cultural Atlas, by Dr Pandurang Phaldessai and edited by Dr Nandkumar Kamat at a function held in a city hotel, this evening. The chairman of the Dempo Group of Companies, Mr Shrinivas V Dempo, who is also the trustee of the Vasantrao Dempo Education and Research Foundation and a member of the Dempo Research Fellowship Trust, Mr M S Usgaonkar were present on the occasion.

The book is published by the Vasantrao Dempo Education and Research Foundation and is written by cultural researcher, Dr Phaldessai, who was the first recipient of the Dempo Research Fellowship.

Mr Benegal said that after going through the book he found that it was a cultural atlas in a true sense because he had not seen any such publication like this, which put together the entire gamut of what one called popular culture of the state.

Stating that Goa was a fascinating part of India, Mr Benegal said Goa did not share common history like rest of the world for last 500 years, but it had developed its blend on unique lines on its own.

He said this was because the kind of colonialism that the Portuguese practised was different from the British or the Mughal Empire.

He said the interesting part was that the rural culture of India or people’s culture was essentially rich and there is a great deal common on the west coast starting from Konkan belt in Maharashtra to down Cochin. There is a certain kind of village culture that has developed in this belt over a period, probably for more than a millennium.

Mr Benegal said in other parts of India much of the village culture had now disappeared and therefore the question arises as to why it has not disappeared in Goa. If one looks at Maharashtra there were many similar things as well but much of it had disappeared now. It obviously has to do with the nature and the way the place is endowed and the way Goa was administered during the last 500 years, he said.

Referring to the content of the book, Mr Benegal said that the chapter on children’s games deals with events that are participatory in nature, whether it is theatre or village festivals, which is part of village culture. This form could be preserved in Goa because everybody performed and everybody watched, so Goa has that kind of a cultural base, which brought life and wealth in Goa and this was largely because of the 500 years of history that was slightly different from the rest of India.

Mr Benegal said some of the great singers in Indian classical music are originally from Goa and that they had their firm roots into the soil of Goa. Nearly 30 years ago, Mr Benegal said he heard music around temple deities processions in Ponda and that the voices of the singers were musical.

The film maker said that he had a feeling that what Dr Phaldessai had done was useful and remarkable.

The Dempo foundation has become the springboard for a number of research projects, he said. He added that the foundation’s idea to start an institute on Goan studies was a good gesture.

Initially welcoming the gathering, the chairman of the Dempo Group of Companies and trustee of the foundation, Mr Shrinivas Dempo said the foundation has a vision to set up an institute of social science in Goa to promote studies of various aspects of Goan society.

He said in order to make a beginning in this direction, the Dempo Research Fellowship was set up in 2001 and under the scheme it was decided to award fellowship with a grant of Rs 1 lakh to an outstanding scholar every year to do research in their area of specialisation.

Mr Dempo said the fellowship has been awarded to three scholars namely Dr Phaldessai, former Vice Chancellor of Goa University, Dr Olivinho Gomes and Dr Ajay Vaidhya, an eminent medical practitioner who studies folk theatre.

Referring to the book, Mr Dempo said the Dempo Research Fellowship Trust had a tough time in making a selection after inviting applications under the scheme. We called several applicants to make their presentations and in the end, we unanimously decided to award the fellowship to Dr Phaldessai for the project ‘Cultural Atlas of Goa’, he said.

Mr Dempo said the foundation had supported the project because we thought it would be a pathbreaking project. Although there were several books on Goa, there was no book which gave a full picture of culture of Goa in one volume. Dr Phaldessai, who had already done work in documenting some of the cultural forms of Goa utilised the fellowship ably to make his study comprehensive.

Welcoming the film maker, Mr Dempo said Mr Benegal’s films have shown a great commitment to composite culture and social integration in India. As a matter of fact, Mr Dempo said this was one of the important reasons we thought that Mr Benegal would be

the most appropriate person to launch the book, as the book also presents the composite culture of Goa.

The editor of the book, Dr Nandkumar Kamat described the cultural atlas as the finest intellectual property and praised the foundation for supporting such projects.

Stating that it was not a coincidence that the book is being released on World Book Day, Dr Kamat said the book will inspire values in the youth and it contains the knowledge of several fields of Goa and that these fields tell us the wealth of our heritage.

He said Dr Phaldessai took pains in doing research and met people to understand the history behind every event.

Dr Kamat said at least 50 per cent of the knowledge contained in this book was not published anywhere, anytime and that the book has globalised Goa in its true sense.

Dr Phaldessai in his address expressed gratitude to those who had guided and helped him in his project. Mr Dempo presented a memento to Mr Benegal, while Mr Benegal presented certificates to Dr Gomes and Dr Vaidhya. Mr M S Usgaonkar proposed the vote of thanks. Ms Madhavi Pilgaonkar compered.