Saligao , that charming wayside village on your way to Calangute where stretches of open paddy fields meet narrow roads lined by coconut groves, and where small, typically Goan homes sit ensconced in greenery interspersed with tiny pathways that form a confusing maze. By: Evita Rodrigues | Photo: Rajtilak Naik

Saligao has never been the seat of any ruling dynasty, no stirring political events with far-reaching repercussions have ever taken place here. Its history records no battles and it has never been of key importance to the defence of Bardez. Yet, Saligao has an appeal, distinctly its own.

The origin of the name Saligao is yet to be conclusively ascertained. Before the village came under the Portuguese rule, it was known as Salgaon. It was the Portuguese who lusitanised it to Saligao by adding an ‘I’ to ‘sal’. While some suggest the name was derived from Salo-gao, a healthy village, or from a Hindu deity whose temple was once located in this village, others suggest that ‘Sal’ represented the presence of abundant, wooded forest cover in the village.

Saligao is a fairly small village in size when compared with large sprawling villages like Calangute, or Siolim or Aldona, but what it loses in size, it gains in compactness, neatness, and easy accessibility. Walking at a leisurely pace, one can reach from one end to the other in less than 30 minutes.

The whole village layout centres around the Saligao church whose patroness is the Mae de Deus, whose feast is celebrated on the first Sunday of May. It was built in 1873, in neo-gothic style, when the image of Our Lady – Mother of God was installed in the church after being brought from the plague-ridden village of Daugim in Ilhas. Architecturally, it is one of the most beautiful churches of Goa and one, which a homecoming son or daughter of the village looks forward to get a first glimpse when turning a bend on the Pilerne-Saligao hill.

Though not even a pimple on the face of Goa, Saligao, as one of the erstwhile nine elite villages of Bardez, had a voice in formulating epoch-making decisions such as the one leading to the expulsion of the Franciscans from the parishes of Bardez and their replacement by the Goan secular clergy.

Amongst the amusing tales of Saligao is probably one connected with All Souls Day, when people throng the church and cemetery to pray for the souls of their dead. It was a tradition that the bells of the church be tolled at intervals of every half hour on that day. The job fell upon the village lads and who, having nothing to do, while not at the bells, began displacing things from one house to another during the night. Through a series of these exchanges between one house and another, the boys succeeded in creating an eerie illusion as if the souls of the dead had indeed visited the homes on the night of November 1. (Narrated in ‘Saligao: Focus on a Picturesque Goan Village by J Patrocinio de Souza and Alfred D’Cruz)

Originally a farming community, farming combined with animal husbandry was the chief occupation of the villagers. Paddy was the principal subsistence crop. From coconuts they made copra and extracted oil. Saligao later turned to sugarcane as a subsistence crop and a rotation of cereals to keep the soil fertile. With the extension of sugarcane plantations, the economy of the village underwent a radical change.

“It was these vast sugarcane plantations that led the neighbouring villages to dub Saligaokars as ‘unshelantle kole’ meaning ‘foxes from the cane plantations’ as the villagers would hide in the fields to scare foxes away at night,” writes C Hubert De Souza in his article ‘Saligao’ in the May 1999 edition of a local magazine.

Today, the cane plantations have vanished to be replaced by paddy after many of the ‘unshelantle kole’ migrated to East Africa and other former colonies.

The new generation of Saligaonkars has ranged out far and wide. Never the type to complain, they maintain a leisurely attitude at times, typical of the Goan spirit, but have their priorities right – on top of the list being the welfare of the village.

Saligao houses a population of nearly 8,000 people and has Parra, Guirim, Sangolda, Pilerne, Calangute and Candolim as its neighbouring villages.

The village is also home to two leading educational institutes namely the Mater Dei institution, one of Goa’s first English language schools and Lourdes convent high school. The famed restaurant, Florentine bar and restaurant well known for its chicken cafreal is located near the tinto in Saligao which is mostly frequented for this specialty.

The Saligao Institute, set up in 1929, continues to provide its growing number of members with social, literary and cultural activities. The cemented badminton court adjoining the institute’s building also serves as a popular open air dance floor.

The recently-renovated Saligao junction, which was an area for exchanging pleasantries between the village elders, is still a busy area in Saligao. With barricaded footpaths and pedestrian crossings, the Saligao circle has now become safer for commuters. Over the years, there were concerns raised by villagers over the dumping of garbage from the coastal belt on the hillock atop the village. Together with effective door-to-door collection of garbage and the newly- inaugurated state-of-the-art Saligao garbage treatment plant, today, villagers are being relieved of their garbage woes.

Saligao is in many ways the archetypal Goan village. The history of Goa and the history of Saligao are of course inextricably entwined. But, against the larger backdrop, there have been innumerable specific occurrences, incidents and happenings, all contributing towards the making of the distinct entity that is Saligao, similar to the other villages of Goa, yet so different.

 

RENOWNED RESIDENTS

Over the centuries, the people of Saligao have distinguished themselves in varied fields and in different parts of the world. Musicians, writers, educationists, doctors, businessmen, religious – Saligao has had them all

  • Francis Newton Souza | the renowned painter
  • Joseph Anthony Vas | the first Goan Indian civil service officer
  • Alfred D’Cruz | veteran journalist, historian and author
  • Eugene de Souza | archbishop of Bhopal
  • Alfred Fernandes | bishop of Allahabad
  • Joel Almeida music composer
  • Norma Carneiro Alfonso | pianist
  • Dr Claudio Gama Pinto | internationally-acclaimed ophthalmologist
  • Fr Nascimento Mascarenhas| priest and historian The Salgaocar family, among the big industrialist families in Goa, also trace their roots to Saligao. The village has also contributed to the defence forces.
  • Lt general Eric Alexander Vaz, who commanded an operational brigade in Punjab in the 1965 war, hailed from the village, as also brigadier
  • Ian da Costa, who was awarded a VSM for counter-insurgency operations in the north east between 1983-85.
  • Mario Mascarenhas and Muriel D’Souza | Activist couple
  • Dean D’Cruz | Architect
  • Late Dr Wilfred de Souza |surgeon and former state chief minister

-From The Times of India, Goa Edition – 14/06/2016