Decline of Comunidades catalyst for the State’s escalating socio-environmental crises – Rev. Dr. Jason Keith Fernandes
Academic, author, a Gaunkar and Secretary to the Archdiocese of Goa’s Committee for the Academy of Research and Culture in Old Goa, Rev. Dr. Fernandes has studied the question of the Comunidades
Cover story by SHASHWAT GUPTA RAY (oHeraldo – 16th September 2026 Edition)
shashwat@herald-goa.com
PANJIM: As Goa marks the 500-year milestone of the Foral of 1526 today, Rev. Dr. Jason Keith Fernandes—academic, author, a Gaunkar and Secretary to the Archdiocese of Goa’s Committee for the Academy of Research and Culture in Old Goa — said that the decline of the Comunidades, the centuries-old, indigenous system of collective land ownership and resource management, is the central catalyst for the State’s escalating socio-environmental crises.
Originally called Gaunkaries, these institutions historically managed approximately 70 percent of Goa’s land as a common ecological and economic trust.
“Over the decades, legislative dilution, rapid urbanisation, and a hyper-commercialised real estate boom have systematically dismantled this community-driven governance, replacing ecological stewardship with aggressive land exploitation,” Rev. Dr. Fernandes told oHeraldo.
Fr. Fernandes has written extensively on the contemporary politics around the Foral of 1526 (formally the Foral de Usos e Costumes dos Gãocares or the ‘Charter of Customs and Practices of the Gaunkars’). Issued by the Portuguese Crown through its Comptroller of the Exchequer, Afonso Mexia, on September 16, 1526, this charter legally institutionalised the Comunidades (originally the Gaunkaria system)—the ancient, collective village landholding and governance system. Fr. Fernandes approaches the document through legal anthropology and post-colonial frameworks.
“The Foral of 1526 was a historic charter established between the Portuguese Crown and the local inhabitants of the Goa islands. It created a formal legal architecture that established the village as the primary unit of administration. This framework laid the foundation for the Comunidade (traditionally also known as Gaunkari), an institution where village lands were collectively held and managed by the assembly of Gaunkars—members of dominant local lineages,” he said.
Under this system, village lands were managed, maintained, and leased out through auctions. Proceeds were distributed among the Gaunkars as a dividend called zonn. For over four centuries, these village-level institutions operated essentially as local municipalities, managing local infrastructure and land use,” he said.
However, he noted that the traditional system suffered from significant democratic deficit, as lower-caste groups and non-dominant communities were historically excluded from decision-making and ownership rights.
“Following Goa’s integration into India in 1961, land reform laws and the later implementation of the Panchayati Raj Act systematically shifted power away from the Comunidades. Instead of reforming and democratising these historical bodies to include all residents, the modern administration treated Comunidades as private landholders, stripping them of their traditional administrative roles,” Fr. Fernandes added.
He pointed out that this shift, alongside the State’s exercise of eminent domain to acquire land for modern infrastructure projects, has led to severe land alienation and local unrest across the State. According to him, this is the root cause of Goa’s unplanned urbanisation and environmental destruction.
“The people must come together and take collective steps to ensure that this degradation of Goa doesn’t happen any further,” he said.
