NT Reporter
Panaji
As Goa marks 500 years of the Foral de Afonso Mexia, the 1526 charter is once again drawing attention to one of the state’s oldest surviving village institutions, the Gaunkari, later known as the comunidade system.
Issued on September 16, 1526, the ‘Foral dos Usos e Costumes dos Gaocares e Lavradores das Ilhas de Goa e Outros anexas a Ela’ contained 49 clauses and recorded aspects of the customs, rights and functioning of Goa’s village communities. Historical research describes it as an important document for understanding the organisation of the comunidades in the early 16th century.
The charter was issued under Portuguese rule by Afonso Mexia, the royal revenue official, at a time when the Portuguese administration was seeking to understand and regulate existing village institutions. Its provisions dealt with more than revenue. They covered village administration, property relations, village officials, inheritance, obligations and other aspects of community life.
For the United Gaunkaris, a platform seeking to bring comunidades together, the anniversary is an opportunity to revisit that history. “This year 2026 is very special for our Indian nation, state and the Gaunkari/comunidade institution,” said Jocel De Souza, who helms the organisation.
Before the modern state’s system of survey numbers and revenue records, Goa’s villages had their own institutions for managing land and community affairs. This system came to be known as Gaunkari. The traditional account describes the Gaunkars as the original settlers or founding members of a village, who collectively organised cultivation, water resources, bunds and other works necessary for village life.
De Souza said the charter represented an important point in the interaction between the existing village system and the Portuguese administration.
“This charter not only inscribed but also prescribed the customs and usages of the locals,” he said, describing it as a document that helped establish a framework for relations between the communities and the colonial administration.
Historians, however, have also examined the Foral as more than simply recognition of local customs. Rochelle Pinto, in her study of the document, describes it as a legal instrument that helped establish the relationship between the Portuguese sovereign, territory and the local community. The 49 clauses both recognised and regulated the authority of the gaunkars.
The document therefore occupies an unusual place in Goa’s history. The institution it documented predated Portuguese rule, but the Foral became one of the earliest detailed written records of how the village communities functioned under the new administration. It has subsequently been invoked in debates over the rights of comunidades and their relationship with the state.
The anniversary also comes at a time when questions surrounding comunidade land, governance and the survival of customary practices remain contested. The present Code of Comunidades dates to 1961, while the institution continues to operate within Goa’s modern legal and administrative framework.
United Gaunkaris plans to mark the quincentenary with a cultural and dinner event and the publication of an English translation of the charter, subject to the necessary copyright permissions. The organisation also plans to launch its website on September 16.
For De Souza, the anniversary is ultimately about reconnecting contemporary Goa with an institution whose history stretches across very different political eras.
“We have contemporarily deviated away from” the principles of knowledge, awareness and culture associated with the community, he said.
Five centuries after the Foral was issued, its importance lies not simply in its age, but in what it reveals: the attempt to put an existing system of village organisation, landholding and customary practice into writing, creating a document that would continue to shape how generations understood the Gaunkari and comunidade institution.
