Comunidades of Goa

The Comunidades of Goa were a form of land association developed in Goa, India, where land-ownership was collectively held, but controlled by the male descendants of those who claimed to be the founders of the village, who in turn mostly belonged to upper caste groups. Documented by the Portuguese as of 1526, it was the predominate form of landholding in Goa prior to 1961. In form it is similar to many other rural agricultural peoples' form of landholding, such as that of pre-Spanish Bolivia and the Puebloan peoples now in the Southwestern United States, identified by Karl Marx as the dualism of rural communities: the existence of collective land ownership together with private production on the land.

Codified by the Portuguese

Comunidades were a variant of the system of gaunkari system called gramasanstha (ग्रामसंस्था)) that pre-existed the arrival of the Portuguese, but was codified by them. The term gram in gramasanstha refers to the village. Comunidades is the Portuguese word for "communities". The khazan system of managed wetlands in Goa is an offshoot of the gaunkari system, but now quite distinct from the comunidades.