In defense of our Heritage

Jorge de Abreu Noronha

a WORLD GOA DAY - 2002 message

The concept of "Heritage" is very vast. In Portugal we know the Built Heritage (monuments, buildings), Landscape Heritage (the natural landscape of the Sintra Ridge of Mountains and others) and the Historical Centres of some cities, classified as being of municipal or national interest and even as World Heritage Sites under the aegis of UNESCO.

Our own little Goa also has its conglomeration of convents and churches of Old Goa classified as World Heritage Monuments by UNESCO and placed by the Government under the jurisdiction of the Archaeological Survey of India.

However, the concept includes also a people's typical culture and language which it is up to the population to cherish and protect, under the risk of these traits of its identity getting diluted and even disappearing with the passage of time.

This is particularly important in what concerns our Goan, Damanese, Diuese, Dadraite and Nagar-Haveliite cultures and languages, more and more seriously threatened (mainly in respect of Goa) by the unrestricted and unregulated influx of people from the neighbouring states (and not only from these) - persons whom the resident Goans call bhaile (= from outside) - and also by the day-to-day bigger emigration of genuine Goans whose second and third generations go on losing contact with their origins.

These thoughts come à propos the coming celebrations of "Goa Day".  Thanks to an opportune initiative of UK-based Rene Barreto in 1999, the yearly celebrations of a Goa Day became a reality as from the year 2000 wherever there are Goans and descendants of Goans, be it in cities, towns and villages of Goa be it in the diaspora.

And I suppose that everybody will remember why August 20 was chosen as the ideal date for these celebrations:

to honour the day when our language - one of the main ingredients of our identity as people - "came of age" (if I may say so) upon being included in the 8th schedule of the constitution of India and being in this way recognised as one of that country's national languages.

I take pride - if you allow me - in being the one who proposed that date which, being seconded by the US-based Patrick de Sousa, was accepted by all the members of the various Goan internet d-lists and fora.

If memory does not fail me, the shape of the first celebrations in 2000 were left to the criterion of each group of celebrants. Those of 2001 had Solidarity as theme; and, as August 19 was a Sunday, it was to this day that the celebrations were anticipated, and it was then that for the first time the GOA DAY was celebrated in Lisbon, with the presence of over a hundred persons at the "Casa de Goa" restaurant terrace.

Let us this year dedicate our celebrations in a special way to the Defense of our Cultural Heritage. The Porvorim-based Goa Heritage Action Group is going to mark the occasion with a theatrical piece in English and with Konkani poetry reading at a (not yet officially recognised) historical site - the 16th century "Betim Cross" which is in a dilapidated state and the Group is bent in recuperating for posterity.

Let us all honour in whatever way we can our avoi-bhas (our mother tongue) Konkani. It is true that many of us in the diaspora, especially those of the second and later generations - born far from the small state of Goa and many of them with difficulty to maintain contact with their roots, as said above -, do not know to write and sometimes even to speak in that language and, of those who do write, most do it in the Roman script, while this script is unfortunately being banished in Goa, affecting adversely - for example - the tiatrs which have traditionally been written in "Romi Konknni" by Christian tiatrists.

But, irrespective of whether we know or not the language of our land, it is unquestionable that amchi bhas (our language) constitutes the basis of our "Goanness" and, even if only for this reason, we are duty bound to promote its preservation and development.


And why do I say that Goa Day - 2002 should give special relevance to our language (without forgetting those of the other territories which made up the former Portuguese Estado da India)?

At least for three very strong reasons:

* this is the year of the 15th anniversary of the "Official Language Act" by which Konkani was made the official language of Goa by the respective Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly) on February 4;

* the 15th anniversary (also) of Goa Statehood on May 30 - a status which was not attainable if the territory did not first have its own official language;

*and the 10th anniversary, on August 20, of the unanimous approval, by the two houses of the Indian Parliament, of the law which included our language in the 8th schedule of the Constitution.


In Portugal, from where I am writing, there is a further motive: it was in
May 1987 that an association of Goans, Damanese, Diuese, Dadraites and Nagar-Haveliites was informally constituted with the name of "Casa de Goa", later on legalised by notarial deed on July 15 of the same year.

This is therefore the year of its 15th anniversary. The Goa Day - 2002 is therefore going to be celebrated in Portugal, with events on August 16, 17 and 20, as Goa, Daman and Diu Day (Note: As in the context of the erstwhile Portuguese Estado da India Dadra and Nagar Haveli were part of the District of Daman, for us residents of Portugal the term "Daman" includes those two enclaves which were annexed by India and transformed into a "Union Territory" on August 11, 1961 - months before the takeover of Goa, Daman and Diu).

May I be permitted to recall here what I wrote in the special edition of Casa de Goa's Newsletter in November 2001: "...It is to be noted that the culture of Goa is not the same as that of Daman or Diu nor the same as that of Dadra and Nagar Haveli...

We have to bear in mind that, if the roots of us all are Indian (on which the Portuguese cultural values were implanted with bigger or lesser perfection, thus creating cultures that are perchance different from those of the rest of India), the identity of the Goans comes mainly from their Konkani ancestry, that of the Damanese and Diuese from their Gujarati substratum and that of the Dadraites and Nagar-Haveliites from their Marathi basis".


In what concerns the language, many Goans, especially the Christians and in a particular manner those in the diaspora, resent the fact that, when Konkani gained the status of a national language in India, it was approved that only Devnagri would be accepted as its true and legal script.

A year ago I upheld that, our mother tongue being the only one that is written in six or more scripts (which is one of its richest traits), we should struggle for the official recognition of this richness. I remember having then been strongly contested from various quarters.

I am therefore happy with the recent news that the Government of Karnataka had decreed that in that state the official script for Konkani would be Kannada and none else.

Why then can we not have the Roman Konkani legalised in Goa?

Let us face the facts squarely and honestly: in Karnataka (Mangalore, Karwar, etc.) Konkani is written in Kannada, in Tulu in some other area of the same state (bordering the Kerala state), in Malayali in Kochi, in Gujarati and Urdu in Gujarat; then why not in Devnagri and Roman in Goa?


Let us be proud of being not only Goans but also Konkanis; and let us honour our bhas, whatever be the script in which we write it. And let us endeavour to learn (those who do not know) or to improve the knowledge of (those who do) the Konkani language. Vaman Ragunath Shennoy Varde Valaulikar, better known by his pen name Shennoy Goembab, who devoted the last twenty years of his life to research the language, literature and history of the Konkanis, was able to prove that Konkani is not a dialect of Marathi but an independent language and, indeed, born much before Marathi (I beg my Dadraite and Nagar-Haveliite readers - as well as other defenders of Marathi - to forgive this my public assertion).

Let therefore each one of us cherish his/her language as one of the most prized treasures of the people to whom he/she belongs. And let us bear in mind that this is also the year of the 125th birth anniversary of Shennoy Goembab, it being therefore celebrated in Goa as "Goan asmitai year" or year of Goan identity.


Let us all hold hands to celebrate our languages and our cultures and in this way contribute towards the preservation and defense of our cultural heritage.

Jorge de Abreu Noronha
Oeiras - Lisboa, August 10, 2002

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