Konkani - the struggle, betrayal and reality
TGF

In 1963, a Sammelan (gathering) of pro-Marathi & Maharashtra activists took place in the South Goa capital of Margao. The following was reported to have been said at the meeting - and later reported in the Goa newspaper A Vida " Those who wish to keep Konkani as an independent language, are worshippers of darkness". Eleven pro-Konkani Goan men decide to confront the Marathi folks. After the initial verbal confrontation, a ruckus is reported to have erupted and the metal chairs were used to hammer the Konkani activists. One of them (an academic now in the US) had to be hospitalised for a prolonged period before he could recover.

The following collage of thoughts on Konkani are presented sans comment. TGF has edited the available material to suit web placement. TGF is letting the chips fall wherever they fall. Comment and critique is invited.
TGF   Jan 18, 2004]

[1]
Independent Goa Observer Jan 17, 2004
http://www.rajannarayan.com/goenkarponn.htm

Teotonio de Souza: <I was a young seminarian aged 20 at Rachol Seminary in 1967. The cultural atmosphere of the Seminary was marked by the efforts of the Jesuit priest, Vasco do Rego, in sanscritizing liturgical Konkani. >

[2]
The Goan Forum discussion list Jan 16, 2004
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Goa-Goans/message/14649

Godfrey Gonsalves :<At a motely gathering of 253 Hindu Saraswats... and a handful of others who owe allegience to the Sanskritised version of Konkani.. the new Konkani devanagiri script SUNAPARANT was re-launched by Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar. The Chief Minister remarked that he himself found difficulty in reading the newspaper and one needed to hold a dictionary to understand the context>

<(Mr. Parrikar) appealed to the Editor Mr Sandesh Prabhudessai to ensure that the newspaper is readable. Mr Prabhudesai assured that the language would be lowered and brought closer to reach the masses>

[3] 
Tehelka Oct 16, 2001 ( the following link is no longer available - Tehelka was near-destroyed by the BJP led Govt of the day, and is now available only as a subscription service)
http://www.tehelka.com/channels/literary/2001/oct/16/printable/lr101601hindipr.htm

Alok Rai:< Hindi has, over the years been used to counter the perceived or real "threat" posed by first Urdu and then English. En route it has been hijacked to serve the agendas of various factions, notably the upper castes. This has resulted in its degradation into an artificial language, a sort of "high Hindi" that is far removed from common speech>

<People are being represented fraudulently....there is a kind of Sanskritizing upper caste which is responsible for this>

<We are suffering under a politics which flows from this generalised sense of cultural humiliation. To me it is important to understand this feeling of hurt. To not lose sight of that, and to, as it were, bring it out in the open.>
 

[4]

Tehelka Oct 16, 2001
http://www.tehelka.com/channels/literary/2001/oct/17/printable/lr101701raipr.htm

Alok Rai:<When Gandhi came and talked about Hindi becoming the language of the national movement, he was speaking about one kind of Hindi. When Tandon in 1945 says: I am sorry, I cannot stop you from leaving the Hindi Sahitya Sammelan - something has happened to Hindi. There is another Hindi that has taken its place. Something has changed in the nature of Hindi.>
 

[5]

The Goan Forum discussion list December 30, 2003
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Goa-Goans/message/14484

TGF:<Further to what the good Goemcar Godfrey Gonsalves has posted about Konkani and the attempt to forcibly Sanskritize it (much like HINDI was), we are placing a provisional list of Konkani words which are being targeted by the Saraswat Revisionists for decapitation>

<Like in the case of Hindi - We will all be advised by alleged researchers and linguists that THIS (s-kokni) is the purest form of Konkani>
 

[6]
The Goan Forum discussion list Jan 9, 2003
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Goa-Goans/message/9638

Ben Antao: <I cannot for the life of me envision a Tamil or a Bengali person wanting to sanskritize his language. Ask yourself why....the motivation of Saraswat Goans to revise Konkani--it's the same motivation that drives the Hindutva agenda--let's keep the caste system at all costs>

<A language must make a person free, not subjugated. I would urge every Konkani lover to resist the revisionists and write Konkani in the script of their choice>

[6]
The Goan Forum discussion list Dec 19, 2003
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Goa-Goans/message/14342

Godfrey Gonsalves : <The real cause for Goans not accepting the Konkani language as widely as one could expect is because of the following factors :

*the present protagonists of the Konkani language the Hindu Saraswat Brahmins successfully promoted albeit clandestinely and using devious means --- the "sanskritised" version of konkani. This is NOT the Konkani spoken by the majority Hindu (Bahujan) lower castes or the Catholic and Moslems

* the devnagiri script was forced upon the majority Goans  - with a political view.

The conclusion of this gimmick played by the Hindu Saraswat Brahmins on the Goan masses ( Hindu (Bahujan) lower castes Muslims and Catholics ) is that it is only the 3% Hindu Saraswat Brahmins (who) can get employment (with) Government - jobs (where) today's terms employment is guranteed, lucrative and NO accountability. Entire families of Hindu Saraswat Brahmins clamour for these jobs.

(The Saraswat Brahmins) succeeded by fooling gullible politicians like Churchill Alemao, the Roman Catholic priests, and infact the entire Diocesan schools.

To (engineer) the acceptance of this sanskritised Konkani in devnagiri script by the masses, some Bahujan leaders, Catholic priests and tiatrists are propped up in Konkani Sammelan committees and other fora while the Hindu Saraswat Brahmins call the shots.

In fact it is the traditional pastime of this Hindu Saraswat Brahmin community to use the Catholics as the stepping stones to their success while the Hindu (Bahujan) lower castes have been historically exploited for centuries when even hot oil was poured into their ears for daring to read the scriptures.

Look at all the "posros" in the villages of Goa specially the Old Conquests they are run by Hindu Saraswat Brahmins>

 

[7]
The Goan Forum discussion list Nov 5, 2000
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheGoanForum/message/2978

Jorge de Abreu Noronha: <The "Fiction" section in GOA TODAY of May 2000 brought a "fascinating Konkani short story by N Shivdas, translated by Vidya Pai". The title of the story was "The Legacy" ("Yeraas"). Gurunath Kelekar, in his English-Konkani Dictionary (1997), registers "Yerans" as one of the meanings of "Legacy".

Now, where does "Yeraas" or "Yerans" come from? From the Portuguese word "Heranca" (pronounced "Heranssa", as the "c" has a cedilla). Any doubts about this? The same dictionary registers "figd" ("Figado" in Portuguese) and "liver" as the Konkani words for "liver", and "kaday" (from the Portuguese "cadeia") as one of the Konkani synonyms of "prison", "kodel" ("cadeira" in Portuguese) as one of the Konkani words for "chair", and "tebl" and "mez" (Portuguese: "mesa") for "table". And there are many more such examples of Konkanised Portuguese vocables, not only in the said Gurunath Kelekar's dictionary but also in the more recent (1999) 2-volume Konkani-English Dictionary by Suresh J Borkar, Mukesh P Thali and Damodar K Ghanekar. Still, there are those who say "That the Portuguese and their language had a presence in Goa for over 450 years doesn't really matter"! >

[8]

The Goan Forum discussion list Jun 25, 2000
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheGoanForum/message/947

Jose Colaco: < The KONKANI which Goans SPOKE and which many STILL SPEAK is NOT a dialect of MARATHI. Like Marathi, Konkani evolved from Prakrit.

In Goa, the Konkani evolved with the influence it had from Urdu (Golconda), Kannad (Vijaynagar), Marathi (Maharashtra) and Portuguese.

That was the language which was written in Roman script....until early 1970... (Goan Muslims still write their "Urdu" in the Roman script.)

There was NO plan by anybody in authority to do anything about Konkani as it was assumed that Goa would be merged with Maharashtra in 1967. Konkani would then be history.

That did not happen. What followed was period of active supression of Konkani and Statehood aspirations - Not so much anti-Konkani, as anti the folks who voted against merger.

The struggle for Statehood and Language came later on.

The Barbosa+Kakodkar fiasco contra the English Medium Schools ( mainly run by the Catholic Church ) followed.

Isn't it curious that priests preach at Mass today in Goa, in a language which is incomprehensible to a significant section of the parishioners.

Think about two points:

1. Over a period of time this Konkani can be replaced by the S-Konkani ...."language cleansing"

2. With church services incomprehensible, the faith of many would fall by the wayside. Many Catholics would be disinterested in the activities of the Church .

It was ALL falling into place UNTIL the Tiger which was brought in to politically destabilize One voting block, suddenly began to affect everyone.

That explains why THOSE who never supported Konkani in the 1980s, and even opposed it, are suddenly carrying the banner in 2000....and violently so

Sadly though, Goans have been duped and It is too late now!>

[9]

The Goan Forum discussion list Jun 21, 2000
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheGoanForum/message/905

Times of India:< While Konkani is written in Devanagri and Roman scripts in Goa, the government and all its affiliated bodies have refused to recognise Roman script.

The latest example is that of the Kala Academy rejecting a proposal to honour ailing Jesuit priest Father Anthony Pereira for his literature by giving him "Sharada Award". Fr. Pereira has to his credit more than 42 books, all in Roman script. Some of his books speak on the character and behavioural changes in human beings while others speak on religious philosophy.

Several authors and poets from Goa wanting to express their ideas and thoughts used Roman script for their Konkani literature while in Karnataka, they used Kannada script and Malyalam script in Kerala for years together.

For all these writers, it was difficult now to shift over to Devanagri Konkani. Since Devanagri script has been recognised as official, several literary personalities like Fr. Anthony Pereira have been pushed behind the wall and their work was not being taken a note of.

Konkani in Devanagri was included in the eighth schedule of the Constitution hurriedly when Suniti Kumar Chatterjeee was the chairperson of the Sahitya Academy, New Delhi, but the Academy did not take into consideration the existence and use of other scripts like Kannada, Roman or Malayalam.

The Konkani speaking population staying in Mangalore in Karnataka and Kerala therefore feel that Goa and Goans have cheated them by not taking into confidence when an important issue like the language was being thought of in 1987.

The three-men committee consisting of Arvind Bhatikar, Prabhakar Angle, and Pratapsingh Rane, chairman of the Kala Academy outright rejected the proposal on realising that it was for Roman script literature. The members (none of them with literature background) did not care to go through Fr. Pereira's literature.

The younger generation by and large has started rushing towards English thereby leaving Roman script advocates in total minority.

The Roman Catholic Church has started an independent centre called St. Thomas Stephens Kendra at Miramar to advocate the cause of Roman script but, in the eyes of law, Roman script has no place anywhere.

Neither Mangaloreans nor Kerala Goans can voice their grievance against the Devnagari script because politicians in the country in their own wisdom decided it alone without consulting anybody.>
 

[10]
The Goan Forum discussion list Jun 12, 2000
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheGoanForum/message/770

Fred Noronha:<Take the case of Konkani in Goa. It is claimed that this is the language of 95% of the people (nobody knows the source of this figure, claimed in the Official Language Act). Yet papers like the lone Konkani daily, SUNAPARANT, reported little more than a couple of thousand copies in sales for each issue.

All this is not to say, of course, that children in Goa should be learning as many languages as possible. They should learn, of their own free will, of course. Not due to compulsions from politicians and bureaucrats (who, of course, send their own children to English-medium schools).>
 

[11]
The Goan Forum discussion list Jun 10, 2000
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/TheGoanForum/message/724

Ben Antao:< If the people in India and Goa want to progress economically and materially they will have to be proficient in English. Imagine the millions of Indians who are illiterate in their own language, let alone in English! The middle class and the high caste study in English (the politicians send their children abroad to study) while the poor are deprived of the benefits of an English education.

If English is the working language of business in India, then the people should be exposed to it in the primary grades.

Sometimes, politics and emotions get in the way and distort our perspective. In Goa the Konkani zealots force the language on the people, and the government will give them grants to do so. In the meantime, the well-to-do send their children to private schools where English is the medium of instruction.

Grants should be given to all primary schools, irrespective of the language of the medium of instruction. Parents should have the right to send their children to the school of their choice, be it Konkani, Marathi, Hindi, Portuguese, English, French and Kanada.

For Konkani, the choice should be both in Roman and Devnagri scripts>

[12]
Post Script :
A Case For Roman Lipi For Indian Languages Jan 3, 2004
http://education.vsnl.com/mngogate/romanlipiparishad01.htm

Madhukar Gogate: <Roman script is also useful to teach Indian languages to the second and third generation children of Indian families settled outside India. These children are often unable to read any text in Indian scripts.

Already a North Indian feels like a foreigner when he sees nameboards in unfamiliar scripts while visiting South India. Multilingual countries like Canada and Switzerland use Roman script and are not split by scripts. Scripts have the potential to alienate people who are not familiar with these "strange" scripts>
 

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