Official Languages of Goa by Pratapananda Naik, S.J.

 

Official Languages of Goa

Pratapananda Naik, S.J.

The editorial of Goa Today in the October 2013 issue under the title 'Colonising' Romi has aptly and correctly analysed the issue of Konknni in Goa. Mr. Vinayak Naik, though not a linguist, yet understood the real issue involved in Devanagari Konknni (DK) and Romi Konknni (RK). It has to be read by every lover of Konknni to understand the 'deeper structure' and under currents of Konknni. There is no doubt that one script for a language is the ideal situation. Till date Devanagari script and DK has not brought any unity of Konknni both outside and inside of Goa. In fact it has divided the Konknnis (Konknni speakers).  Roman script alone will bring the true unity among Konknnis.  For the survival and growth of Konknni to accept Roman script as the official script of Konknni will be a wise and realistic decision. Proponents of Devanagari script are harping on that Roman script is a foreign script and for Konknni which is an Indian language, should have the Indian script. If this is true then why are they wear trousers, shirts, and eat cashew, papaya, chikku, pineapples, custard apples, potatoes, chilly, tomatoes, cabbage, beetroot, carrot and many other fruits and vegetables not of Indian origin but brought to India by the missionaries? Why they do not reject railways, post, wireless, TV, radio, computer, mobile, cinema, motorcycles, cars, aeroplanes, printing press and many other objects and technologies of foreign origin? Why do they reject only Roman script as of foreign origin? The answer is given by Mr. Vinayak in his editorial.  He says, "that the proponents of single script for Konkani have a very self-centred agenda is beyond question. It is so obvious that their sole aim is to disallow the apportioning of their 'ill gotten gains' with their Romi-Konkani favouring partners of the Konkani movement. In his editorial Mr. Vinayak has revealed many hard truths about Devanagari script proponents.

Script is different from language. Konknni written in Roman script which is popularly known as Romi Konknni (RK) is quite different from Devanagari Konknni (DK). Prior to the liberation of Goa, Konknni meant RK only. RK and DK are not mere two different scripts but they represent two different dialects and cultures of Konknni. The present day DK in its written form is highly influenced by Marathi vocabulary, pronunciation, syntax, morphology and orthography. Hence it is rightly labelled as a dialect of Marathi. DK smells more of Marathi than the flavour of Konknni and has innumerable errors. Hence instead of teaching and learning DK in schools, learning of RK is far more beneficial to students.

 

The Portuguese were invited in 1509 to conquer Tiswadi from Adil Shah of Bijapur by two Bamonns of Goa, namely, Timoja Nayak and Mhal Pai Vernekar! They wanted to overthrow Adil Shah and gradually establish their own Bamonn rule. Thus these two Bamonns and their colleagues were responsible to bring the Portuguese to Tiswadi and later to modern day Goa. During the Portuguese rule from 1510 to 1961, Bamonns of Goa learnt the Portuguese language and benefited from the Portuguese rule for education, jobs and other areas of life. With the arrival of the Portuguese Roman script and the printing press came to Goa. Up to 1987, Romi Konknni and Marathi were the two Indian languages which were popular in Goa as written languages and used for all spheres of life such as religious, spiritual, cultural, literature, educational, etc. Marathi was used as a written language in Goa at least from the fifteenth century.

 

Portuguese missionaries were the first one to start the written tradition to Konknni in 1556. They used the Roman script to write and print Konknni. Since then Romi Konknni developed as a written language. Till then Konknni was only a spoken language and it had no written tradition. But a few Bamonns of Devanagari Konknni proponents have created a myth saying that the first inscription of DK is found in an inscription of 12^th century at the foot of Bahubali’s statue at Shravanabelagola, Karnataka! All the known scholars and linguists have said that the inscription is in Marathi. In Tanjavore temple in Tamil Nadu there are plenty of Marathi inscriptions in Devanagari script. Due to various Maharashtrian kings, Marathi language had reached in certain parts of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.

 

In 17^th century whatever literature which Portuguese destroyed was either Marathi or Sanskrit and not definitely Konknni. How could they destroy Konknni literature which never existed? The myth that the Portuguese destroyed Konknni literature written in Modi, Halekannada script and Devanagari script was created by a section of Bamonn Community of Goa to hide their inferiority complex. They have created enough myths to prove that their community and the actual production and imaginary production of their community are superior, pure, holy, and standard.

 

In 1987 a Konknni dialect (Devanagari Konknni) of approximately 2% of Goans, namely Bamonn community was declared as the Official Language of Goa through their manipulative methods! Devanagari Konknni was created in 20^th century by Vaman Varde Valavlikar, popularly known as Shanai Gõybab who lived and died in Mumbai. A few leaders of this 2% Bamonn community used this Devanagari Konknni to get recognition from Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi as an independent literary language in 1975 with the active support of Romi Konknni. In 1981 they convinced the Sahitya Akademi to accept the Devanagari script as the only official script of Konknni. They did this to have their sole control in the literary, educational, cultural, social and later on in the administrative fields. The Bamonn Community promoted the Devanagari Konknni to have an upper hand over the Catholic Community and Hindu Bahujan Samaj which identified with Marathi. Though the Bamonn Community widely uses Marathi still they promoted Devanagari Konknni and not Marathi because the Marathi used by them and the Bahujan Samaj is identical and it is influenced by the standard Marathi. The Bamonn Community knew very well that Marathi will not give them the greater advantage over the Bahujan Samaj. To suppress, oppress and subdue the Bahujan Samaj and the Catholic Community, the Devanagari Konknni was created and vociferously promoted. It was a Machiavellian or Chanakya’s conspiracy hatched by a section of the Bamonn Community to impose their dialect under the garb of the Devanagari script as the standard language over the rest of the Goans!

 

This minority Bamonn community very well knew that the Catholic Community and the Bahujan Samaj will not unite to fight against their hidden agenda. A section of the Bamonn Community put fear in the mind of the Catholic Community by saying that if they demand Romi Konknni, then Konknni will not become the Official Language of Goa, instead Marathi the language of Maharashtra will become the Official Language and Goa might be eventually merged with Maharashtra and thus Goa will loose its own identity! Bamonn leaders brain washed the Catholic Community leaders who were members of the Konknni Porjecho Avaz (KPA) to accept the Devanagari Konknni as the Official Language of Goa. The leaders of the Catholic Community reluctantly accepted this proposal to prevent Marathi to occupy the status of the Official Language. KPA was funded and supported to a large extent by the Romi Konknni supporters. The vast majority of Romi Konknni users were under the impression that their Konknni will become the Official Language. When the Language Bill was passed on 4 February 1987, the Catholic Community realized that they were cheated and betrayed. Paul did the hard labour and Pandurang reaped the fruit! The vast majority of the Hindu Community, especially the Bahujan Samaj which was using Marathi for educational, social, cultural, religious and in other domains of lives too felt that their language and their community was reduced to the status of second class in their own State of Goa.

 

Till date the DK has not been fully accepted by the all members of Bamonn Community members for written purpose! They either use Marathi or English for written communication!  Both the Catholic Community and the Hindu Bahujan Samaj have not accepted the DK which is labelled by a few as Bamonni Konknni. In Goa literate Hindus know the Devanagari script. Yet they prefer to read Marathi and not DK. The Hindu community in Goa speaks Konknni but prefers to read and write in Marathi. 10 Marathi dailies are sold in Goa. While the single DK daily in Goa has very poor circulation after 27 years of its existence! Catholics who read Konknni prefer to read RK. Since liberation, DK has not united the entire Hindu community. Why the majority of the Hindu community which speaks Konknni has rejected DK? DK has failed to unite the Hindu and Christian communities of Goa. Prior to Goa’s liberation, written Konknni meant RK. DK is rejected both by the Hindu and Christian communities. DK survives on State and Central Governments’ grants, projects, schemes and advertisements. DK is a parasite, which lives with the support of a few members of Catholic and Bahujan Samaj communities. On the other hand the RK and Marathi have the popular support of the people. They have survived and will survive without State and Central Governments’ support. Marathi Plays, sale of dailies, periodicals, books, DVDs, number of Marathi schools prove the fact that though the Bahujan Samaj speaks a dialect of Konknni, they do not accept it as an independent language, rather they consider it as an oral language and a dialect of Marathi. Till 1987, for the Bahujan Samaj, Konknni meant Romi Konknni. In Romi Konknni Tiatrs, weeklies and periodicals, DVDs are very popular. 

 

DK though lacks popularity and support of the people, it has been forced on Goans as the Official Language! It has created division, intellectual vacuum and harm in every area of life of the Goans. Due to DK, the social unity of Goa is shattered and stunted. Even after 27 years of the Official Language status, DK has not yet become popular and it has been rejected at all levels by the majority of the Goan Community. The proponents of DK promote the fascist principle, “One language, one script, one community”. This principle is against the Constitution of India which promotes “Unity in diversity”. 

 

To undo the great harm caused by DK and its proponents to the Goan Society and to foster social unity in Goa, Romi Konknni and Marathi proponents should come together on a common platform to jointly demand for the change in the Official Language Act 1987. The time has come for the Bhaujan Samaj and the Catholic Community to come together to build a stronger, peaceful and united Goa. Up to now the proponents of Marathi and Romi Konknni were independently demanding to change the Official Language Act to obtain the official status for RK and Marathi. In the past politicians promised them but did not fulfill their promises. Even the present Chief Minister before coming to power had promised both the groups that if his party (BJP) comes to power, he will do justice to both Marathi and Romi Konknni. Now he has conveniently forgotten his own promise. Hence now the time has come for proponents of RK and Marathi to fight together for their rights. The Official Language Act 1987 has played havoc in Goa and divided Goans and created hatred towards the native languages. They should demand from the Goa Government, Ruling Party’s MLAs, Opposition Party’s MLAs, MPs of Goa to change the Official Language Act 1987 and pass a new bill which declares Romi Konknni and Marathi as the Official Languages of Goa.

 

In democracy the just and lawful demands of the majority should be respected and fulfilled. We earnestly call upon the Goans to set aside their past prejudices and to support MRA and RKA to make Romi Konknni and Marathi as the Official Languages of Goa to unite the Catholic Community and the Hindu Community. A few states in India have more than one language as the Official Languages. For Example in Bihar: Hindi and Urdu; in Uttar Pradesh: Hindi and Urdu; in Haryana: Hindi and Punjabi; in Andhra Pradesh: Telugu and Urdu; in Delhi: Hindi, Urdu and Punjabi; in Jharkhand: Hindi, Santhali and Mundari; in Tripura: Kokborok and Bengali; Daman and Diu: Marathi and Gujarati.

 

Ultimately, in future, besides English, RK and Marathi will continue to be the major written languages of Goa. In this background, the Official Language Act has to be changed for the benefit of all Goans. If Romi Konknni and Marathi become the Official Languages of Goa then both the Catholic Community and the Hindu Community can live peacefully with unity and friendship. Let us make this dream a reality without further delay. Those who care for Goa should be open to the ground reality and not be led by mere theoretical idealism or language phobia. In democracy mutual respect, understanding and unity in multiplicity must guide any action. According to a Hasidic saying, “The culture of the heart is greater than the culture of the mind”. In Goa, for the Catholic Community Romi Konknni and for the Hindu Bahujan Samaj Marathi are primarily linked to languages of the heart.