Title: English? Stop the sickness! By: Cyprian Fernandes Source: Goan Voice Daily Newsletter, Sunday 19 June 2011 at www.goanvoice.org.uk
WHAT is this madness, this lunacy that is driving illustrious men and women to put their bodies on the line against English as a medium of instruction in Goan schools? Surely this is not a religious thing? I mean 25% per cent of the population which is Catholic showing the vision for tomorrow for all? And is the vision being fought simply because it is ushered in by the minority Catholics? Surely we are not that backward or dumb in Goa, are we? Looking from the outside in, I can only shake my head in shame. English is spoken by between 470 million and one billion people worldwide. In India, 125 million speak English. Most of them are second and third language speakers. English is today's global language. The battle has waged against the English language for centuries but time has always declared it the victor of the controversy. Hence the current battles being fought in Goa to stop the funding of schools where English is the medium of instruction is nothing new. In fact, the battle over languages has been simmering in India for many generations. The most celebrated of course is the Hindi-Urdu divide which spilt much blood before a resolution of sorts was arrived at. At various points in history, Hindi and Urdu were given equal recognition. To this day, there are people in India who are still not satisfied with the split that sent Urdu north to Pakistan and retained Hindi (Hindustani) in India. After all the battles, all the blood, it is ironic that English has made such inroads in India and is the second national language of Pakistan. It is almost a status symbol to speak English among families. The battle for Konkani was no less illustrious. Marathi always claimed Konkani as its dialect, resulting in both sections of Goans at war for many decades. Things became worse as the Portuguese made their language the official and social lingua franca. It was also the official language of the Catholics. Marathi was the language of the Hindus. Finally, on 4 February 1987, the Goa Legislative Assembly passed the Official Language Bill making Konkani the Official Language of Goa. After much blood and martyrs, Konkani won its day. For someone outside looking in the decision to fund English as a medium of instruction is a no brainer and to oppose it one would have to be living in the dark ages or be irrelevant in today's world. It is a simple decision that should have been made 50 years ago. So go global with English, stay local with Konkani. In June 1976, the apartheid South African government decreed that Afrikaans was to be the language of instruction in schools as opposed to English. There was a momentous uprising by students in Soweto and the police response resulted in as many as 200 children dead and many more hundreds injured. The student action came at a time when the black campaign for freedom was a lull and soon the fires of freedom were burning in every black soul, thanks to the brave students. The rest is history and it is not unfair to say that modern South Africa owes much to the child heroes of Soweto. Today, English reigns supreme in South Africa. History records other battles for supremacy of one language over another. In all these battles, there is a common thread for the winning language: the loser loses bits or parts of its culture. Overseas Goans who have replaced Konkani with English and have become one language families must feel a subconscious, or even a conscious, distancing from the old country. I mean there is a certain cultural heritage (you may say cultural cringe) in thinking in Konkani. Perhaps over time we may have thrown the cultural baby with the English bathwater because the current of the English language was overwhelming. I mean if we really care we could always learn Konkani. Let us hope that the so called Freedom Fighters do not attempt to sabotage democracy by going on a hunger strike. Comments to Cyprian Fernandes: skip...@live.com.au