The article represents wishful thinking : the horse has long left the
stable. The language of Goa now is Marathi. Suryaprant outsells all other
dailies put together. Mr. Bandodkar dreaded the very thought of Karnataka, and
his prediction of the onslaught has come true. I remember the party manifesto
posted on walls in 1961: one could term it hate, but in the greater context of
our old and complex history, it was logical thinking for a social group that
had
only just evicted one alien hegemony. To witness the passion, one needs only
to travel a few miles to Belgaum, where a Maratha majority seethes under Dravid
domination. This is what drives our socio-polity. The die has now been cast,
and
the Goan Hindu has had the last word. eric.
--
The second thing is that when we are imminently in the process of deciding the
medium issue, why should we not discard Marathi? It will only be Konkani which
will be taught in Goan schools though Marathi could be taken as an optional
third language. Since we did not cede to Maharashtra in the past, those that
take pride in calling themselves Goans should not have a problem in discarding
Marathi.
We have to do this at this juncture and there is no point in persisting with
Marathi. The logic that the Marathi language gives the Hindu community their
fount of art and culture is clearly a misguided notion. Many of the people who
gave Marathi its culture in the fine arts were Goans like Bakibab Borkar,
Jitendra Abhisheki, Mogubai Kurdikar,Kesarbai Kerkar, Kishori Amonkar, the
Mangeshkar music family and many others.
An example for this can be taken from among the Konkani people themselves who
were forced to flee Goa when the Portuguese came to Goa. The majority of these
people settled along the coastal regions of Karnataka and Kerala. Over time
this
community has contributed in a major way to the life in these two states.
Nowhere have these people forsaken the Konkani language. But for some
introduction of Kannada and Malayalam words which have slopped into the Konkani
language there has been no large-scale corruption of their mother tongue. The
konkani people settled in these areas have gone ahead and adapted the local
language script and are writing Konkani in the Kanada and Malayalam scripts.
In contrast in Goa the Hindu people were quick to forsake their mother tongue
and adopt Marathi. The time to correct this aberration has come and we should
for the future have only one official language - KONKANI and English. Just
paying lip service to Konkani will not suffice and the average Konkani person
in
Goa should put their hand on their hart and support Konkani wholeheartedly.
[The writer is a resident of Alto Betim]
COMMENTS:
I salute Srinivas Kamat for having a square head on his shoulders for a Hindu
Goan. As a matter of fact, I have heavily contradicted his piece of 8th May,
2011 regarding the Portuguese apology to Goa. Therefore it must be remembered
that I do not fight people. I fight issues. And I have reminded Srinivas Kamat
when he thought that he had lost a friend. For me friendship is one thing and
issues another thing altogether. Having said that, I have highlighted the
portions in the above piece where my comments are warranted. Konkani
compulsorily taught up to X class is what it should be. We must go with Konkani
and English side by side together, with Konkani as the MOI in the primary
section and English as a subject for smooth transition to the secondary level.
Marathi has no meaning in all this as far as education and MOI is concerned.
Marathi is the religious language of the Hindus of Goa like Latin was for the
Catholic Christians in Goa. It would be a shame to call Marathi as Goa's mother
tongue. And whereas the Catholic Christian community of Goa is patriotic to
their motherland Goa, the Hindus of Goa are not. This is because the Catholic
Christians have jettisoned Latin as their religious language and adopted their
liturgy in Romi Konkani. Why the Goan Hindus have not done likewise is because
the root cause lies in what Adv. Amrut Kansar has publicly said at the TB Cunha
Hall some time ago at a meet when the Curchorem/Savordem first time communal
riots was being discussed. What he said was this "" BAHUSAHEB BANDODKAR
IMPORTED
HINDU BHATS FROM MAHARASHTRA TO POISON THE MINDS OF GOAN HINDUS" As far as I
know, it was not Bandodkar as much as his mentor Janardhan Shinkre who is
responsible for all this. That the Goan Hindu community by and large is
definitely not patriotic to GOA was declared when the Opinon Poll was declared
when such malafide thing shouldn't have ever happened to Goa. As to who
poisoned
Indira Gandhi's mind into declaring this vile Opinion Poll, there is not doubt
at all.
Further to my salutations, I congratulate Srinivas Kamat for having openly
shown
his patriotism to Goa and for being a thoroughbred Goan Hindu. Hop
