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Happy New Year Twenty-Ten
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Vavraddeancho Ixtt: A household friend of Goans
Written by CLARA A RODRIGUES
Saturday, 02 January 2010 23:43
What started out on a mission of befriending the workers and sharing
their load has resulted into a medium of expression for countless in the
state of Goa, becoming their voice and leader in the process. We are
talking about Goa’s Konknni weekly newspaper ‘Vavraddeancho Ixtt’, which
will be celebrating 77 years on January 4.
As the wave of communism began to wield its ideology the world over,
workers in Goa were getting to be influenced by the high power and
uplifting speeches made by charismatic communist exponents. The knock-on
effects of communism were the questioning of established authority such
as religious institutions. In all this, it was the poor, hapless and
uninformed worker that found themselves caught in the cross fire of what
they believed and what they were now being called to believe in.
‘Vavraddeancho Ixtt’, that was initially run by the diocesan priests
took on the task of exposing the fallacies prevalent in the communist
propaganda.
The helm of affairs later passed on from the charge of the diocesan
priets to the hands of the Society of Pilar. A new phase in the
chronicles of ‘Vavraddeancho Ixtt’ had begun.
Now no longer is ‘Vavraddeancho Ixtt’ only a worker’s friend it has come
to win the confidence and acceptance as the people’s friend as well. It
started tackling a range of issues. From 200 subscribers, it touched 2,
000 explained Father Feroz Fernandes, the incumbent editor of
‘Vavraddeancho Ixtt’. “It was an achievement as during the 1940’s
literacy was not high in Goa. ‘Vavraddeancho Ixtt’ started writing on
delicate topics such as the communidade system, the caste system, etc.
Now it’s the voice of Goa. It enjoys a lot of credibility as its run by
an institution. It has supported various issues since then.”
Many are unaware that ‘Vavraddeancho Ixtt’, played a brave role in the
support of Goa’s freedom struggle, a role that angered the Portuguese
who then imposed clamps on the paper. Says Father Peter Raposo, former
editor of ‘Vavraddeancho Ixtt’, “It played the role of a nationalist
newspaper that the Portuguese tried to suppress before Goa’s liberation.”
With over 12, 000 subscribers, ‘Vavraddeancho Ixtt’ can safely claim its
readership to be surpassing 80, 000 after taking into account the number
of people sharing a copy in a family. It has also launched its online
edition that is being actively accessed in 30 nations. Apart from that,
the paper has joined the bandwagon of having social networking sites to
keep in touch with its vast audience.
With its initiatives of parish to parish subscription drives and
publicity drives, ‘Vavraddeancho Ixtt’ is hoping to increase its reach.
“There is so much scope to increase our readership. Our paper is not
limited to Catholics only. Many of our writers and readers are from
other religions as well”, says Father Feroz. “Since it is run by a
religious institution, it was thought to deal with just Church related
matters,” he elucidates.
Vernacular language newspapers have always been subjected to cavalier
treatment. Coupled with this lackadaisical attitude, the entry of
sophisticated media, cable TV for instance, has further created a dent
in the readership graph of vernacular newspapers. “Also the preference
to speak English is a threat,” says Father Feroz. He continues,
“Expressions in Konkani have a sharper resonance with your soul. The
message reaches down better to the audience when said in Konkani. The
issue of a language is deep, not airy.”
Father Raposo expresses his point of view. He says, “I was initially
confused about taking up the post of ‘Vavraddeancho Ixtt’s’ editor,
primarily because of the competitive nature of various other media,
dominating the course. But then I realised that the Konkani language has
a deep cultural root which people accept wholeheartedly.”
A little unknown fact also surfaces. ‘Vavraddeancho Ixtt’, although
primarily published in Konknni is registered as a multilingual
newspaper. Earlier, it used to be published in Konknni, Portuguese, and
English. Currently, it has a few columns in English too, and contrary to
belief that it is solely published in Konknni Roman lipi, it also
devotes space for articles and news in the Devanagari script.
Father Raposo interjects, “a script is limiting but we are not averse to
Devnagiri. If we have the infrastructure we can include it too. In fact
we publish articles in the Devnagiri script, but you must remember that
‘Vavraddeancho Ixtt’ started out as a Konknni Roman lipi paper.”
He ponders further, “it is tough to exist as a vernacular paper but we
are not cowed down and constantly try to reinvent ourselves, which we
have succeeded in doing so far. The newspaper is not running at a loss.
We make profits and we do not have to take loans to run it.” “But
subsidies are helpful and will always be welcomed,” adds Father Raposo.
As a paper run by the church we falter to take it to a professional
level. If we overcome this we can match the best. “We are not into
hardcore marketing,” he admits. The cause for Konknni has been taken up
by ‘Vavraddeancho Ixtt’ for the last 20 years. “It was not an issue when
Vavraddeancho Ixtt began,” says Father Feroz. “It began using the
language of the people. Vernacular languages the world over are dying.
In Goa, day to day parlances are filled with Konknni despite many
knowing English. And so it is imperative that we have literature in
Konkani,” he adds.
According to him, Konkani is a fighting language. He avers, “First it
fought with Portuguese, then Marathi, now it is with English.” Will
Konkani emerge a winner, this time too?
“It is not about the winner. The question here is do we want our
identity or not. We have a collective unconsciousness within us all. We
must preserve our identity and not wait for NRI missions to help
rediscover our Goan roots,” are Father Feroz’s parting words.
http://www.navhindtimes.in/buzz/6966-vavraddeancho-ixtt-a-household-friend-of-goans
