If you care for Konknni, go by the ground reality... By Pratap Naik, S.J. pratapnai...@gmail.com
When the Sahitya Akademi of New Delhi gave recognition to Konknni there was no mention of the script it was to use, in the minutes. On 21 November 1981, the Advisory Board for Konknni, which consisted of a majority of Devanagari proponents, through their shrewd manipulative skills, recommended that Devanagari should be the script for Konknni. Since then, the Sahitya Akademi accepted Devanagari script as the official script of Konknni. Konknni speakers, writers and leaders of various other scripts were not consulted while taking such a major decision. There was no public debate to reach a consensus on this important issue of script. The entire process was a clandestine exercise of a few. Subsequently whenever the question of script was raised, the proponents of the Devanagari script silenced the voice of their opponents by vociferously proclaiming that the Sahitya Akademi had recognized Konknni only in Devanagari script! When Konknni was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India on 20 August 1992 there was again no mention made of its official script. The Sahitya Akademi's awards are given exclusively to books written in Devanagari script. Sahitya Akademi's recognition to Konknni first sowed the seed of division among the supporters of Konknni and supporters of Marathi. Secondly, it created a rift between supporters of Devanagari script and the supporters of other two major scripts of Konknni, namely, Roman and Kannada scripts. This gap is widening day by day. Prior to the recognition, these three groups lived and worked together with dignity. The Sahitya Akademi's recognition did more harm to the unity and harmony of Konknni than good! In 1985 the Goa Government-founded Goa Konkani Akademi (GKA). GKA was filled with Devanagari proponents and they interpreted Konknni to mean Konknni in Devanagari script. Till 2005, the GKA hardly did anything to fulfill its primary objective. In 2005, due to the demands of Roman script supporters, the Government ordered the GKA to give financial assistance to books written in Roman script as well. Since the inception of the Goa Konknni Akademi, not a single Roman script writer has been appointed as the President of it. The Kala Academy stopped giving awards to Konknni books written in Roman script from 1987. So far, not a single book published in the Roman script has been given a Sahitya Akademi award. Why is the Devanagari lobby silent about this injustice? They used Devanagari as a tool to suppress and oppress the minority community, to perpetuate their supremacy in the field of language and literature and to grab awards, felicitations, positions, jobs, power and government funds. On 4 February 1987, the Goa Legislative Assembly passed the Official Language Bill. In the Official Language Act (OLA), under definitions 2(c) it is stated that "'Konkani language' means Konkani language in Devanagari script." Who created this deliberate mischief to include the definition for Konknni? What was the need to include such a definition? The main objective of the State Language is to give preference to native speakers for government jobs. The OLA is biased towards one section of the Goan community. In Goa, for the purpose of securing government jobs, a knowledge of Konknni in the Devanagari script is essential and the knowledge of Marathi is desirable. With this policy those who know Konknni in the Devanagari script and Marathi are given preference for jobs. Due to this, the present OLA does not promote unity and harmony in Goa. Instead it has created disunity, mistrust and divisions in Goa. Prior to the passing of the OLA, the situation in Goa was much more cordial and friendly. It was falsely presumed that Konknni in the Devanagari script would promote unity in Goa. But the reality is that the Hindu community continues to use Marathi for religious services, education, the mass media and in cultural domains. In Goa neither the Hindu community nor the Catholic community has fully accepted Konknni in Devanagari script. It is nobody's baby, yet this unwanted baby is being artificially kept alive through generous grants of the government. In Goa, Konknni for oral communication and English for written communication will definitely unite all Goans -- irrespective of their caste, creed and region. Whatever may be the medium of instruction, the proponents of Devanagari script should have demanded from the government to make Konknni a compulsory subject in schools. So far they have not done so. Why? The reason is crystal clear. As per the OLA, Marathi has been safeguarded in educational, social and cultural fields. Therefore, Konknni cannot be made the compulsory language in Goa in schools. Fighting against granting the official status to Konknni in Roman script and cursing the impact of English in Goa will not help the cause of Konknni in Devanagari script. Rather it will lead to the natural death of the Konknni written in Devanagari so-called the 'natural script' of Konknni. In Karnataka Konknni is included in the school curriculum in the Kannada script. In this context, what prevents the Goa Government from recognising the Roman and Devanagari scripts as the official scripts of Konknni in education? In Goa, literate Hindus know the Devanagari script. Yet they prefer to read Marathi, and not Konknni. Some 10 Marathi dailies are sold in Goa. On the other hand, the single Konknni daily in Goa has very poor circulation after 25 years of its existence! Catholics who read Konknni prefer to read it in Roman script. Since liberation, Konknni in Devanagari script has not united the entire Hindu community. Why have the majority of the Hindu community which speaks Konknni rejected Konknni written in the Devanagari script? Konknni in the Devanagari script has failed to unite the majority and minority communities of Goa. Prior to Goa's liberation, written Konknni meant Konknni in Roman script. Spoken Konknni alone is the uniting factor in Goa. Konknni in the Devanagari script is kept alive mainly due to State and Central Governments grants. If the government stops, or if the Roman script is given the official status, will Konknni in Devanagari script survive? If Marathi, which is only a written language in Goa, has a place in the OLA, and Konknni in Devanagari script which the majority of Goans do not want, has secured a place in it, then Konknni Roman script which is the most popular has a right to be in the Goa's OLA. The question is not only of scripts but the dialects in use. Devanagari script is heavily dominated by the Antruji dialect of the Ponda region. The Roman script promoted by the Catholics use Bardeshi dialect of North Goa. Both these Konknni dialects vary at the phonetic, lexical, morphological, syntactic and semantic domains. Since Konknni is the language of identity, both these groups want to maintain their identity through their own different scripts and dialects. It is a language politics for identity (linguistic, cultural, social, psychological), power, prestige and economical control. The good of Goa and Goans is far more important than mere language, dialect or script controversy. Language, scripts and dialects have become emotional and cultural dimensions of people here in Goa. Those who care for Konknni should be open to the ground reality and not be led by mere theoretical idealism or language/script chauvinism. In democracy mutual respect, understanding and unity in multiplicity and other values must guide any action. According to a Hasidic saying, "The culture of the heart is greater than the culture of the mind." Konknni is primarily a language of the heart. -- A shorter version of this article was first published in Herald daily in Goa on Monday, 30 July 2012.