ROMI ANI NAGRI: MENDDREAM MODEM LANDDGEANK KOXE PORIM PARKHUN GHEVCHE

borovpi Jason Keith Fernandes ani Dale Luis Menezes

 

Romi lipientlea sahityak Kala Academy-che puroskar favo korche, oslea vidhanak halinchea disamni khub tenko mellunk lagla. Hi bori gozal oxem ami mandtat. Punn oslim vidhanam ami bariksannen niyallpachi goroz asa. Amcho Avaz-acher uzvaddak ailolo Prabhakar Timble-cho lekh “Romi Lipi, Puroskar ani Virodh” (12 Otubr 2013) hacho ami chodd korun ul’lekh kortanv.

Romi lipient boroilolea sahityak puroskar divpacho Kala Academy-chea nirnnoyak Timble aplo tenko dita-so dista, tori Romi lipiek Rajbhas Kaideant manachem sthan dilear nagri lipiechem sthan haltolem – hi bhirant tachea lekhachea eka bhagant disun yeta: “Raj’jea bhas Gõyant mandun ghetlea ti Devnagri. Zannar ani uzvaddit monachea sogllea somazantlea fuddareanchea teagank lagon ho vixoy suttlolo asa.” Bariksannen ami zori pollelem tor Romi lipientlea pattlavdarank Romi lipi Rajbhas Kaideant zai, tankam aple lipiek man zai. Romi lipient boroilolea sahityak puroskar, ho mud’do kednanch mullavo asonk na.

Romi lipientli Konknni bhov adli Konknni ani tantunt Konknni sonvskrutayecho pormoll asa. Punn jea disa Rajbhas Kaido ‘pass’ zalo tea disachean  Romi lipiecher onit zait asa ani Romi lipiek chidd’dun dovorpache proitn chaluch asat. Nagri lipient boroiloli Konknni zori-i ami rajbhas mhunn mandun ghetat tori Gõyant, Morattikui Rajbhas Kaideant zago mell’lloun dila dekhun Gõyant don rajbhaso nirmann zaleat. Hea pasot Nagri Konknnink ‘official’ zago mell’lla ho mud’do azun pasun ‘settled’ zal’lo na. Khoreponnim, jem chitr Timble amkam dakhoita tem ostitvant asa oxem ami mhonnonk xekonant. Choddan-chodd Bahujan Somazantle vangddi  Nagri Konknnik mandun ghenant karonn Nagri Konknni mhollear ek bamonnvadachem hatiyar ani tem gheun tancher vhoddponnan raj cholovpacho ek proyotn zaun asa, oxem tankam dista. Bahujan Somazantle vavurpi Romi Konknni hich khori Konknni mhonn ghoddiye svikarit, punn Nagri Konknnik mat te kednanch svikarchenant.

Nagri lipiechem sthan asa toxench urche khatir aplea lekhant Timble, huxarkayecho vapor korun, kaim mud’de ghusoyta. Je vichar Timble porgott korta tosleach vichara bhonvtonnim khub pavtti Nagri ani Moratti vavurpi ekttaim zaun Romi lipiechea pattlavdaranche virud’dh ube ravleat ani ravtat. Timble amkam sagunk sodta ki Nagri Konknnik Rajbhas korpachea vavrant “zannar ani uzvaddit monachea...fuddareanche[m]” yogdan asa mhonn. Hacho orth oso zata ki Romi lipieche patlavdar he zannar ani uzvaddit monis nhoi mhunnon, ani te dusvas ghalunk ani ekvott ibaddunk fuddem sorleat mhunnon. Punn Konknnint ekvott ani ekchar kednanch naslolo karonn Nagrivadeamni her lipientlea Konknnicher dhapnnem dovorlolem asa. Hachi govai mhollear: Poilem, Kala Academy ani Goa Konkani Akademi heo sonvstha Romintlem sahitya puroskaram khatir svikar korinasleo. Dusrem, tiatr ani romansik dorzo na mhunn hinnsavpacho Nagrivadeamcho vavr.

Timble aplea lekhant fuddem sangta ki Romi lipi ek “itihasacho opsoeg” vo akxident zaun asa mhunn. Osleach dhoronnank lagun, jim raxttravadi itihasantlean upzotat, Romi lipiek koddek dovorlea oxem mhollear otitay zavchina. Him oslim dhoronnam khub bhirankull zaunk xoktat kiteak tancho orth oso zata ki Konknni bhaxechea ani sonvskrutechea udorgotichea rosteachi vatt poilinch savn toyar kelolich asli. Dusrem, Purtugez vosnnukponn chukun zalem ani taka itihasant fokot chukun zago mell’llo. Oslench chintop tor ami fuddem vhorot zalear, Timble-chea vicharantlean, Kristanv dhorm ani tea kallar zalolim dhormantoram itihasik opghat zatat?

Timble ghoddiye sangunk sodta ki ami he osle itihasik opghat somzun ghevunk zay mhunnon punn osleach vicharantlean Romi Konknniche sonvskrutayek Gõychi khori sonvskrutay mhunn mandun ghevunk addkholli haddloleo amkam disti poddtat. Gõycho sorkar zori Purtugez vosnnuponnachea kallantlean suru zal’leo kaim sonvskrutayeo svikarun gheta, tori teo nem’ nhoi punn advad (exceptions) mhunnon svikarleleo amkam disti poddtat. Ani haka lagon raxttr-somudayechea nodrentlean Katolik mhollear bhaile/videshantle (foreigners) mhunnon somoz zata. Timble aplo lekh sompoiche poilim boroita: “‘Ek bhas, ek lipi, ek somaz’ hem sopon vaitt nhoi. Punn hem ideal sopon sakar zavpacho azun vell pavonk na.” Nagrichea her pattlavdaram porim, Timble-i sotman’ta ki veglleponn ek addkholl zaun asa ani tem pusun udounk zai mhunnon. Hantuntlean amcheamni niyallunk zata ki Timblechea oslea sopnant soglle Hinduch astole mhunnon.

Timblecho lekh chotrayen vachlea uprant tantuntlean Romi lipientle Konknnicho hok’k ani Rajbhas Kaideant ‘official’ zago hea vixim jeo magnneo asat teo vollkhun gheupacho proitn kelolo disti poddonam. Bhaxeche podvechi (linguistic power) tagddi Moratti ani Romi Konknniche vatten halchi nhoi mhunnon Timblecho ho lekh borovpa fattlo hetu zaun asa. Eke vatten Romi Konknni fattlean tiche visvaxi pattlavdar sodankal urben ube asat, zalear dusre vatten Nagri Konknnik oslo tenko mell’lolo amkam matui disti poddona. Hachem karonn mhollear Nagri Konknni hi ek addechi (artificial) rochna ani he rochnnen Romi Konknnik ani Bahujan Somazak chidd’dun uddoila. 

(Ho lekh Amcho Avaz-acher uzvaddak aila, tarik: 16 Novembr, 2013)

For the English version of this article see here. 

THE BATTLE OF THE KONKANIS: SEPARATING WOLVES FROM THE LAMBS

by Jason Keith Fernandes and Dale Luis Menezes

Context:

In 1987 subsequent to mass demonstrations composed overwhelmingly of bahujan Catholics the legislature of the Union Territory of Goa, Daman and Diu recognised Konkani in the Nagari script as the official language of Goa. This recognition of script was used to privilege a brahmanical project of fixing the identity of Konkani in the Nagari script alone, sidelining in this process the more vibrant and older tradition of writing Konkani in the Roman script, and its largely Catholic users. Consequently, a movement for the official recognition of Konkani in the Roman script emerged as a result of a systematic campaign of suppression of cultural and literary productions in the Roman script. More recently, with the Kala Academy,the premier state-supported cultural body announcing awards for literature in the Roman script, it is being maintained by some that the Roman script may in fact destabilize the status-quo that favours the Nagari script (and therefore brahmanical hegemony), leading to a number of persons coming out seemingly making concessions to the Roman script. One such overture was made by Prabhakar Timble in The Navhind Times, Goa. Timble is a legal expert as well as the former State Election Commissioner of Goa.

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The recent statements of support in favour of the continuation of awards reinstituted by the Kala Academy for literary works in Roman script will possibly bring good cheer for the votaries of this script. However, it is important that these statements of support be examined for their logic, rather than the superficial support they seem to offer. In proposing this course of action, reference is particularly being made to the opinion piece, “Promoting Konkani Language Culture” by Prabhakar Timble in The Navhind Times dated 15 October, 2013.

While Timble seems to be supporting the recent decision of the Kala Academy to offer literary works in the Roman script to obtain awards, his real fear is that the status quo as regards the place of Konkani in the Nagari script will be upset if the demands of the Roman script activists is allowed to go further. This fear is clearly evident in his statement: “The official language accepted in Goa is Konkani in ‘Devanagiri’ script. This is a settled issue because of the sacrifice and enlightened minds of the leaders of all communities.” Indeed, the core of the demand of the Roman script is not that literary works in the Roman script get awards, but rather that Konkani in the Roman script be given its legitimate place in the Official Language Act (OLA). This demand has been made because even though this form of Konkani is an older version of Konkani, and continues a vibrant production of Konkani culture, it has been subjected to all kinds of abuse and suppression in the years since the OLA was enacted. Further, while Konkani alone may be recognised as the official language of the state, the fact is that the operation of the Act continues to give official language status to Marathi.  This has resultedin Goa having two official languages, de facto. The issue of the status of official language being awarded in favour of Konkani in the Nagari script is, therefore, by no means “settled”. Indeed, contrary to Timble’s suggestions, there are very large numbers of members of the bahujan samaj who refuse to acknowledge Nagari Konkani as a legitimate Goan language because they see it as a ploy to ensure brahmanical supremacy in Goa. Consequently, the lone Nagari Konkani newspaper that exists has one of the lowest figures of circulation, lower than Konkani newspapers in the Roman script, and many times lower than Marathi language newspapers. These bahujan samaj activists would possibly accept Romi Konkani as an authentic language, but continue to refuse to accept the Nagri version. It is in recognition of this reality of the operation of the OLA, and to ensure that Konkani in the Roman script also enjoys the status that these two other languages enjoy, that the activists for the Roman script have been agitating right from the days that the OLA came into effect.

Timble inserts a number of subtle arguments to ensure the exclusive privilege that Nagari Konkani activists seek to retain. Indeed, it is around such arguments that the votaries of both Marathi and Nagari Konkani have often ganged up against the proponents of Konkani in the Roman script. The first of these arguments is to suggest, as evidenced above, that the decision in favour of Nagari alone was made by “enlightened minds”. The suggestion, therefore, is that those who challenge this supremacy of Nagari are unenlightened “fanatics” who seek to sow the seeds of division. The problem, however, is, as Timble himself recognises, that the division already exists, perpetuated in large part by the suppression of non-Nagari Konkani by the votaries of Konkani in the Nagari script. This suppression involved state supported institutions like the Kala Academy and the Goa Konkani Akademi refusing to consider works written in the Roman script for state awards, the systematic disparagement of productions in the Roman script like the tiatr (a form of drama) and romans (novels or novellas) as lacking in standard. It needs to be recognised that the grant of awards is often not merely the establishment of a standard, but also a way for the state to extend financial support to the arts.

The other argument that Timble throws up, and one that must be subjected to greater scrutiny, is his suggestion that the “Romi script is an accident of history”. It was this very suggestion that formed the basis of excluding the Roman script from the OLA. The implications of this argument are extremely dangerous since it suggests that the people who spoke the Konkani language had a certain trajectory of cultural development already chalked when its fulfilment was interrupted. The interruption implied is clearly: the arrival of the Portuguese and the establishment of theirrule in the subcontinent. If the arrival of the Portuguese is seen as the cause for this accident of history, then surely there are a number of other accidents that occurred. The most crucial of these is the conversion of a sizable portion of the Goan population to Christianity. Must this Christianity also be seen as an accident of history because its growth coincides with Portuguese rule? Timble may well suggest that this “accident” be accepted and understood, but it is because these historical facts are seen as accidents that the Roman script and its cultural productions have been consistently deprived their rightful place in officially recognised Goan culture. Even if the state celebrates aspects of Goan culture that result from Portuguese intervention in local society, these are seen as exceptions rather than the rule. Herein lies the problem where Catholics are regarded as outsiders and foreigners to the acceptable national community, and any assertion of their difference is construed as being unacceptable. This intolerance of difference is amply evident in Timble’s suggestion that “‘One language, One Script, One community’ is not a wrong dream. But, it is an ideal paradise whose time has still not arrived.” Like the other votaries of the hegemony of the Nagari script, Timble too clearly believes that difference is a problem that must ideally be erased. By this logic, one can imagine that in Timble’s paradise all persons will be Hindu as well.

In conclusion, the statements of support by persons such as Timble should be read with caution. These statements do not recognise the legitimacy of Konkani in the Roman script, nor the demand that the Roman script be given an official place in the OLA. The sole purpose of Timble’s statement of support is to ensure that the delicate balance of linguistic power that currently exists in favour of both Nagari Konkani and Marathi is not tilted towards Marathi and Konkani in the Roman script. The fact is that while Konkani in the Roman script continues to be patronised by its loyal supporters in Goa, Konkani in the Nagari script has failed to achieve this position largely because it is an artificial creation that has sought to suppress Konkani in the Roman script, and has failed to achieve the trust of the Hindu bahujan who continue to use Marathi as a weapon against this particular Konkani.

(This response was first published on roundtableindia.co.in, on 28 October, 2013) 

To read the same article in Konkani, see here.

POWER, POLITICS AND TRAUMA: THE CASE OF ROMI LITERATURE

The close interrelations of power, hegemony and history in the politics that surround a language and/or script were brought to the fore by Dr. Fr. Victor Ferrao, Dean of Philosophy and Professor of Rachol Seminary.  Dr. Fr. Ferrao was delivering the Late Fr. Freddy J. da Costa Memorial Lecture organized by the Dalgado Konknni Akademi (DKA) at Tiatr Academy’s Conference Hall, Panaji on July 19, the eve of Fr. Freddy’d birth anniversary. Fr. Freddy who is known for his journalism and writing in Konknni was incidentally the founding member of the DKA as well as its first President.

            Dr. Fr. Victor Ferrao who recently released his book, Being a Goan Christian: the Politics of Identity, Rift and Synthesis, was awarded PhD for his thesis on ‘Involving God in an Evolving Universe: Dialogue between Science and Religion’ and has taught at Jnana-Deepa Vidyapeeth, Pune. A highly erudite scholar, Dr. Fr. Ferrao who has published many papers in various journals, argued his case with finesse. He spoke on the topic of Romi Lipintlem Konknni Sahitya: Kal ani Az [Konknni Literature in the Roman Script: Past and Present]. Rather than providing a descriptive history of the books and authors in the Roman script, Dr. Fr. Ferrao took the debate to a very intellectual level, focusing instead on the larger and much malignant issues of power, hegemony, linguistic politics and the changes wrought by colonialism. (Incidentally, some felt that Dr. Fr. Ferrao was deviating from the topic). Needless to say, the thought-provoking lecture left the audience, which also included the Journalism students of St. Xavier’s College, Mapusa, with much to chew on.

            Driving straight to the point, Dr. Fr. Ferrao invoked the Swiss linguist Ferdinand Saussure and said that no language has a natural script. He then went on to explain how we create words and represent them with scripts and how meaning is then encoded in them. And drawing from the thesis of Sausure, he stated that he was not prepared to accept “that any script could be ‘natural’ and ‘scientific’ to a language.”

            Dr. Fr. Ferrao tried to locate the problems of script of Konknni as well as the Medium of Instruction (MOI) in the Portuguese colonialism and believed that there were close linkages between these issues, historically speaking. The proponents of ek bhas, ek lipi, ek sonskrutay [one language, one script, one culture] are misguided, he said. By making such an argument, Dr. Fr. Ferrao asserted that a “forgetting of history” takes place. And since Dr. Fr. Ferrao identified colonialism as intimately tied with our problems today, he dwelled quite at length on the differences between British and Portuguese colonialism as well the Orientalist and nationalist scholarship of the 19^th century that had produced knowledge through racist and upper-caste lenses. Dr. Fr. Ferrao was of the firm opinion that such frameworks should be abandoned.

            He also brought to the discussion two insightful concepts of “colonial difference” and “coloniality of power”; the former being the difference between the foreigner and the native where the foreigner projects himself as superior while the latter concept was the acceptance of foreign power without any question. Dr. Fr. Ferrao while acknowledging the contribution of the missionaries in creating a corpus of Konknni literature also recognized the “side benefits” that it may have provided for the Portuguese state. This indeed was a new insight.

            Elaborating on the theme of “forgetting of history”, Dr. Fr. Ferrao cited the example of Manthan, a recently-released book in nagri by the Professor of Konknni at the Goa University, Dr. Madhavi Sardesai. Commenting on Eduardo Jose Bruno de Souza’s novel (which was the first in Konknni), Dr. Sardesai claimed that this novel gave a picture of the state of the Konknni language when it was released while at the same time expressing regret that there were many Portuguese words used in the text. “Madhavi Bai forgets history yet again. For the spoken language always borrows and lends,” said Dr. Fr. Ferrao.

            Although Dr. Fr. Ferrao conceded that the literature of Konknni in the nagri script is great or “mahan”, he admitted that this literature was relatively young. He said that there was an attempt to invent a long and glorious past. This, Dr. Fr. Ferrao said, was being achieved by finding the roots and origins of Konknni in Sanskrit. If we keep the many scripts of Konknni aside from the mainstream, can we develop the language, he questioned.

            Dr. Fr. Ferrao stressed that the events of the 16^th and 17^th centuries are evaluated by the frameworks of the 19^th century Hindu lenses. Taking the help of established scholarship that has convincingly demonstrated that ‘Hindu’ was a relatively recent invention due to foreign invasion and colonial intervention (for instance, the work of Romila Thapar and David Lorenzen), and asked a very provocative question whether it was correct to superimpose 19^th century frameworks on the 16^th and 17^th centuries and when did the Goan Hindu actually become “Hindu”? These questions are significant as the burden of conversion has to be borne by the present day descendents of the converts, most of whom are the protagonists of the Roman script. Readers would remember that more recently the protagonists of the Roman script have been dubbed as “anti-nationals” and “agents of the Portuguese” by stalwarts of the nagri lobby.

            Along with the power, politics and history, Dr. Fr. Ferrao also included “trauma” in his analysis. He said that if conversion has hurt the Hindu community, it has also instilled a shame in the Catholic community. And such a trauma (or the hurt to put it in more simple terms) produces its own politics, he said.

            Dr. Fr. Ferrao was very critical of the thinking and policies of ek bhas, ek lipi, ek sonskrutay persuasion. Rather than wait in hope for the unity of Konknni under one script, why can’t we accept its diversity and move ahead, he asked.

            In the ideas and arguments that were presented, Dr. Fr. Ferrao has demonstrated that he is a capable intellectual and a scholar who has presented his case with sensitivity. There can be no doubt that Dr. Fr. Ferrao, with his remarkable insight, is slowly emerging on the Goan intellectual scene.

(A version of this article appeared on Gomantak Times, dt: July 21, 2012).

SCRIPTING A NEW FUTURE: Towards an Inclusive Progress of Konkani

The two-day national seminar organized by Jagotik Konkani Songhotton (Global Konkani Organization) – JKS for short - at Kalaangann, Mangalore last week on ‘Scripts & Languages of Modern India, with Special Reference to Konkani’ brought into sharp focus the issue of nagri hegemony over other Konkani scripts (Roman, Kannada, Malayalam and Perso-Arabic) and the realization that positive political actions would only be forthcoming if the strategies were changed. Held on 10^th and 11^th March, 2012, the seminar was organized to gain from intellectuals and academics while trying to situate the unique problem of Konkani in a wider context of study areas such as linguistics, literature, linguistic politics, power, dominance and justice.

Led by dynamic JKS leaders such as Tomazinho Cardozo (also the president of the Tiatr Academy of Goa) and Eric Ozario (also the Gurukar of the Mangalore-based Mandd Sobhann)  the seminar had an impressive line-up of academics: Mangalore’s very own Dr. Valerian Rodrigues, professor at the Centre of Political Studies, Jawarharlal Nehru University (JNU) was the chairperson while other resource persons included Dr. Anvita Abbi, professor of linguistics, JNU, Dr. Alok Rai, professor of English, Delhi University, Dr. Asha Sarangi, also from JNU, Dr. Pratap Naik, the former director of Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendr and Dr. Madhavi Sardesai, professor of Konkani, Goa University.

            In his signature style of being brief, clear and to-the-point, Eric Ozario made five assertions at the beginning of the seminar. Some of the key elements of these assertions are: a) The issue of ‘dialect’ is directly linked with the issue of ‘script. b) Many a time, while attempting to impose a particular script, what is really sought to be imposed is a particular dialect. c) A firm belief that unity among any people (including Konkani) can be achieved only by respecting all varieties and not by imposing one and destroying other. d) The slogan – ‘ek bhas, ek lipi, ek sahitya, ek samaz…’ smacks of fascism and is very dangerous for the future of Konkani.

Dr. Valerian Rodrigues

             The well-organized and well-attended seminar did prove to give a lot of insights and food for thought. During the discussions, one got the impression that the issue of scripts had caused a lot of hurt and resentment among the Konkanivadis who were not of the nagri camp. Time and again the chicanery of the Official Language Act and the back-stabbing indulged in by the nagri lobby came to the fore. Ironically, nobody from the ‘nagri camp’ attended the seminar. We sent invitations, reminded Eric bab who went one step further and said that there was nothing ‘godly’ about devnagri and that ‘dev’ was only added to give a false sanctification and halo to this script.

            Delivering his keynote address, Dr. Rodrigues said, “Script issue or script controversy is not confined to Konkani alone. It’s a much larger issue. It bedevils several languages and script communities.” Trying to view the script issue through the lenses of power, dominance and policy formation, the political scientist from JNU stated, “The script controversy is deeply mired in political contentions. The Saraswats, Gaud Saraswats and a section of the Catholics have come to believe that their genealogical roots lie at the banks of the Saraswati river in the north. The Sangh Parivar is a major presence in the entire Konkani-speaking belt today, particularly in Goa and Karnataka coast. The devnagri script reinforces a specific kind of dominance…” The script issue should also force us to think about what kind of India we wanted, he stressed, in the sense of a nation-state.

            Dr. Anvita Abbi (Script and Language: Relationship and Contention), amongst others, raised the issue of rendering people illiterate overnight if they were forced to switch from one script to another or an entirely new script was invented. She argued that Brahmi is the progenitor of all the contemporary Indian scripts and hence nagri was better suited to represent the sounds of Konkani. But her argument ultimately appeared to boil down to ‘purity and pollution’ where what is perceived to be Indian is considered ‘pure’ and what is perceived to be foreign is relegated to second-class position.

Dr. Alok Rai

          Dr. Alok Rai (Language, Script and Dominance in India), who used the analogy of the Urdu-Hindi controversy, an area where he has worked extensively and wrote his classic book Hindi Nationalism, asked some pointed questions: what happens when (a) a language and (b) a script dies and (c) What is killed when a script is killed. (Interestingly, in the discussion, Dr. Abbi put forth the view that scripts never die, but are always killed). He also shifted our focus from the factors that are visible for the scripts controversy to the ones that are not, saying that we need to focus on those factors that really drive the movement forward. Similarly, Dr. Asha Sarangi (Language and Territory: Issues of Rights and Identities) argued that along with viewing scripts and languages aiding the production of literature, we should also include the production of knowledge in the sense of social sciences.

            Though Dr. Madhavi Sardesai (The Case for a Single Script for Konkani) could not make it to the seminar for health reasons, her paper was nevertheless read in her absence and discussed. She made four main arguments (as summed up by the chairperson), which were debunked by some of the participants as well as Dr. Pratap Naik who presented the next paper. Dr. Sardesai argued that from the late 19^th century there has been a strong advocacy of the nagri script by stalwarts of Konkani. Such resolutions were passed in the numerous Parishads or Conferences before and after the Liberation of Goa. It was however counter-argued that such conferences were only attended by the nagri lobbyists and those sympathetic to the nagri cause and hence there was no democratic representation. Secondly, Dr. Sardesai felt that since Konkani in nagri could produce books on scientific topics, it was better developed. Frederick Noronha from Goa challenged this assertion saying that the number of such books were not significant and that Konkani – whether in romi or nagri – was not able to produce any original ideas so far.

            Using nagri, Dr. Sardesai further said, would enable Konkani speakers to acquire language skills in other languages that use nagri, such as Marathi and Hindi. If this be true, then why restrict us to nagri alone, why not Kannada and other south Indian scripts? Multiple scripts have also hindered the emergence of literary criticism, asserted Dr. Sardesai. But as Frederick Noronha pointed out, by making such an argument we were only barking up the wrong tree. Literary criticism can happen in any language. Personally I feel, English can be a good option as the issue of script, dialect etc. is circumvented and the required intellectual rigor can also be inculcated in the same.

Dr. (Fr.) Pratap Naik

             Dr. Pratap Naik stuck to the bare facts and debunked myth after myth that the protagonists of one-script-one-language had created and so lovingly tended to all these years. Since Dr. Madhavi Sardesai made a case for a single script for Konkani, Dr. Pratap Naik felt the need to argue otherwise (The Case for Multi-Scripts for Konkani). Using his personal experiences as well as his vast knowledge on matters of Konkani literature and linguistics Dr. Pratap accused the one-script protagonists as “…only interested in…power and money.”

            Though the seminar had no speaker to analyze all the issues mentioned above in a purely historical context and try to theorize about the problems from the archival material and other published material, the seminar nonetheless was a success. There was a tiny bit of detail that I could not overlook during the two-day long seminar. The backdrop on the stage had a vast banner that had Romi, Nagri and Kannada scripts but no Malayalam and Perso-Arabic, thus in a way not giving these scripts the deserved representation. The challenge from here on is to create a discourse that is all inclusive and also to systematically generate arguments that would deconstruct the nagri hegemony over the production of Konkani writings as well as the access to resources that become available to the speakers of a particular language.

(A version of this article appeared on Gomantak Times, dt: March 21, 2012)