KONKNNI’S TWINS.
By Valmiki Faleiro.
I bumped into senior friend, Tomazinho Cardoso, the other day. And got explaining how, despite my publicly written views, I had been inexplicably ‘shared’ by both theRomi and Devanagri camps of the Konknni divide. Permit me share this. I’m not a linguist, nor bear any illusions to being a man of letters. My little public writing is restricted to the narrow confines of ‘journalese,’ largely in Goa, in English. But my heart does beat for Konknni. None with even a little exposure to both scripts will deny that Devanagri is the naturalscript of the Konknni language. Indeed, it is the natural script to all Sanskrit-derived languages.
My wife was born and bred up to middle school in Nairobi, then British East Africa.Until marriage, she was handicapped with even a working knowledge of Konknni.Things gradually improved. Recently, when helping me compile some Konknni proverbs, she was convinced of limitations of the Roman alphabet in conveying Konknni phonetics and nuances, the way Devanagri does in shining versatility.
My problem is not with scripts. My problem is with the fact that more than one-halfmillion Goans around the globe read and write Konknni only in the Romi script. It’sthis segment of the Goan family that kept Konknni alive from the 18th century. ‘ShenoiGoembab’ Varde Valaulikar led a 20th century renaissance for the declining language, largely in the Devanagri script. I bow my head to his memory. It was that segment of the Goan family that read and wrote Konknni only in the Romiscript that provided the numbers – even shedding some blood and lives in 1986/87 –to have their mother-tongue recognized as Goa’s language. The very same segment of the Goan family is being discriminated against. That’s my problem.
I don’t know of a single protagonist of Konknni in the Romi script who bears antipathy towards the original (Devanagri) version. Why, ‘ex-facie,’ should the opposite occur? Why, instead of cries for uniformity, should diversity not be celebrated? I couldn’t agree more with Pandarinath Lotlikar, the former honcho at the GoaDoordarshan, who likened Konknni in two scripts to twins born of the same mother.Which mother, he asked in King Solomon-like justice, would favour one child to theprejudice of the other? As I once discussed with Prof. SM Borges of the Konknni-in-Devanagri camp divide, my problem is not with the Devanagri script – in fact, I love it, even if I must borrow college students to quickly read aloud for me long texts in the script. At l east two girls tudents from Salcete-Navelim’s Rosary College (and one of them, if I may add, thedaughter of recently migrated parents who live in Chinchinim) reinforced my wife’sand my own conviction that Devanagri is natural to homegrown phonetics.
But, what about the segment that’s more comfortable with the Roman script? Whyherd them – like docile cows resembling the ‘Go,’ ‘Gau,’ ‘Gaud’ or ‘Gotra’ tribe –against their wishes, into a script they are yet to be acquainted with, in the name ofuniformity? Why corner, as of now, official incentives and benefits available for development ofthe language to just the tinier twin of the two? Mustn’t this 22-year old, monumentalinjustice stop? Why not allow, nay, encourage, the different streams of Konknniscripts to evolve – and perhaps some future day co-join at a happy ‘Prayag?’ In fairness, none of the protagonists of Konknni in the Devanagri script I know actually hates the language written or read in the Romi script. Men like self-effacingDamodar Mauzo are, to my mind, objective. Men like Uday Bhembre (I won’t denymy personal equation with this much-respected senior friend) actually helped me with some work in Konknni in the Roman script. Why, then, this tussle?
Another respected senior friend, (Dr.) Olivinho JF Gomes,IRS (retd.), now the retired Head of the Konknni Department of Goa University – andhimself the author of more books in Konknni in the Devanagri script than hiscomfortable Romi – dubbed the injustice a “cultural and political genocide.” As far as scripts go, I am with Konknni in all her scripts, including Kannada,Malayalam and Urdu. But as far as natural justice goes, in our variant in Goa, I can only be with the underdogs – Konknni in the limited Roman alphabet. And I’m neitherdouble-faced nor sailing in two boats … actually keying this in sitting in a steady arm-chair :-)(ENDS.)======================================================================
