Fifty-five years after Liberation from colonial rule, the transition to self government and much development in the State, the issues that are arising in Goa in the run-up to the 2017 election campaign are emotive ones of language and identity, of concerns of corruption and casinos, of building bridges across rivers and welcoming industry to create employment. While the economic concerns do get attention, perhaps not adequate, what is overshadowing all other concerns this time is the language issue, more pertinently, grants to primary schools. There has been complete split of the people on this issue of medium of instruction, with a group against the decision to give grants to English language primary schools and another demanding that this decision to give grants be legislated so as to make it permanent. Such has been the polarisation that it has even led to a new political party arising out of the movement to stop grants to English language primary schools.
While building bridges is a sign of development, there is another kind of bridge that needs to be built and this one should be across the deepening chasm of language politics. Language – Konkani – is the only glue that holds Goans together, the most important factor without which the Goan identity would not exist. Goans cutting across communities have fought for it, have shed their blood for the language. There should be no concern that Goans will ever give up on their language. It is what identifies them anywhere in the world, where two Goans meeting will immediately break into Konkani, which is what binds them together. It cannot die. The distinction of mother tongue and medium of instruction for future growth has to be made and understood, and this Liberation Day is perhaps the best time to begin this exercise.
While the mother tongue will bind us as Goans, what will free us is knowledge and which language we gain that knowledge in should not lead to a division. What is important is not the language in the schools but the conditions of the school buildings and the quality of education. Children will benefit more if time and energy is spent on creating a better environment for them in schools, rather than wasting that time and energy in debating the advantages of an education in the mother tongue. It is time to put an end to the debate of medium of instruction and devote more time to upgrading the quality of education.
On Liberation Day politicians across the State will unfurl the National Flag and address the people, enlisting the achievements of the government and promising much more. With elections weeks away, they will perhaps use the opportunity to make a few electoral promises, but how many will promise not to divide the people on the basis of language? While in some part of the country there are communal differences, Goa has stayed above this, but has somehow got embroiled in language differences. That 55 years after Liberation, language politics is still impeding the creation of a knowledge society does not point to a very ‘liberated’ society.
Liberation from colonial yoke should not be just a political liberation of a land, but also of freeing the mind from prejudices and opening it up to welcome new ideas and debate without being biased. That is what will take Goa ahead. The State needs to look towards creating a citizenry that is enlightened, that accepts all languages and welcomes ideas without biases. Goa, this Liberation Day, would do well to take that step which could take it towards creating a knowledge society that transcends petty issues. That’s when we would be truly liberated.
