The letter “Konkani: Devnagri or Romi script” (Herald, December 1) by A Veronica Fernandes asks a couple of pertinent questions which need an answer to place things in the right perspective so that the present generation can appreciate the struggle of Konkani and know who are the true lovers of Konkani.
In 1985-1986 when the movement for recognition of Konkani as official language of Goa spearheaded by the Konkani Porjecho Avaz (KPA), was at its highest pitch, there was need to resolve two counterclaims of vital importance to Konkani: the official language of Goa (Marathi Vs Konkani) and the script of Konkani (Devnagri Vs Roman). The Marathiwadis, espousing the merger of Goa into Maharashtra, wanted Marathi to be the official language belittling Konkani as a dialect of Marathi, not an independent language. Their lobby, especially in the national capital, was very intense, feeding the MPs with wrong data and news. The undersigned happened to be in Delhi in those crucial years and was able to offset with facts their tirade against Konkani through the National dailies. Meanwhile, the Konkani lovers succeeded to get the Sahitya Akademi to recognize Konkani as an autonomous and literary language, but some politicians tried to spark the communal divide. So the Konkani lovers had to be careful not to divide our Konkani people and Goans on communal lines (Hindus Vs Christians).
On the other hand, since the Romi script was used mainly by Christians they had to be careful not to alienate our Hindu brethren who were at ease with the Devnagri script. In this situation the Romi script lovers chose not to make an issue of Romi Vs Nagri script, hoping that the Romi script would get its due recognition once the cause of Konkani Vs Marathi was settled. Unfortunately this did not happen, again because of politicization of the issue. However, our mother tongue has shown great malleability and resilience being perhaps the only language which besides Nagri which is her birthright has adopted so many different scripts, like Roman, Kannada, Malayalam, Bengali and even Arabic among Konkani Muslims, and being a good fighter so far has won in due time all its battles.
To my understanding, it was to safeguard Konkani as the official language of Goa and communal harmony among all Konkani lovers that the Romiwadis suspended temporarily the interests of Romi script with a kind of gentleman’s consideration that once Konkani was declared as the official language, Romi script would get its due recognition too. Unfortunately that interim sacrifice of Romiwadis was ignored.
The Goa government should help wholeheartedly the development of our mother tongue Konkani in both Devnagri and Roman scripts.
