By Sergio Carvalho
Although Adv Uday Bhembre and I must be more-or-less of the same age (I am 73) I have always held him in high esteem and cherished his friendship. To me, he was a ‘hero’, a perfect gentleman, a niz Goenkar, not only because of his love for our mother tongue Konkani, like lakhs of other Goenkars, but also because I believed, that for him, all Goenkars, regardless of their religious affiliations, were his equal, fellow-Goenkars.
In fact, in my understanding, Adv Uday Bhembre, belonged to the same league of intellectual, upright giants such as bab Ravindra Kelekar, bab Dr Jose Pereira, bab Laximan Rao Sardessai, bab Dr Manohar Rai Sardessai, bab Dr Bailon D’Sa, bab Dr Claude Alvares, bab Damodar Mauzo.
But I felt totally betrayed by his recent, public and communally poisoned outburst, when he asked the ‘75%’ to take on the ‘25%’, who according to him are promoting English! How can anyone explain, why Adv Uday Bhembre, admittedly an intelligent person, refuses to see and admit, that it is the parents who exercise their right, to choose to send their children to whatever MOI Primary schools, be it Konkani, English, Marathi, Tamil, etc. And that it is the duty of the government to give grants to all such schools, because after all, it is the direct and/or indirect tax that they pay? It is important to reveal a well known fact, that everyone like Adv Uday Bhembre, who rightly say that Konkani is their mother-tongue, did their primary education in Marathi and not in Konkani. Would they now claim that as a result, their intellectual, psychological, emotional development got retarded? Their response would be enlightening.
Hiding behind percentages fools no one. He is urging Goan Hindus (75%) ‘to rise up against the … (25%) ‘Goan Christians’. So, after all my ‘hero’ is a man-of-straw-or worse-a wolf in sheep’s clothing, whose heart is full of hatred for his fellow Goenkar Christians! Is not his language akin to that Bajran Dalists or even of ISIS? Et tu Udai?
There is nothing surprising about Naguesh Karmali’s poison-spitting against the Catholic Church in Goa and the Christians. He hoisted his communal colors quite some years ago, when he (mis)led a group of young Goan boys and smashed the name-plates (Azulejus) of the compound-walls of houses, in Fontainhas-Panjim.
He is one of those, who receives regularly, special grants, for having fought against the Portuguese rule in Goa. Now, by publicly saying that the ‘Church is worse than the Portuguese’, he is getting ready to fight the Church in Goa and urging others of his ilk, to do the same?
But Mr. Karmali knows that ‘language’ is not the only component of ‘culture’, but that it also embraces music, literature, cuisine, dance, dress… to name just a few. When the whole world today has become a ‘global village’, thanks to the quick and quicker mode of travel and communication, all these components of culture have jelled, with minor regional differences.
One has only to see the so-called ‘Item Numbers’ – often vulgar – the clothes that the Bollywood actors and actresses wear and the dances they perform. How ‘Indian’ are these? A quick look at the large number of glossy magazines and magazine sections of dailies, even in Goa, proudly print color photographs of the so-called ‘High Society’ Indian men, in full suit and ties and women in very fashionable gowns, high-heels et al. How Indian is that? And what about the many ‘Fashion shows’, ‘Miss World’, ‘Miss Universe’ contests, where so many very beautiful and smart young Indian women participate, wearing clothes for all occasions, including bikinis? How Indian is that? And the craze for American ‘Fast-Foods’, Cricket – are these Indian? And the lakhs of Indians from every state of India, who have migrated to Europe, USA, Canada, Australia, with many more queuing before different Embassies to also migrate? Is this an expression of these lakhs of Indians, their ‘sense of belonging towards the (Indian) Nation?’
