Konkani: The Tussle over Script

They should
Posted on 2008-09-17
therefore stop fighting amongst themselves and instead force the current Goa government to delete the shrewd clause of ‘Konkani in the Devanagiri script’ and amend the same as ‘Konkani, irrespective of scripts alone as the official language of Goa’
I STRONGLY believe that the Konkani leaders who are currently indulging in anti-Goan ‘dhirio’ s’ in the name of Devanagiri and Roman scripts are aiming not at uniting Goans but dividing them in the name of caste, creed and religion. They do not seem interested in saving Konkani but are more concerned about fighting amongst themselves for political and selfish reasons and will ultimately help Marathi (which is already on standby in the official Language Act) to officially get equal status in Goa along with Konkani.
In my personal opinion, nobody follows any script in Goa. All Goans follow and speak in their own easy free-flowing Konkani. These leaders know this fact but yet we see these two groups fighting against each other.
Forget Devanagiri, even the Roman script (with the exception of the Church and the tiatrists) is officially used by a handful of Goan Christians but the vast majority of our Goans (irrespective of caste, creed and religion) officially use only the universal English language in Goa.
I think these so-called ‘Konkani’ leaders should realise that the ongoing language controversy is definitely not a fight of the mightiest language of correspondence or scripts but a fight over Goa’s identity. They should therefore stop fighting amongst themselves and instead force the current Goa government to delete the shrewd clause of ‘Konkani in the Devanagiri script’ and amend the same as ‘Konkani, irrespective of scripts alone as the official language of Goa’.
I’m sure every true-blooded Goan (irrespective of caste, creed and religion) will agree with me that our true Goan identity is not Marathi or any other foreign language but only Konkani. Our politicians too should stop dividing the public in the name of Konkani, Marathi and script.
It is this language alone that is our identity and we don’t need Konkani newspapers and literature to prove this point when 95 per cent of our Goans speak only Konkani in Goa. So think positive and give Konkani a new life. – JERRY FERNANDES, The writer is a resident of Saligao