########################################################################## # If Goanet stops reaching you, contact [EMAIL PROTECTED] # # Want to check the archives? http://www.goanet.org/pipermail/goanet/ # # Please keep your discussion/tone polite, to reflect respect to others # ##########################################################################
200 PAGES THAT EVERYONE LOVES TO HATE; A WRITER TELLS WHAT RAKED A STORM By Frederick Noronha Ramnath G Naik is angry, feels misunderstood and censored. When he published a 200-page book last year, it created a small storm among those capable of reading Marathi in Goa -- many can't. Others in the Konkani camp have greeted him with silence, or blasted him for the language he used. Now, as he struggles to make his point understood, he's been writing to politicians and priests, and even to the archbishop. You could interpret Ramnath Naik in different ways. Label him a Marathiwadi (supporter of Marathi, which he obviously is) and forget about it. Or, you could try to read him for a better understanding of the sub-text that makes up the complex mix of language, caste and religion in today's Goa. He best reflects that section of Goa that grew up in post-1961 times, amidst promises and hopes. In many ways, the end of Portuguese colonial rule brought in enhanced opportunity. But only upto a point; today many in Goa might agree that the fruits of change have remained with a few, and large sections have simply been left out in the cold. Ramnath Naik feels the same. They've seen things improve in their generation, but still get stuck by a strong glass ceiling and opportunity that is denied to them in a Goa that still awaits its own long-delayed Reformation and Enlightenment. It was a statement by a prominent Konkani writer which, Naik alleges, triggered off the strong response in him. Naik claims the statement which brought home the injustice of it all was: "I'll not allow you to eat a grain." >From there, he worked like a man possessed. One thing led to another. Naik completed his book which was published in July 2003. When he started writing, Goa's BJP chief minister Manohar Parrikar had backed the idea of celebrating 'Goan identity year' in June 2002 to mark the 125th birth anniversary of the early 20th century Konkani icon Shennoi Goembab (Varde Valaulikar). One year later, Naik's book was out. Says he: "I took leave (from the bank where he works) for three months. This was socially un-bearable. We had been cheated." Naik says his first edition of a thousand copies "sold like hot cakes" and was discretely read by people "even though the powers that be tried to suppress it by all means". His book is titled 'Govachea Bhashavadamagil Karasthan' (Conspiracy Behind Goa's Language Controversy). What's it really about, you must be wondering. Let Naik himself explain: "(At that time) I hadn't know more about Shennoi Goembab or Varde Valaulikar. But when I went and researched, what I subsequently found had been unknown to Goans, or anybody else, for the last 43 years. Only a handful of Konkani protagonists had knowledge of it and had been discretely promoting (Goembab's) ideology under the cover of promoting the people's language." Naik says Shennoi Goembab (the pen name of Varde Valaulikar) traces his roots to today's Sindhudurg district, outside the Goa borders. He was born in Bicholim in 1877 and migrated to Mumbai (then Bombay) at sixteen. He lived there upto the age of 53 and died in 1946. This is the largely-known historical background. Then, he pours in more details. Sometime in 1909, he worked as a teacher of Portuguese in the Bardez village of Assagao. Adds Naik: "He wrote a text-book in Portuguese, with a preface in Marathi. Some Portuguese inspector told him that Marathi was not his language, but it was Konkani which was in vogue at that time, in the Roman script." After a year again, Goembab goes to Bombay. "At some stage, he got the idea that Konkani was the language of the 'Bamons'," says Naik. He then goes on to trace the complex relationship between language and caste in this part of the planet. Ramnath Naik surely isn't the first to see such a link in Goa. Often such issues, like in other matters Goan, are pushed into the background. Or fought after being camouflaged with a number of other rational-sounding arguments. Ashok Row Kavi, a journalist active in the 'eighties who later incidentally went on to become one of India's prominent gay-rights activists, made this point in the heat of the 1987 language violence in Goa. But such issues are debated in outstation publications, not locally, as was Row Kavi's too. He cited rivalry between the Gowda (his spelling) Saraswat Brahmin community and the "Maratha Brahmins" in past centuries. (Maraharashtrian or Marathi-speaking would be a better term here, since the word Maratha has its own separate caste connotations.) So much so, Row Kavi said, the latter the former to the Madras High Court "accusing them of unbrahmanical practices like eating fish and hob-nobbing with the mlechas". Row Kavi does an unusual caste-based analysis of Goan politics. (See 'The Week', Jan 18-24, 1987). But such ideas are only rarely debated in the English language in contemporary Goa. Many, at least surely the gate-keepers who control the flow of ideas in today's Goa, see such themes as taboo. Ramnath Naik draws a distinction between 'Bamons' in Goa and the 'Brahmins' of Maharashtra, and also sees sees today's politics liked to such past differences. "Goembab knew that he was a 'bamon' of Goa, which he supposed to be a Brahmin. But the Brahmins of Maharashtra were vegetarian and had very strict dietary code. They did not treat him as a Brahmin. His ego was hurt, and thereafter he went on propagating that the Bamons of Goa were not only Brahmins, but superior to all sub-castes of Brahmins," argues Naik. "Everything is documented. Everything comes across very categorically in his writing," claims the author of this critical book on the icon of Konkani protagonists. Naik alleges that Goembab's ideas swung to the position that the 'Bamons' of Goa need to form their own nation. Says he: "Goembab thought that throughout history, the Bomons held the highest of posts, but were never actually the rulers. So he proposed a national along the entire Konkan, with Goa as its capital, to be ruled exclusively by the Bamons and in their language, to be called Konkani." "By 1942, this theory is put before some people in Bombay. There, he proposes that the language may be in the Devanagiri script. Till then, nobody had written anything in Devanagiri, except for something he (Goembab) wrote. Till then, the Konkani that existed since the sixteenth century was in the Roman script," says Naik. Naik tries to contrast Goembab against his times. In 1910, Portugal underwent a Republican revolution. "Thereafter, Goan Hindus gained full religious freedom, and also freedom on the cultural and social fronts. This lead to an upheaval. A number of community, literary and social institutions were formed." But in this period, the iconclastic writer sees Goembab as "maintaining a low profile". Naik charges, on the contrary, that Goembab had, in this period, prepared a book in Konkani that "glorifies" the victory of Goa's colonial conqueror Afonso Albuquerque, that seemed timed with the 400th anniversary of Albuquerque's capture of Goa in 1510. Ramnath Naik is critical of what he sees as Goembab's sins of omission too. In a period of social and political churning, in Goa and throughout India, Goembab doesn't seemed to have been affected by the contemporary movements, going by his writings, Naik charges. "Moreover, he seems to have hardly any of the social and political movements happening in Goa, sitting as he was in Bombay," adds Naik. Naik argues in his book that Goembab virtually justify the blatantly exploitative Devdasi system of temple-prostitution, which at that very moment was undergoing an amazingly successful self-reform movement. Says Naik: "Goembab talks about the Konkani spoken by the Bamons (which I call 'Bamoni'). He says all the downtrodden could be made 'pandits' by teaching them this language, a tongue he presumed was superior." Naik argues that these divisive attitudes has long impinged on Goa, even till this very day. Today, over four decades after Portuguese rule ended, a confused state is hardly able to make its due contribution at an all-India level, he argues. "Such language politics have put the entire people to a disadvantage. Our Catholic brothers were mislead by the language controversy, As a result, all of us commoners are nowhere today," says he. Says he: "Earlier we were competing with Maharashtra; now we are lagging everywhere. Goa has not produced a single intellectual in recent times, at the national level." This has lead to stagnation and fragmentation. Due to such a situation, today every caste grouping in Goa seems to have its own organisation, Naik argues. Earlier, it was a broad coalition called the 'Bahujan Samaj' (masses). Today, says he, every grouping has its own organisation, whether it is Bhandaris, Kharvis, Saraswats, Velips, Gaudas and others. Many are being manipulated by the elites, he suggests. Naik also argues that the language of a "miniscule minority" has been imposed on others by various means -- "legal or otherwise" -- thus preventing the average Goan from taking benefits from the fruits of freedom. He is also irritated by the attitude of Konkani protagonists to make it out that those favouring the use of Marathi in Goa are somehow outsiders. Says he: "Konkani protagonists have been repeatedly saying that Marathi was never the language of Goa, and those who say Marathi is their language should be thrown out of Goa. Beyond my fourth standard, I never studied Marathi. I've never settled in Maharashtra; none of my relatives are based there. I am very much a son of the soil." This 52-year-old Science graduate also has memories of under-development, which might seem unrealistic to those in Goa who came from more comfortable backgrounds. Before he got his job, he was among the "poorest of the poor", he says. Like some others of his background, Naik at one time looked to the RSS, the right-wing group that has been mostly close to the BJP and zeroes-in on religion-related issues and strife or 'cultural nationalism' as a solution to this-worldly woes. But, latterly he criticised the organisation in Goa as using Marathi while not standing up for it, and using the sub-altern segments for the dirty-work while giving the crumbs of office to a narrow dominant clique. "I'm almost censored today. In all respects. Take the newspapers, for instance. Over the past six months, I corresponded with various authorities, and have pointed out how all our constitutional right, the benefits of freedom and democracy, have been deprived to the Bahujan Samaj (masses or bulk of the population). For whom was the Constitution formed?" Says he: "(After 1961) Goa has prospered materially. But in terms of social evils too we are Number 1." Much of his sentiment suggests the need for taking ahead social reform, in a region which otherwise gets camouflaged under the mask of being a picture-postcard state. It's not that there were no reformers, he argues, pointing out that writers like "Bharatkar" Hegde Dessai had a "global perception" long before we reached the global village. Naik agrees that the language used in his book was "harsh". Says he: "It is a response to the language used by Konkani protagonists for the last 40 years." ---- FEEDBACK: Ramnath G Naik can be contacted on phone 273 1140 (res), while the writer can be emailed on [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- GOANET-READER WELCOMES contributions from its readers, by way of essays, reviews, features and think-pieces. We share quality Goa-related writing among the 7000-strong readership of the Goanet/Goanet-news network of mailing lists. If you appreciated the thoughts expressed above, please send in your feedback to the writer. Our writers write -- or share what they have written -- pro bono, and deserve hearing back from those who appreciate their work. GoanetReader welcomes your feedback at [EMAIL PROTECTED] --------------------------------------------------------------------------- Goanet, 1994-2004. Building community, creating social capital for a decade. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------