Remember the dead But do not mourn over them Because yesterday’s jasmines have dried. Forget not tomorrow’s birds. Though the knife is coated with honey Let not your tongue run over it. The hook lies hidden inside the bait Never forget it. The new life is begging from you. Give her in large handfuls.
(Manoharrai Sardessai, translated by Edith Melo Furtado) Long after the dramatic “freedom at midnight” brought an end to colonialism across almost the entire immensity of South Asia, the tiny—but historically crucial—remnants of French and Portuguese India continued to fly European flags throughout the 1950s. There was one big difference: Paris kept negotiating with New Delhi, while cannily positioning France’s tractability in contrast to the obstinacy of António Salazar, the half-addled dictator in Lisbon who insisted Goa was and would always remain an inalienable part of Portugal. Few people realise the tricolore finally only came down in Puducherry in 1962, by which time Goa had already been annexed by the Indian Armed Forces, and was already seething with linguistic and identity politics around the question of absorption into Maharashtra. Some of the most wonderful Konkani literature, poetry and popular music derives from this period, when the mother tongue was being slurred as a mere dialect, and the historical and cultural uniqueness of Goa was denied for short-sighted political gains. All that is in Zayat Zage (Arise! Awake!), an anthemic set of verses by the great Sorbonne-educated multilingual poet and scholar Manoharrai Sardessai (1925-2006), which have been remembered with great affection ever since they were published in 1964, and set to music by the charismatic singer Ulhas Buyao soon afterwards. Looking back from our 21st century vantage, it’s impressive to note just how successful this iconic rallying cry turned out to be, with its warnings about the responsibilities and challenges that were inextricably linked with freedom and democracy. These iconic outpourings galvanised the Goans, who came together to reject merger, then fought to enshrine Konkani as an official language of India, and eventually won statehood in 1987. Note: Mint Lounge's well-conceived pre-elections special about "the pulls and pushes of democracy in the country's different languages" is here: https://lifestyle.livemint.com/news/big-story/democracy-books-elections-2024-politics-literature-111713514096553.html