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Happy New Year Twenty-Ten
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Since I was not born there and do not reside in Goa,
by the tenor of the recent postings, I can not claim to
be Goan. But as a saraswat whose ancestors hailed
from Goa, I can not but feel in me a part that is Goan
irrespective of what any "authentic" Goan may say.
I think it is the language Konkani that defines the
identity of Goa. That language has been fractured by
history, and is now within us to repair that damage that
history has caused. We can not understand each other
because varieites of Konkani have borrowed heavily
from the neighboring languages (Kannada, Marathi,
and perhaps to a lesser extent by Malayalam, Tulu)
in script as well as vocabulary.
But I think the only Konkani that has even ghost of a chance
of thriving in this world is the Konkani spoken in Goa
written in the Latin script. Having lived in Bombay for a
long time, I have seen Konkanis absorbed into Marathi
diaspora in spirit as well as language and culture,
and the Konkanis in the Mangalore area is barely intelligible
to all who live there.
I do hope the development of Konkani language and literature
will lead to standardisation of vocabulary and grammar so that
we can all understand each other. If the Konkani diaspora outside
have the committment to the language they need to demonstrate
it by asking for it to be taught in schools in places such as
Bombay or Mangalore, just as Kannada or Marathi are taught.
Jagdish Gangolly
