The article represents wishful thinking : the horse has long left the stable. The language of Goa now is Marathi. Suryaprant outsells all other dailies put together. Mr. Bandodkar dreaded the very thought of Karnataka, and his prediction of the onslaught has come true. I remember the party manifesto posted on walls in 1961: one could term it hate, but in the greater context of our old and complex history, it was logical thinking for a social group that had only just evicted one alien hegemony. To witness the passion, one needs only to travel a few miles to Belgaum, where a Maratha majority seethes under Dravid domination. This is what drives our socio-polity. The die has now been cast, and the Goan Hindu has had the last word. eric.
------------------------------ The second thing is that when we are imminently in the process of deciding the medium issue, why should we not discard Marathi? It will only be Konkani which will be taught in Goan schools though Marathi could be taken as an optional third language. Since we did not cede to Maharashtra in the past, those that take pride in calling themselves Goans should not have a problem in discarding Marathi. We have to do this at this juncture and there is no point in persisting with Marathi. The logic that the Marathi language gives the Hindu community their fount of art and culture is clearly a misguided notion. Many of the people who gave Marathi its culture in the fine arts were Goans like Bakibab Borkar, Jitendra Abhisheki, Mogubai Kurdikar,Kesarbai Kerkar, Kishori Amonkar, the Mangeshkar music family and many others. An example for this can be taken from among the Konkani people themselves who were forced to flee Goa when the Portuguese came to Goa. The majority of these people settled along the coastal regions of Karnataka and Kerala. Over time this community has contributed in a major way to the life in these two states. Nowhere have these people forsaken the Konkani language. But for some introduction of Kannada and Malayalam words which have slopped into the Konkani language there has been no large-scale corruption of their mother tongue. The konkani people settled in these areas have gone ahead and adapted the local language script and are writing Konkani in the Kanada and Malayalam scripts. In contrast in Goa the Hindu people were quick to forsake their mother tongue and adopt Marathi. The time to correct this aberration has come and we should for the future have only one official language - KONKANI and English. Just paying lip service to Konkani will not suffice and the average Konkani person in Goa should put their hand on their hart and support Konkani wholeheartedly. [The writer is a resident of Alto Betim] COMMENTS: I salute Srinivas Kamat for having a square head on his shoulders for a Hindu Goan. As a matter of fact, I have heavily contradicted his piece of 8th May, 2011 regarding the Portuguese apology to Goa. Therefore it must be remembered that I do not fight people. I fight issues. And I have reminded Srinivas Kamat when he thought that he had lost a friend. For me friendship is one thing and issues another thing altogether. Having said that, I have highlighted the portions in the above piece where my comments are warranted. Konkani compulsorily taught up to X class is what it should be. We must go with Konkani and English side by side together, with Konkani as the MOI in the primary section and English as a subject for smooth transition to the secondary level. Marathi has no meaning in all this as far as education and MOI is concerned. Marathi is the religious language of the Hindus of Goa like Latin was for the Catholic Christians in Goa. It would be a shame to call Marathi as Goa's mother tongue. And whereas the Catholic Christian community of Goa is patriotic to their motherland Goa, the Hindus of Goa are not. This is because the Catholic Christians have jettisoned Latin as their religious language and adopted their liturgy in Romi Konkani. Why the Goan Hindus have not done likewise is because the root cause lies in what Adv. Amrut Kansar has publicly said at the TB Cunha Hall some time ago at a meet when the Curchorem/Savordem first time communal riots was being discussed. What he said was this "" BAHUSAHEB BANDODKAR IMPORTED HINDU BHATS FROM MAHARASHTRA TO POISON THE MINDS OF GOAN HINDUS" As far as I know, it was not Bandodkar as much as his mentor Janardhan Shinkre who is responsible for all this. That the Goan Hindu community by and large is definitely not patriotic to GOA was declared when the Opinon Poll was declared when such malafide thing shouldn't have ever happened to Goa. As to who poisoned Indira Gandhi's mind into declaring this vile Opinion Poll, there is not doubt at all. Further to my salutations, I congratulate Srinivas Kamat for having openly shown his patriotism to Goa and for being a thoroughbred Goan Hindu. Hopefully, others will follow his example if they love their Goa at all. Cheers floriano goasuraj
