Mangalore: Global Konkani Organization demands Sahitya Academy to recognize different scripts

By John V Tauro, Mangalore
Bellevision Media Network

Mangalore, 30 Jun 2012: At a Press Conference held on Saturday, June 30, 2012, General Secretary of the Global Konkani Organization (Jagotik Konkani Songhattan), Eric Ozario demanded that along with Devanagari script other four scripts also should be recognized while providing grants and awards to literary work  produced in Konkani.

 

Ozario narrating the background of the problem said that though the Konkani  language is being written  and read in five scripts-Kannada, Roman, Devanagari, Perso-Arabic and Malayalam. The Central Sahitya Academy  since the recognition of Konkani, has been providing grants and awards for the literary work in Konkani language written only in Devanagari Script  which is in third position in respect to the use of the script by the Konkani writers, thus ignoring Konkani literature produced in other scripts.

 

There has not been any  favourable response from the academy for the representation by various quarters since quite a long time. As there was no justice done to the Konkani literature produced in scripts other than in Devanagari, he along with Vally Vagga, Mysore and Marcel D’Souza, Mangalore had submitted an appeal to the Karnataka High Court against this injustice on September 8, 2011.

 

The main issues in the appeal are:  Sahitya Academy should consider literary work in Konkani produced in all the five script. When this appeal was being considered by the High Court, Karnataka State Konkani Language Minority Educational Institution has submitted an interim appeal on June 26, 2012 requesting to recognize only Devanagari script.

 

 

According to this interim appeal, Devanagari script is the official script for the Konkani language; constitution has granted preeminence to Devanagari script; Konkani reading  and writing people use exclusively Devanagari script and not Kannada or Malayalam; and if recognition is given to any other script than Devanagari it will detrimental to the development of the Konkani language.

 

Eric Ozario condemned this above contention and posed the following questions: Who has the authority to decide which script should be the official script? This decision should be taken democratically by all those who use different scripts. Such a step has not been taken in Konkani so far. How the Central Sahitya Academy can take into consideration the Konkani literature written in one script(Devanagari) only? How it can ignore the Konkani  literature written in other scripts?

 

Repudiating the contention that the Indian Constitution has granted pre-eminence to Devanagari script. Ozario said that Article 14 of the Constitution  grants equality before the law and Article 29 protects the interest of minorities. It says that any section of the citizen residing in the territory of India or any part thereof having a distinct language, script or culture of its own shall have the right to conserve the same.

 

Moreover the constitution of the Sahitya Academy includes the directive “To improve and develop the various scripts in which the languages of the country are written.” Besides, the Sahitya Academy in its reply to the Karnataka High Court has  accepted “the mandate of the Sahitya Academy is-fully to recognize and support the literary traditions of the given language.” As the Konkani ‘s cultural tradition comprises of five scripts, the Sahitya Academy should encourage literature in all these scripts.

 

There is also no substance in the argument that Konkani people use only Devanagari script and not Kannada or Malayam. According to the Census Report of 2001, 31.82 percent  live in Goa and 31.72 percent in Karnataka. While people living in Goa use both Devanagari and Roman scripts, people of Karnataka use only Kannada script. According to a study conducted in 2011, in India only  12.7 percent of the Konkani people use Devanagari script whereas remaining 87.3 percent of the Konkani people use other scripts among whom the users of Kannada script is the highest with 58 percent.

 

As regards the contention that if encouragement is given to Konkani literature in other than Devanagari script, the language will suffer, Ozario highlighted the fact that the struggle is not against the use of  Devanagari script, but to grant equal importance to literature written in other four scripts as well. The attempt to impose only one script (Devanagari) on others is one of the greatest impediments to the unity of the Konkani speaking people.

 

Speaking further, Eric Ozario said that there is not only difference in script but also in dialects, cultures, religions and ways of life among the Konkani speaking people. However, the essence of India is the ‘Unity in diversity’ so also there should be unity in diversity among the Konkani speaking people.

 

Besides Eric Ozario the Press Conference was attended by  Roy Castelino, Treasurer JKS, KK Uttaran, Vice President JKS, Dr. Pratap Naik, Language Expert, Goa, Valerian D’Souza(Vally Vagga), Konkani writer, Mysore.