Associations demand equal rights for all scripts of Konkani

Mangaluru: At a symposium jointly organised by the Global Konknni Forum (GKF) and Mandd Sobhann at Kalaangann on Sunday, the delegates discussed the Sahitya Akademi Konkani Advisory Board's arbitrary decision to declare Devnagari as the sole official script of the Konkani language. The delegates of both associations called for equal status for Roman script alongside Devnagari in Goa's Official Language Act. The associations unanimously passed the decision to oppose the Sahitya Akademi's stand of recognising and promoting only one script of Konkani. They asked for equal rights for Romi and Kannada scripts. In perseverance of this, they will take all actions, including legal steps, to impress the govt to include other scripts for Sahitya Awards. Further, it has been resolved to form a new action committee under the leadership of Kennedy Afonso. The new committee includes Eric Ozario, Stany Alvares, Louis Pinto, Richard Moras, Stephen Quadros, Donald Pereira, Kennedy Afonso, Jose Salvador Fernandes, Aplonia Rebello, Luis Xavier Mascarenhas, Cruz Mario Pereira, Michael Jude Gracias, Antonio Alvares, and Dominic Fernandes. Kennedy Afonso, the president of Global Konknni Forum, made a presentation and explained the need for the various associations of Konkani to come together to fight this discrimination against the five scripts of Konkani and for the inclusion of Romi Script in the Official Language Act of Goa by filing a petition in the Supreme Court. Karnataka Konkani Sahithya Academy president Stany Alvares said the six language academies of Karnataka govt have come to a conclusion that literature in Kannada script will be given priority and they would also pressurise the (Central) Sahitya Akademi to give equal status to Konkani literature in Kannada script in parallel with Nagari script. Eric Ozario said, "It's an accepted fact that, although Konkani is written in five scripts, it has no script of its own and despite this fact, back in 1981, the Konknni Advisory Board of the Sahitya Akademi passed a unanimous resolution saying that Devnagari is the official script of Konkani. If one looks at the list of the Board members, it becomes very clear that it's filled by hard-core supporters of Devnagari. This needs to be challenged in the Supreme Court of India," he said. Eric said, this is nothing but a discriminatory attempt to destroy all other scripts and impose Devnagari on everyone, as is done in the Official Language Act of Goa. This is detrimental to the unity and development of Konkani, as Konkani literature is acceptable for Sahitya awards only in Devnagari script and this creates discrimination against literature produced in other scripts of Konkani. Variety in Konkani is not in the script alone. There's plenty of variety in its dialects, religions, caste, traditions, customs, festivals, and folk forms. In the midst of such variety, to impose one script on everyone is utter folly. Unity in diversity is the future of the Konkani language, he said.