Goa heading towards de-culturisation: Bhembre

panaji: expressing deep concern over de-culturisation of goan society, the speakers at a symposium on "identity, society and culture: goan perspective", organised by goa international centre at its premises at dona paula, this evening feared that attempts were being made by certain elements to divide and destroy goan identity. the symposium was held under the chairmanship of ms maria aurora couto and was well attended.ms couto refrained from giving her concluding remark on the symposium stating that society and culture being large issues more time is needed to come to a certain conclusion. noted konkani scholar and editor of daily sunaparant, udai bhembre in his paper highlighted the plight of present goan society and visualised great cultural divide, especially at the turn of 21st century. a sizeable section of goan community will uproot itself from the soil of indian culture, give up most of the attributes of goan cultural identity and will begin to live as an indo-anglican community, while the other section will by and large preserve goan identity, bhembre opined. it is a strange phenomenon, bhembre explained and added that the task of de-culturisation that the portuguese tried to accomplish in 16th and 17th centuries by imposition and force and which remained unfinished will be completed by goan themselves voluntarily. "such a divide is what the fundamentalists and communal elements are aspiring for", bhembre said adding " towards the end of this century a section of goan though unintentionally, will play into their hands". bhembre said that the adverse effect on the cultural identity of goans has its origin in the attempt of the portuguese rulers and missionaries who in the 16th century started the process of suppressing and destroying the goan cultural identity and transplanting their own culture in its place. this was started with vigour and it continued though with lesser momentum throughout the colonial period, bhembre said. though, bhembre said liberation of goa was a turning point but that did dot happen because the party which was voted to power by goans in the first general elections desired and worked for wiping out cultural identity of goans through the merger of this territory with maharashtra and that then government despised konkani and culture associated with it and tried by all means to suppress it. bhembre said the goan society influenced by alien culture though proceeded in the same direction on its own free will and perhaps with greater zeal. the only difference was that english language replaced the portuguese language and that the process of de-culturisation, which was restricted to the elite class percolated down to the middle classes. referring to the present scenario, bhembre said two types of elements are furiously trying to disown and destroy the goan identity, especially the identity woven around the language. a section of hindus are still trying hard to establish marathi as their language and favour maharastrian culture, bhembre said. the demand to make marathi as other official language of goa and the attempt to project goa a bilingual state are the means of these people to achieve their goal, he added. bhembre also alleged that government of maharashtra was encouraging pro-marathi activists in goa by providing financial and other help. in order to substantiate his point, bhembre said the maharashtra government had provided financial assistance of rs 7 lakh to the recently held state marathi literary conference held at quepem. he said another section comprising mainly educated catholic and few hindus is taking pride in despising and discarding konkani language and culture that is associated with it. this section refuses to speak konkani or use it for any other purpose, bhembre said. elaborating further, he said they want to make english language as their medium of expression in every walk of their life. " for them konkani is not good either for the mass in the church or for raising toast at a wedding", he remarked. though, bhembre said konkani teatro stage still continues to be popular amongst the masses but english continues to be the language in the wings and behind the curtain. the generation next to great artistes like alfred rose and m boyer is no more near the konkani theatre. bhembre said the church is an important institution that influence the life of an average catholic and added that unfortunately the church was aiding and abetting this trend of de-culturisation. he said the church in the past encouraged konkani and preservation of goan identity, but today and for quite sometime now, the church shows total indifference to konkani or to the cultural identity of goans. "religious leaders have adopted the policy of political leaders that of giving to the people what they ask for and not what keeping with this policy, the number of masses in english is increasing and that in konkani is decreasing", bhembre said. referring to the diocesan schools which have konkani medium of instruction, bhembre said this schools are using english to encourage children at every level and thus give false impression only to receive grants from the government. this in turn creates an inferiority complex about konkani language and every thing that is goan or indian. bhembre said in view of adopting such a lifestyle it would bound to have serious and adverse impact on the cultural identity of goan catholic. those who still have roots in the goan culture are fast losing the grip in their attempt to imitate the westernised ones. " the trend of imbibing western culture right from the stage of nursery schooling will gradually lead to a situation where there will be litle or no difference between the second generation goan youth of canada or england and youth in the catholic community of goa in 22nd century", bhembre opined. he said as regards to catholic community, there was no force to counter the indifference and the addiction to western culture although there are few honorable exceptions. but the tide being strong, it will swallow up these exceptions and will lead to the emergence of a community, which might be labelled as indo-aglican community, he felt. globalisation, growth of tourism and influx of people from neighbouring states into goa coupled with our own apathy accelerate or help this process, he lamented. stating that this is a bitter reality of today, bhembre said liberation bestowed upon us self-rule, but it failed to liberate some of us from inferiority complex. he said konkani literature, and culture is expected to create a resurgent goa— a goa that will be proud of its cultural identity. veteran freedom fighter and founder editor of the navhind times, lambert mascarenhas who spoke on " facets of goan society, transition and modernity" said that he considers goa as tragic land, because goans are only creating problems for goa and goans. though, mascarenhas said earlier foreigners were creating problems for us but today goa has become the land of controversies. hitting out at those who claim that goa was wonderful during the portuguese period, mascarenhas said these people are curse to goa and india. he said portuguese had given some good things, especially education. pre-portuguese may be worse but the portuguese regime was terrible, he said. mascarenhas said the portuguese through spread of education taught how to give respect to others and imbibed good manner in goans. after portugal became republic, the journals in marathi and konkani have done a good job. mascarenhas said though goans may take pride that goan is one society but in reality goan society is divided on religious grounds. "let us not fool anybody, we are socially not one", mascarenhas remarked. he also came down heavily on the goans settled in england for taking pride to be goan and thus trying to pose as greater than the original goan residing on goan soil. he also said that politics in goa has become the business in the state. dr kiran budkuley of goa university who presented paper on "paradoxes of goan society" said that the need of the hour was to study dispassonately the reality of the migrations with an open mind and take appropriate step to integrate and not assimilate the non-konkani migrant population into goan society. dr budkuley said the consumer-savvy ideology of the market technology is already forging a faceless global identity for the world and if goa is not careful, goan identity will soon be a legendary theme in folk memory. former principal of goa college of architecture, mr cho padamsee who spoke on "architecture-decisions and revisions" said goans could derive distinct separate identity only because of the arrival of portuguese or else goans would have been the society like other parts of the country. he also presented the slides on goan architectural designs. mr pandurang phaldessai highlighted the goan folklore, rituals and festival and solicited the cooperation from the people for protection and preservation of distinct folk form "pirni zogor", which is on the verge of collapse. he said the folk artistes number is fast dwindling and it was a matter of concern. mr phaldessai said this was the oldest folk form in goa and added that the government agencies only wanted to document the folk forms but nobody was coming forward to make systematic attempt to preserve this age old folk forms.