Sunday, July 9, 2006

‘Scripting’ Controversies…



Goa has always witnessed controversies, when it comes to the language Konkani. Konkani is now the official language of Goa, but the road towards the official status has never been a smooth ride. Right from the outset, there has been a debate of Marathi also being given as the equal right as Konkani as the official language of Goa. Though, Marathi could not find a place in the Official Language Act, the debate did not die out. The Konkani-Marathi issue still remains to be settled, when a new controversy has mushroomed, regarding the script for Konkani. A section of people want the ‘Roman Konkani’ to be given an equal status as the ‘Devnagari Konkani’ in the Official Language Act, which they say, will benefit the cause of the language.

Let us look into it the other way. Hollywood movies are in a great deal shown in India. Some of the more popular movies are even dubbed in Hindi. The posters of such dubbed movies sport the English movie title in Devnagari script. This helps the less literate section of people, who are not conversant with the alphabets of English, to read and identify the titles. We would agree, that there are a number of people in India, who are not very well conversant with the Roman script of English, but do understand spoken English. What if some English protagonists come with a concept called as ‘Devnagari English’, with books printed in English language, but in Devnagari script. Thus, it will serve the purpose of English language, as more and more people will be able to learn and apprehend English, without going through the difficulties of learning the script, which is difficult to do in the later stages of life. This will certainly help the cause of English, but does it sound practical? In fact, many of the linguistic experts will certainly term it as a big joke on both the English language, and the Devnagari script.

A script is a part and parcel of any language. Learning a language starts with learning the script associated with that language. Devnagari script is one of the richest scripts, that give the reader a clear pictorial representation of the pronunciations of any sorts, and there is no ambiguity in the script, like the Roman script has in English. Devnagari is the obvious script for Konkani, and should be respectfully accepted as one. No languages in the world have multiple scripts.

The ‘Roman Konkani’ is the result of the centuries old Portuguese colonial rule over Goa. Sticking to the ‘Roman Konkani’ shows our slavery towards the Portuguese still persists, even after attaining liberation. It’s high time that we come out of the colonial bondages of the Portuguese, and build an identity of our own. We don’t want to be remained as the slaves to the Portuguese even after fourty-five years of liberation.

Primarily, why don’t we have a pride in our very own script called ‘Devnagari’ which is rich to the core, when it comes to the representations of pronunciations? I fail to understand this feeling of hatred towards Devnagari from a section of people. Secondly, why do we associate scripts with religion? Learning and understand the Devnagari script is not a Herculean task, and can be done by any person, irrespective of the religion.

The ‘Roman Konkani’ can be well accepted as an informal way of scripting Konkani. But the whole issue of giving the ‘Roman Konkani’ an equal official status is too ridiculous, to be called an issue at all. The question of Roman script for Konkani is too irrelevant and irrational, and above all, impractical. If there are literature works existing, written in Roman Konkani, then the works should be converted to the Devnagari scripts, and given its rightful place in the world of literature that is due to them.

Every language has two aspects, namely the spoken aspect and the written aspect. Promoting Roman scripts for Konkani will benefit only the spoken aspect of the language. Like any other language, only one script should be universally accepted and followed for any formal works in literature and education of the language. Giving multiple scripts an official status, with one script being a foreign script for an Indian language, will be the biggest joke played in the world of literature.