Konkani Opposition to Hindi Imposition!
Mangaluru: Jagotik Konknni Songhotton (JKS) had convened a Seminar at Kalaangann, Mangaluru, to discuss an important issue affecting the future of Konkani namely – ‘The Imposition of Hindi in India and its impact on other languages, especially Konkani’. 85 delegates from different states of India and from the Gulf attended the Seminar.
Prior to the Seminar, there was a short celebration of the 25th ‘Konkani Manyata Divas’ (25th anniversary of the inclusion of Konkani in the VIIIth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. Sumell – the Singing Club of Mandd Sobhann – sang 2 new songs on Konkani, written by Rony Crasta Kelarai and composed by Eric Ozario. Dr. Pratap Naik SJ, in his short message on Konkani Manyata Divas, gave a call to all Konkanis to inculcate the love of Konkani in their hearts. Mani Manivannan (Chennai) and Arun Javgal (Bengaluru) wished Konkanis on behalf of the Tamil and Kannada communities, respectively. Irine Rebello compered the programme.
The Seminar began with Eric Ozario, Secretary General of JKS, explaining the purpose and importance of JKS organizing the Seminar. Three experts made their presentations –
1) Mani Manivannan, Leader of the Tamil language movement, Chennai – in his presentation, spoke about the ‘Politics of Imposition & the Tamil Reaction’. He explained how Hindi is being imposed from the time of the British rule in India. He said that it was like an imperial imposition rather than a democratic process because the power of the army was used to impose Hindi in Tamil Nadu in 1965. He also explained how the Tamils and the Tamil government have been resisting any sort of imposition on them. He said that any sort of imposition is an insult to one’s dignity, and hence should be fought against. He gave a brief description of how the Chennai Declaration for Language Rights was passed and how CLEAR was formed and is working to promote ‘linguistic equality’ in India.
2) Arun Javgal, Leader of the ‘Hindi-Imposition-Resistance Movement’, Bengaluru – explained how Hindi is being imposed on us, in our day-to-day life. He said that it is not right to promote one language (Hindi), when there are so many other languages in India. In his presentation, he showed how linguistic inequality was being promoted in India. He stressed that it is the duty of the government to serve citizens in their own language, and not in a language that they do not follow. He said that we should demand our language rights.
3) Dr Pratap Naik, Konkani Linguist and Researcher, Goa – explained how Hindi imposition affected Konkani. He compared the imposition of Nagari script in Konkani to the imposition of Hindi in India.
The Paper Presentations were followed by discussion. The 20th book published by Mandd Sobhann, ‘Chalti Konkani’ (revised version), compiled by Late Georgie Pinto Aikala and edited by Rony Crasta Kelarai, Eric Ozario & Preeti Lopes, was released on the occasion, by Rev. Fr. Valerian Fernandes (Editor, Raknno) and Rev. Fr. Alwyn Serrao (Principal, Padua College). Roy Castelino (Ex-President of the Karnataka Konkani Sahitya Academy), Eric Ozario (Gurkar, Mandd Sobhann) and Vitori Karkal (Executive Committee Member, Mandd Sobhann) were present on the dais.
Imposition of any language upon the nation, whether that language is spoken by the majority or not, that is fully an autocratic action. Who can give some sense to the autocratic rulers of the nation? There are many nations in the world with multiple languages; none of them are driven by this autocratic spirit of imposition of one language upon others.
The autocrats wanted to impose their mother tongue upon others through replacing other’s mother tongue. Is there any communication problem in India now?