Team Herald
MARGAO: In an attempt to garner more support for giving equal status to Roman script vis-à-vis Devanagari script, Global Konknni Forum (GKF) members travelled to Mangaluru.
President Kennedy Afonso and Vice President (Literature) Michael Gracias, met Eric Ozario, the well-known crusader of the Konkani movement and General Secretary of Jagotik Konknni Songhotton, and Stany Alvares, President of Karnataka Konknni Sahitya Akademi in Mangalore.
The visit aimed at uniting and consolidating all Konkani forces, to rise against “discrimination and injustice” done to other scripts of Konkani by the Sahitya Akademi, which has given recognition to only Devanagari script, while “ignoring” all four other scripts of Konknni language – Kannada, Romi, Malayalam and Perso-Arabic.
“GKF had fruitful discussions with Eric Ozario and Stany Alvares, who have promised support and cooperation towards uniting all the forces of Konkani language, and have shown their willingness to take steps to even fight the battle in the Supreme Court, for justice.
A final decision will be taken jointly by GKF and other associations in the days to come,” the GFK said on Thursday.
GKF stated that none of these associations are against Devanagri script, but their fight is with the Sahitya Akademi, for the damage it’s causing to the other four scripts of Konkani, like Romi and Kannada, by following the unjust ‘one language, one script’ policy, which goes against the very tenants of equality to all, enshrined in Article 14 of the Constitution, and Article 29 (1), which gives all minorities a fundamental right to safeguard and protect their language, script and culture.
“The Sahitya Akademi by adopting the one language one script policy, has done grave injustice to the very survival of the scripts and to the writers by denying them Sahitya awards and to the communities that use these scripts, in their daily walks of life,” said Afonso.
“The Sahitya Akademi does not specify the criteria followed by them for choosing Devanagari over other four scripts, nor is there any genuine reason to do so. Kannada and Roman scripts are older than Devanagari,” Afonso added.
Meanwhile, GKF will intensify its movement here in Goa, to pressurise the government to resolve the discrimination done to Roman script, by passing the bill for equal status to Roman script, and a bill for introducing Roman script in schools from Std I to Xth in a phased manner. GKF is currently in the process of meeting all MLAs to propose and get these two bills passed in the next Assembly session to be held in December.
GKF also met with academicians in Mangalore who have dealt with Konkani in the Roman Script.