MARGAO
The Global Konkani Forum (GKF) has said the two-day ongoing seminar of Sahitya Akademi which promotes only Devanagiri has no relevance in Goa, since Goa is a land where Konkani literature is produced in two scripts, namely, Roman and Devanagiri.
In the process of adopting one script, one language policy, GKF Secretary Salvador Fernandes has said Sahitya Akademi has done injustice to other scripts of Konkani, going against its own vision of uniting varied and diverse literary and cultural traditions of India through literature which enriches a language, in this case particularly Konkani.
“The Sahitya Akademi in its meeting of General Council, held on 26 February, 1976 has passed the resolution recognising Konkani as an independent modern literary language. But the Sahitya Akademi’s Konkani Advisory Board which does not have equal representation of all scripts and having a majority of board members consisting of hard-core supporters of Devanagiri, passed a unanimous decision in 1981, declaring Devanagiri as the official script of Konkani,” he said.
He added: “Since Sahitya Akademi while recognising Konkani as an independent modern literary language did not mention any script, how the advisory board, meant only to advice the Akademi can take the decision that Devanagiri is the official script of Konkani, even when it did not evolve for Konkani? It has to be kept in mind, that the advisory board under no circumstances, and under no rule/ law is binding on the Sahitya Akademi.”
Salvador said the lop-sided decision taken by the advisory board has used its manipulative skills to block the progress of Konkani in other scripts. “This is a clear indication that its members suggesting the Devanagiri script for Konkani only helps to stagnant other scripts rather than enriching the language, thereby creating divisions and hatred among the Konkani community across the states,” he said, adding ‘despite Devanagiri being the third most prolific Konkani script after Kannada and Roman, the Sahitya Akademi is disregarding and neglecting Konkani literature in other scripts’.
Sahitya Akademi condemned for neglecting other Konkani scripts
