Media Release
Bangalore, Jun 13: It was welcome departure to words like good morning, good afternoon, good evening, good night and thank you, and replacing them with Konkani greetings like “DevBoriSakalDeenv” “DevBoroDees Deenv” ‘DevBoroDonparDeenv” “DevBoriSaanzDeenv” “DevBoriRaatDeenv” and “DevBoremKorum” as Konkani Kalaratn and Mandd Sobhann Gurkaar Eric Ozario set the tone for ‘Konkani niyall’ conducted under the aegis of Konkani Cathoilic Sangh, Infant Jesus Church, Mudalapalya, Bengaluru.
Joining them were Konkani Christian Association, Kengeri Satellite Town, and Konkani Catholic Sangh,Vijayanagar, Bengaluru. The Konkani Niyall was held at Infant Jesus Church, Moodalapalya, Bangalore on June 9.
While explaining the richness of Konkani Language and its culture, the language that is spoken by nearly 50 lakh Indians across the country, more particularly along the western coast of India, he explained lack lustre approach and non allegiance by Konkani speaking people in owning up their mother tongue, has resulted setback of sorts to Konkani in general and creative activities in particular.
Such approach is purely because people do not realize the importance of “Purvojanthavn Aoillen Dirven”which our elders were so proud of and took care in passing on to us. But the failure in sustaining it in our way of life which is the cause of present day malady, he noted. Any inferiority to speak our mother tongue or sense of pride in speaking English even at home, damages self esteem/respect, he explained.
No wonder then, it is the yeomen service and tremendous effort of some writers and individuals which has secured Konkani a place of pride, being in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution and presently official language of Goa. Govt of Karnataka too, constituted a separate State level academy in 1994 and accorded the third optional language for study in the educational institutions in 2007.As many as 70 children are passing out of SSLC board exams, this year he said.
Underlying the need to have the language of the people or the mother tongue as the language in liturgy, Eric Ozario explained the decimation of Latin language hitherto numero uno all over the world but reduced to being extinct as a result of Second Vatican council according the vernacular languages as a medium in liturgy.He appealed to check mate the decline of our mother tongue, by striving to the growth of our culture and more importantly our language.
Dictating the Ten Commandments for the survival of Konkani and the follow up efforts, he urged the people to pray to God, to write and speak only in Konkani without adulterating it. He also urged the people to support writers and activities like drama, music etc by actively participating or buying Konkani magazines/music cds etc…
Touching the sensitive subject of recent attacks by some activists on churches where Konkani mass is being held, he requested people to demand the use of mother tongue in the liturgy, which is a guaranteed right under Constitution and in accordance with the Canon Law. Such attacks are mostly due to indifference of Konkani speaking people to assert and silence is construed as weakness. Konkani speaking people must represent their written requests to the respective parish priest and Archbishop and be prepared to wage legal battle, he said. However, he cautioned to say that the fight in favor of Konkani in liturgy was not aimed against any other language, but to retain konkani in dev stuthi is only and sure means of developing our mother tongue.
Later, Vincent Miranda, former president of Konkani Catholic Sangh, Moodalapalya thanked Eric Ozario for the efforts to promote Konkani. He also thanked the people who came far corners of the city and requested them to organize such initiatives, which will definitely make a Konkani mass a reality within a year, in the Bengaluru city.