Frederick Noronha
The other day, an unexpected but welcome visitor turned up. A hurried visit by Jose Silveira SJ, the priest who has been at the helm of the Thomas Stephens Konknni Kendr (at Alto Porvorim) in recent times brought in two welcome,
modest volumes.
What showed up turned out to be two issues of Sôd, the research journal from the Jesuit-run Konkani research centre. TSKK was started at Miramar, and then shifted over to
Alto Porvorim.
Its research journal is named Sôd, meaning ‘The Search’. Now in its 27th issue, it has perhaps seen better days. The journal was set up when Dr. Mathew Almeida SJ and Dr Pratap Naik SJ were heading the institution. Both were committed to their vision in building this research centre, despite the challenges of setting it up.
At one level, Sôd is a modest publication, especially in appearance. But a useful one. It comes in a single-colour cover (not black), and the green paper it’s printed on gives the impression of it almost being colour printed. But more than the obvious financial struggle such a publication involves, there is also a challenge of getting suitable articles for publication each time a new issue is put out here.
So how does Sôd fare this time?
The two issues are issues 26 and 27, covering 2024 and 2025 respectively. Like earlier issues, each one comes with between 10 to 14 standalone and independent articles related to the world of Konkani and wider Goan research in the language.
Vol 26 explains (in Konkani): “Sôd was first published in November 2000. Its launch was done by Fr. Mathew Almeida, SJ, who was its editor for a good many years. Those who toil for Sôd (Konkani research) and its potential writers are rather few in number. This is the main reason why the publication of the 25th issue of the journal was a matter of joy. The seed that Fr. Mathew planted out of his love for Konkani has grown into a tree.”
This journal is about Konkani, primarily. But it is also of interest to anyone who is keen on knowing more about Goa generally.
For instance, Issue 27 contains articles on a range of locally-relevant topics. Artist and comparative mythology professor Vidya Kamat writes on oral narratives and tribal literature in post-1961 Goa. Historian Sushila Sawant Mendes focuses on balancing topography and heritage “for sustainable tourism in Goa”.
Other articles touch on a scientific approach to studying Goa’s tribals in the 21st century (Nandkumar Kamat); 16th and 17th century Christian religious literature; the work ‘Mee Kon?’ by Rajaram Rangaji Paiginkar seeking social reform in the early 20th century Goa (Varsha V Kamat).
Other articles deal with folklore and fairy tales (Pandurang Faldesai); a review of a work of poetry (Bhushan Bhave); Goa’s culinary heritage (Melinda F Pereira); translating the works ‘Charushila’ and ‘Kistu’ (Fr. Luis Xavier Gomes) and Fr. Roman Rodrigues on the mando-dulpod.
There’s a wide range of topics being covered, but what Goa perhaps still lacks is enough people writing on local topics. The easy way out is perhaps to approach known names to seek contributions, when working to put together a collection of this kind. That is only to be expected.
As a general reader, one is sometimes left with a feeling of inadequacy, when some articles adopt the academic style of quoting copious research from elsewhere. Navigating the text in two languages and as many scripts (English and Konkani, Nagari and Romi) can be a bit of a challenge at times. It might help if every article had an abstract in the language or script it was not written in, so as to improve comprehension of the work
as a whole.
The previous year’s volume, meanwhile, has 13 contributions and an editorial note. Three are in English, and the rest in Nagari. Only the editorial note is in Romi. This indicates the mis-match between supply and demand in the world of Konkani writing, especially of the academic kind. We obviously need better ways to get around this.
Professor Kiran Budkuley’s focus on NLP (Natural Language Processing) in Konkani in relation to the National Educational Policy NEP of 2020 focuses on the role machine translation and AI could play in Konkani.
Beyond the promise, the technicalities and the jargon, one wonders how much actual impact has been attained by such fields specifically for languages like Konkani. We have been hearing of such projects since the 1990s. Central Government funding has been allocated for Konkani too. But the fruits are yet to materialise, in most cases.
As Budkuley’s article notes: “The requirements of the Konkani language, in relation to its technologically better-placed sister languages, are not merely of increasing the quantum of content but also of diminishing the margin of error and enhancing the degree of dis-ambiguity
of data.”
One would suspect that it’s not just a question of Konkani being in a technologically worse off position. It probably has more to do with the fact that the language has a limited number of speakers, spread out over a large geographical area, is a language that gets used less, and all its diversity is not taken into account. Or treated with equality.
Essays in this volume also focus on the Ramayana (by Bhushan Bhave, Prakash Vajrikar, Nandkumar Kamat, Jayanti Naik, Fr Victor Ferrao, Zilu Laxman Gaonkar, Vidya Kamat Parthan, Anil Pai, Laxman Krishna Pitre). Sampada Kunkolienkar writes on Gandhian thought and its
current relevance.
This brings us to another related point: Goa is currently quite starved of its own research journal/s. It might be right to say that we here don’t even have one serious one at the moment. Those that exist, are limping along, and find it difficult to
sustain themselves.
Of course, it’s tough to source content and build academic contributions. Much work needs to be done in this field. When a seminar is called for, and the occasion arises, then the writing flows. But otherwise, little seems to be happening.
Another possible reason is that higher education has so far focussed strongly on getting published in ‘recognised’ and ‘reputed’ journals. This means, the smaller, newer ones have little potential for growth.
This leads to an unfortunate situation: the older and established journals are clogged with too much content, while the newer ones fail to get the support needed to grow. Some two or three decades later, we might still be in the same situation, if nothing is done to change it.
