EDITORIAL
Goa shouldn’t forget those who have contributed to our culture and society
By some coincidence, in the past few months, Goa has seen birth centenary celebrations of a number of prominent individuals and individuals who made a difference to our lives. This month similarly marks the birth centenary of Evágrio Jorge, freedom fighter and Konkani editor, born in March 1925. On Thursday afternoon, his birth centenary is being observed with a function in his village, Carmona in Salcete.
It is in the fitness of things that those who have contributed to our culture and society—and language is a big part of this—are remembered. An old Mexican belief says that a person dies three times: the first when their body ceases to function, the second when the body is consigned to the grave, and the third when their name is spoken for the last time. Going by this, those who contribute to society significantly live on.
Yet, with the passing of time, memories also recede. This is why the task of remembering is an important one. By paying tribute to Jorge, Goa also recalls the contribution of so many others who helped build local languages, working to give them a new lease of life. Today, when linguistic diversity comes under pressure, there is cause for concern, especially about the fate of the smaller tongues. Jorge is remembered for his involvement with ‘Uzvadd,’ an early post-Liberation attempt to build a Konkani daily.
There has been a debate about whether Konkani is an ‘endangered language’. Similarly, there has been concern over the unexplained decline in the number of Konkani speakers nationwide as enumerated by the last Census. Despite explanations, it might be safe to say that such issues are still to be fully understood and explained.
Of late, diverse approaches have been suggested on how best to take the language forward. These come up in terms of teaching Konkani in schools (and now, with the National Education Policy, in higher education, too); coping with diversity in the forms of scripts and dialects; and the role of the government in promoting languages used by the people of Goa. Recently, discussing the displacement of smaller languages by larger ones, it was noted that the loss of a language can be connected with the erasure of a rich legacy. Writer Rasul Gamzatov argues, “When people abandon their language, they lose their soul as well.”
Jorge incidentally played a forgotten role in the June 18 movement, led a political party called the Liga Regional (the Regional League), and was one of the founders of the National Congress (Goa). An accident killed him and another freedom fighter, Mark Fernandes of Calangute, in August 1978, on the footpaths of Panaji, near the Panjim Residency. But after championing the political cause, he saw it fit to work in the field of language, giving a hint of the importance he gave this sphere.
In the 21st century, the best tribute might be to appreciate the role today’s technology could play in revitalising centuries-old languages. Last week itself, the expat Alden do Rosario announced an early version of Uttor Chat, a Romi Konkani ChatGPT-like tool online. To train such artificial intelligence (AI) tools, a lot of text from past publications is needed to be scanned, digitised, and deployed. It is time for libraries, language researchers, educational institutions, and others to pool in to assist such attempts.
