THE frenzy over Marathi in Maharashtra may cast a shadow over the unique and distinct identity of Goa. It may yet provoke revival of the demand to make Marathi the official language of Goa. The present frenzy in Maharashtra was provoked by the decision of the Central government. It wants to impose Hindi as the compulsory language in schools in Maharashtra.
This follows the decision to implement the three-language formula as part of the new educational policy. Under the three-language formula every student in the country is expect to learn the regional local language of the state. In addition students are required to compulsorily study Hindi which has been given the status of the national language.
The first state to raise the banner of revolt against the imposition of Hindi was Tamil Nadu. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin made it clear that Hindi is not acceptable to the southern states as a link language. The southern states have never accepted Hindi as the national language of the country.

IMPOSITION OF HINDI
IT was the Shiv Sena group led by Uddhav Thackeray, the son of the late Bal Thackeray, who first raised the issue of the imposition of Hindi in Maharashtra, particularly in schools. The Shiv Sena, which was originally founded by Bal Thackeray to preserve and promote Marathi pride, has been hijacked by Eknath Shinde, a rebel leader who supports the BJP government in Maharashtra. Eknath Shinde, who led the coalition with the BJP, is now the deputy chief minister in the Devendra Fadnivas BJP government. Eknath Shinde does not object to Hindi being made compulsory at the primary level in the schools in Maharashtra.
Now this has united the Thackeray cousins Uddhav and Raj Thackeray, who had split more than two decades ago. They came together at a huge rally in Mumbai united in defense of the Marathi language. The BJP government in Maharashtra was compelled to withdraw the order making Hindi compulsory at the primary level.
The bowing to the outrage and the passion for Marathi is that the new educational policy had been modified to make Marathi compulsory and Hindu optional. It would appear that the Marathi revival movement may revive the demand for merger of Goa with Maharashtra.

MARATHI LOBBYISTS
EVER since Pramod Sawant came to power the Marathi lobby has been becoming stronger in Goa. Pramod Sawant himself claims to be a Maratha and is part of the Marathi lobby. Recently, a mega Marathi meeting was held in Ponda demanding that Marathi should be made the official language of the state on par with Konkani.
Under the official language bill that was passed in 1987, Konkani has been declared as the official language of the Goa. In fact, it was only after Konkani was declared as the official language that Goa received statehood. This is because states in India have been organized on the basis of predominant language spoken by the people of the state.
Statehood for Goa was delayed because Konkani traditionally did not have a common script. Indeed, the Marathi lobby in the state dismissed Konkani as a dialect of Marathi. Since Pramod Sawant came to power as chief minister the Marathi lobby has received greater patronage and support from the state government, than the Konkanimogi.
RECENTLY, Pramod Sawant declared that the government was not in favor of closing down Marathi-medium primary schools. This is in the wake of reports that a large number of government Marathi primary schools had to be shut down as parents were not willing to send their children to Marathi-medium primary schools. It is another matter that parents are equally reluctant to send their children to Konkani-medium primary schools.
There have always been criticism of the single teacher Marathi-medium primary schools. Almost one-third of the 600 existing Marathi-medium primary school are one-teacher schools, where a single teacher takes care of all classes from class one to class four.
Chief Minister Pramod Sawant himself admitted that parents preferred aided English-medium schools in urban areas to Marathi and Konkani-medium primary schools. No effort is spared in Goa to promote Marathi culture. A Marathi film festival organized by Vinsan Graphics has the backing of the Entertainment Society of Goa. The Marathi Film Festival claims to be showcasing the best Marathi films in the country. Even Goan filmmakers have been choosing to make Marathi films in preference to Konkani films.
The Marathi film festival which is being held on August 9 and 10 at Inox and Marcenes Palace, is to be inaugurated by Chief Minister Pramod Sawant. Ironically, the veteran Hindi superstar Akshay Kumar, has been invited to be the chief guest at the forthcoming Marathi film festival. This is partly because there is a much bigger market for Marathi films than for Konkani films, given that the population of Goa is just around 15 lakh and many Goans speak Marathi as easily as Konkani even today.
The Marathi lobby in Goa was very strong even before Liberation in 1961. There were offers to merge Goa with Maharashtra immediately after Goa was liberated. The MGP was floated by senior Maharashtra leaders like YB Chauhan and Vasantrao Naik who was then the chief minister of Maharashtra. The MGP was interestingly elected to power in the first general elections held in Goa. The MGP had informed the government and passed the resolution for the merger of Goa with Maharashtra. It is thanks to the Romi Konkani mogi and a strong yet smaller section of the Devanagiri Konkani supporters, that the conspiracy to merge Goa with Maharashtra was defeated in the Opinion Poll held in 1967. Undoubtedly, it is Konkani which is the mother tongue or “mai baash” of Goa.
Though Konkani was made the official language of Goa in 1987, the then Congress chief minister, Pratapsingh Raoji Rane in collusion with the MGP leader Ramakant Khalap, sabotaged the bill to confer equal official language status on Marathi. So much so the official language bill making Konkani the official language of Goa was never implemented. Even now the language of the administration and the courts in Goa continues to be English and not Marathi or Konkani.
Needless to say a lot of Goan Hindus continue to read and write in Marathi though they may speak Konkani on a daily basis at home. All the prayers and rituals in the temples in Goa are in Marathi and not in Konkani. Even the Ganesh aarti published every year is in Marathi and not in Konkani.

SCRIPT DIVISION
PART of the problem is that Goans united by Konkani are divided by script. Only a small minority of Goan Hindus write and read Konkani in the Devanagiri script which is the official language script of the state. Catholics in Goa do not understand Devanagiri Konkani. They have grown up with Romi Konkani and Goans abroad also support the Romi script for their Catholic religious scriptures. There are an estimated 50 lakh or more Konkani- speaking people of which less than ten lakh are in Goa.
Mangalore has more Konkani-speaking people than Goa. Konkani is now recognized as a literary language both in Karnataka and in Kerala. But the Sahitya Kala Academy only recognizes novels in the Devanagiri Konkani script when conferring literary awards. It is willing to consider books in Romi Konkani only if a translation is provided in Devanagiri Konkani.
GOANS and Konkani mogi have to be very cautious in the light of the new Marathi militancy started by the Shiv Sena in Maharashtra. Goans also have to fight against the imposition and promotion of Marathi culture in Goa. There is no reason why Goa should play host to Marathi literary events such as the Marathi Film Festival.
We hope niz Konkani mogi like Vijai Sardesai and Yuri Alemao will strongly take up the cause of any attempt to impose Marathi culture on Goa. Budding Goan politician Chirag Datta Naik, whose father has been a Konkani stalwart, can take the lead in reviving and promoting Konkani. Businessman, writer-human rights activist and Konkani mogi Datta Damador Naik, is on record that Romi should enjoy equal status with Devanagiri Konkani. We all have to join the battle again to preserve the unique identity of “Amche Goye.”