Let Youth, Tech, Food Fests unite Konkanis worldwide: Dr Shenoy
GOANEWS DESK, PANAJI | 22 January 2016 20:02 IST
The All India Konkani Parishad has appealed to all the Konkani organisations to unite the Konkani community worldwide through new technology and by mobilising the youth in order to achieve the ‘Panchsheel’ of Parishad that was set 77 years ago.
Dr Chandrashekhar Shenoy, who chaired 30th session of the Parishad held in Panaji today, has expressed regrets that the divided Konkani community has still not been able to achieve the goals for which the Parishad was constituted in 1939.
In his compact but thoughtful address, the Mumbai-based theatre personality reminded the audience of the Panchsheel drafted at the initiative of Madhav Manjunath Shanbhag at Karwar.
- 1. Cultural unity of Konkani people spread all over the country
- 2. Creating awareness and pride of Konkani
- 3. Standardisation of Konkani through all the dialects
- 4. Achieving Devanagari as a common script of Konkani for all
- 5. Development of Konkani language, literature and culture
Based on Noam Chomsky Theory, Dr Shenoy said the Konkani Gene has preserved the language in spite of attempts to supress it in Goa by the Portuguese while Konkani community spread out all over the world due to historical reasons, in India as well as abroad.
However, he also expressed regrets that ignorance about the strength of Konkani is still prevalent and the Parishad needs to create the Konkani pride and awareness among these ignorant Konkanis.
He thus suggested a three-point formula of providing achievements of Konkani people on one common platform through a website and social media, exchange programmes among various Konkani organisations and personally meeting the Konkani communities spread out at distant places including Gujarat and Chennai.
Stating that countries like USA have rejuvenated dead languages through education, Dr Shenoy said time has come to keep Konkani alive by teaching our children in Konkani at primary level.
“It is not only the responsibility of the government but also the school managements, teachers and parents to send their children to Konkani schools at primary level”, said Dr Shenoy, without making any mention of the ongoing Medium of Instruction controversy.
KONKANI FOOD FESTIVAL
Dr Shenoy, a cultural activist of the Konkani movement, observed that cultural activities of Konkani people have remained limited to their particular states like Goa, Mumbai, Kochi or Mangalore with no exchange programmes happening.
To overcome these limitations and cross the self-imposed boundaries, Dr Shenoy suggested a Konkani Food Festival.
“The road to one’s heart passes through stomach and we can unite the whole Konkani community spread all over the world by organising one Konkani Food Festival”, he proposed.
The theatre personality also proposed a Konkani Theatre Festival as well as Konkani media by having a common TV channel, FM Radio, Cinema, Daily and Magazine.
Similarly, he said, the Konkani movement should go for E-Books and Audio Books while using computer and Internet technology for transliteration of Konkani literature in different scripts.
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Speech of Dr Shenoy
