A policy of conversion was also followed in these Portuguese territories which reduced the Hindu population considerably.
In the territories adjoining the Old Conquests outside Portuguese control that the population moved to, Marathi priests officiated in religious ceremonies of the migrant population and also acted as teachers, which resulted in Marathi being taught and thereby becoming a second language of sorts for many Hindus.
Konkani continued to remain the spoken language. The close Konkani-Marathi connection obviously helped. Marathi was also a well-developed literary language by this time and used as such by many Konkani speakers who were now educated in Marathi.
In , Portugal extended its conquests by incorporating the remaining areas of what is today Goa. This resulted in the Konkani population in Goa now being consolidated in a single territory. In such a situation, various contradictions surfaced. In the New Conquests, predominantly Hindu, while Konkani was spoken, it was regarded as inferior to Marathi, a situation that the renowned Konkani writer Damodar Mauzo says resulted in many people making a peculiar claim: we speak Konkani, but our mother tongue is Marathi.
There were Konkani speakers outside Goa too at this point, but their history in those areas follows a different trajectory as opposed to the Konkanis who were now living together in Goa under Portuguese rule.
In Kerala, the migration of Konkani speakers dates back to the 12th century. The migration of Konkani speakers to the Mangalore region began in the 15th and 16th centuries.
Both these initial migrations appear to be economic. The final migration from the Old to the New Conquests is clearly due to Portuguese oppression. Owing to the spread of Konkani speakers all along the Konkan and Malabar coasts, all living in different linguistic zones, Konkani came to be written in as many as five scripts: Devanagari, Kannada, Malayalam, Roman and Perso-Arabic this was by Konkani-speaking Navayath Muslims.
The Portuguese did not encourage either Konkani or Marathi and instead attempted to make Portuguese the language of Goa. This achieved extremely limited success, with only a tiny elite opting for Portuguese.
The late 19th century however saw a Konkani revival spearheaded by the Saraswat Brahmin community mostly centred in Bombay. In Goa itself, Konkani remained the spoken language though the Marathi influence was also evident in many walks of life. This remained the state of affairs till Post , a dichotomy of sorts emerged with the Saraswat Brahmans traditional landlords and the Christians batting for Konkani in newly-liberated Goa and the lower Hindu castes Bahujan Samaj batting for Marathi and, in fact, actively pushing for integration with Maharashtra the Konkani as a Marathi dialect presumption made this a plausibility.
This was in spite of many from the Bahujan Samaj being Konkani speakers. Since words used by the two communities differ in meaning and sometimes in pronunciation, the issue seems deadlocked. In Kerala, the language is represented in Malayalam script while in coastal Karnataka, it is written in Kannada and Persian-Arabic scripts.
While Portuguese rulers are blamed for trying to eradicate Konkani culture, the Indian government too has played a role towards its destruction. Indian Air Force bombed the Portuguese radio station, Emisora de Goa during preemptive raids before launching a land and naval assault on the state.
Consequently, recordings of Konkani plays and songs made during the Portuguese era were destroyed. Indian authorities, especially All India Radio is struggling to find equipment that can play old recordings, in a bid to digitize whatever remains. Recordings owned by old music companies are inaccessible due to lawsuits. Despite these bleak scenarios, there are some efforts to revive Konkani to whatever extent possible. In , about seven million people spread across Maharashtra, Goa, Karnataka and Kerala spoke Konkani.
Migration to Portugal and other parts of India over the last 11 years would definitely have denuded this number. Hence, independent movements in Goa and Karnataka are working to revive the language before it becomes altogether extinct. Several organizations now flourish in Goa and Karnataka, among other places, to keep the language alive.
People from Goa residing in North America, Europe and countries of the Middle East have socio-cultural organizations where Konkani is celebrated and used. Recognizing the rapid decline, various organizations are playing a key role of preserving and promoting use of Konkani language. Combined efforts of these and other organizations helped establishment of the World Konkani Center in Mangalore, Karnataka.
The facility was opened on January 17, and aims at preserving the language across India and among Konkani speaking Indian diaspora worldwide. Konkani Rocks, a Panaji, Goa based entertainment brand brings renowned and budding Konkani singers together to hold shows in the state and elsewhere.
Even as efforts are made to revive Konkani, the language seems to be fading. A clear example is, there are no broadcast or satellite TV stations in India that offer exclusively Konkani programs, though there is no dearth of artists. Original songs by popular Konkani artist and movies are hard to find at music stores and YouTube.
Further, individuals are using decline of Konkani to further their political interests rather than preserve the ancient language and culture. Any talk of reviving Konkani therefore leaves an aftertaste of political agendas rather than a cultural move.
Given these scenarios, extremely serious and concentrated efforts are required to preserve Konkani language and its culture. Information about Konkani Numbers Tower of Babel. Get 3 months Audible membership for just 99p. If you need to type in many different languages, the Q International Keyboard can help.
It enables you to type almost any language that uses the Latin, Cyrillic or Greek alphabets, and is free. If you like this site and find it useful, you can support it by making a donation via PayPal or Patreon , or by contributing in other ways.
Omniglot is how I make my living. Note : all links on this site to Amazon. This means I earn a commission if you click on any of them and buy something. So by clicking on these links you can help to support this site. Some Catholic priests have also contributed immensely to the language by producing dictionaries and other literary works. Political changes once again affected Konkani in a major way in when the Inidan army overthrew Portuguese rule.
The state, which was hitherto insulated from other neighboring Indian states saw massive demographic changes occurring suddenly. During recent times, this language is overshadowed by its bigger sister language Marathi from the neighboring state of Maharashtra.
A flood of immigrants arrived from Maharashtra into Goa threatening to submerge the Konkani language and make them a minority in their own homeland. The tendency of many Marathi speakers to consider Konkani as a dialect rather than a language contributed further to the rift between the two speakers. Many Goan Hindus adopted Marathi for purposes of convenience as many left the state in search of jobs to Bombay. In addition to this, the migration of the intelligentsia from these areas into the big cities of India and abroad as well as the lack of support from the State Governments have further compounded the problems faced by Konkani speakers.
The modern use of English as the lingua franca and its wide literary use has also meant that Konkani has been relegated to mainly home use especially for the urban Konkani speakers. Several score dialects exist among the Konkani language each being influenced by the presence of the different languages that they co-exist with.
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