BY NANDKUMAR KAMAT
GOA’S and Konkani’s first Gyanpeeth recipient Ravindra Kelekar died in the quinquenial centenary year of Portuguese conquest of Goa and foundation of colonialism in Afro-Asian countries. He also died in a year when the vibrant republican era (1910-26) in Goa, Daman and Diu under the Portuguese would have completed a century.

He died at a stage when Goan society, under the compulsion of market forces and runaway consumerism is making a rapid post globalisation transition to a multicultural, cosmopolitan, Anglo centric, service sector dominated affluent and fully urbanised society. It is difficult to predict the final outcome of this transition but the Goa 10 years from today would not be the state of Kelekar’s dreams.
Challenges before Konkani
For past 20 years Kelekar was very bitter about this expected transition which negated his romantic view of Goan unity using the trisutri of “one language, one script and one society”. He even talked openly about neo-expansionist agenda of Konkani–the geopolitical integration of adjoining ‘Konkani’ speaking regions. He had felt that the fruits of opinion poll were wasted because of ‘demographic submergence’ of Goa–his fear of Goa getting flooded and eventually ruled by non-Konkani speakers who he thought would not be able to identify themselves with Goa’s cultural ethos. How the world viewed this stalwart? There were six different responses and reactions after his death which showed that very few people had seriously read anything written by him in Devanagari Konkani.
This is a big challenge before Konkani–how to make people buy and read Konkani literature. Even the students of languages and literature have poor reading habits. Reading of youth today is restricted to Internet browsing and digital reading. But even Internet did not take any notice of Kelekar’s death. It confirmed my decade long ethological observation of critical subdivisions of educated section of the highly-urbanised Goan society. We have a Lusophilic Goa, an Anglophilic Goa, the Goa of supporters of Konkani and Marathi, the Goa of NRIs and finally a huge neo Goan–a section which is generally neutral or immune to any local event.
This is another challenge before Konkani–how to fuse or weld these sections together with a common agenda. A new Goa is emerging and it would be claimed by all the citizens who need not necessarily use Konkani. After the news of Kelekar’s death spread, the smaller Lusophilic Goan section went about its’ way as if nothing had happened and even had a well-publicised celebration when the state was officially mourning Kelekar’s demise. This section is in perpetual mode of self-denial of their Goan and Konkani identity. There was considerable enthusiasm in Goa in 1998 to denounce colonialism during quinquenial centenary celebration of Vasco da Gama’s voyage to India.
Kelekar died in a year when the whole state and nation should have been discussing positive and negative impacts of Portuguese colonialism on Goan, Indian and Afro-Asian societies in a very vigorous manner. Konkani was not subjugated by any Maharashtrian or Kannada ruler. The Portuguese were the worst enemies of Konkani and Marathi. They engaged in a systematic cultural genocide. The affluent section in Goa also disowned Konkani. There is a mysterious undeclared ceasefire among intellectuals and public animators in the quinquenial centenary year of Portuguese conquest of Goa. This ‘please all and hurt none, forgive and forget’ diplomatic or overcautious attitude would encourage only uncritical, centrifugal and subservient tendencies.
Mourning Kelekar’s Death
Ravindrabab’s ideological idol–Shenoy Goembab had written a well-researched and highly-readable Konkani monograph “Albuquerkan Goem kashe jikhalem?” (How Albuquerque conquered Goa) to mark 4 centuries of the conquest. Is the time not ripe now for a healthy discourse on colonial and post-colonial status of Goa and Konkani? Precisely 5 centuries ago, Afonso de Albuquerque was plotting capture of Goa to lay down foundation of a colony which aimed to engineer a neo-Eurasian society at the cost of Goa’s Indian ethos.
In neo-liberated Goa, Kelekar’s whole life was devoted to restore what Portuguese constantly denied–the rightful place of Konkani. The growing and expanding, self-assured, techno-savvy, culturally, socially and politically well-networked Anglophilic section was expectedly subdued in paying its’ homage to the departed writer. How would it tolerate Kelekar’s staunch defence of education in mother tongue? The challenge before Konkani is to make the Goan anglophiles translate best of the Konkani novels, short stories, poetry and plays in English.
In mourning over Kelekar’s death, Goa’s Konkani world rose to the occasion and showed considerable unity, even sinking differences over the script, displaying a rare sign of political maturity. The Marathi world which had ambivalent attitude towards late Ravindrabab was measured in its’ response and by keeping aside serious ideological differences took gracious note of his demise as a great loss for Indian literature. The most shocking was the virtual silence of half a million strong Goan NRI community. It may be due to the failure of Goa’s Konkani organisations to build and sustainably maintain a global network. None of the celebrities abroad who otherwise are very vocal on other issues were forthcoming with their tributes. It is a challenge before Konkani to reach out to them and bring them into the mainstream of Konkani’s modern literary and cultural movement.
Realistic Agenda for Konkani
For sections of others outside these five worlds, Kelekar was just a curiosity which became intense on account of the state mourning. Ravindrabab did not have glamour like legendary Kannada actor Rajkumar whose death had also seen two days state mourning in Karnataka. He was a simpleton surrounded by books and visitors. What’s the use of pointing to his library in Priol and singing glories of his reading interest when every Konkani lover has the capacity today to build his own home library? It still takes an edition of five thousand Konkani books ten years to be sold out. A wedding reception costs rupees half a million but the same people hesitate to spend half a thousand rupees on books. Not a single law of Goa is available in Konkani translation. Kelekar died without having the opportunity to see the official gazette of Goa in Konkani.
For the young generation of Goa, English is the ‘de facto’ official language. Ravindrabab did not say it directly but he knew that languages just don’t survive without total visibility in social, cultural, political, administrative and economic space and fresh, healthy recruitments of speakers, readers and writers in every generation. In the post-Kelekar age, Konkani would need a new, realistic agenda to survive but is that possible when my own post-graduate students at Goa University ask me innocently who he was? That sums up the stark, naked and unpalatable reality which we face but prefer to deny everyday.