Uniting for Goa is the need of the hour -- By Jose Maria Miranda

Jose Maria Miranda

Goa will be going to the polls in around seven months’ time. Yet, it seems early to decide which Party will get our vote. Perhaps, none of the Parties, in the fray, will deserve being voted for. And, perhaps, it would, once again, be a negative vote to prevent the rise of an undeserving candidate.

It is rather disheartening that this time too, we could be in a dilemma: Either undeserving candidates thrust on us or if one or two happen to be different, they are unlikely to save their deposits. Hence, a vote for these could only favour an unwanted. People of good standing or of known integrity are generally unwilling to enter politics, solely because these very qualities come in the way of them being elected. Often, they themselves are apprehensive, not so much that they may not be able to resist temptations, but that they may not be strong enough to withstand pressures and thus refuse to sail with the tide. After all, the development of one’s constituency depends often on one’s ability to keep one’s mouth shut or to toe the line. And that is, unfortunately, the sole measure of the representative’s capabilities. Fear of defeat is also a major factor deterring people from venturing into the election arena. And this stems from the fact that good people are generally unwanted by most, because of their unwillingness in obliging law violators. A retired Chief Justice once remarked that corruption starts from the bottom. I beg to differ. It is the elected representatives who have trained their constituents to go ahead with illegalities, generally at a price or in return for votes or other favours. Had, on the contrary, people been warned that illegalities would be punished, we would have not reached a stage where an Act was brought to regularize illegalities.

If our democracy worked well initially, it was solely because our elected representatives and even our bureaucrats were of different mettle. They were generally honest and of impeccable character, who felt that they needed to be accountable to the people. Their conscience demanded that they do what is right and perhaps even feared being dishonest or unscrupulous. People, at times, would accept moral culpability for acts or accidents which they were not directly responsible for. Lal Bahadur Shastri’s offer of resignation, as Railway Minister, was rejected when a train accident in Mahbubnagar killed 112 people in 1956. But, it was eventually accepted when he again insisted on the loss of 144 lives in another mishap, a little later, in Ariyalur in TN. Nehru, while reluctantly accepting his resignation, stated emphatically that he was doing so solely to set an example in constitutional propriety. Can today’s politicians, even those holding the highest positions in the country, ever match the highly dignified behaviour of our revered ex-Prime Minister Shastri?

In Goa, perhaps there are no regrets that Congress was driven out but surely there are that a worse Party was brought to power. Goans are a desperate lot today, having witnessed the betrayal of trust and cheating both by Congress and BJP. We cannot afford it again. Having tasted the inefficient, ineffective and corrupt rule of the first and the equally corrupt, but surely much more destructive and highly despotic rule of the second, we Goans ought to have come together to have a credible Goa-centric Party. But it may remain a distant dream. While there may be dearth of qualities and caliber of leadership in many of us, surely there isn’t of people who love Goa immensely and are angry at the wanton destruction of our land by greedy and unscrupulous politicians and their accomplices. But our inflated egos, minor hurts, crab mentality, suspicious nature of distrusting or mistrusting everyone, doubting one’s sincerity and our inability to sink petty differences for the sake of a greater cause, have stood in the way of us coming together for the love of Goa. Sadly, these shortcomings seem a part of our ethos.

Though surveys and our own assessment indicate large scale discontentment against the present dispensation, we need to be reminded that BJP got a substantial majority in Lok Sabha, despite a vote share of only 31%. This is sure to happen if anti-BJP forces do not unite in Goa. It is difficult to convince political leaders to stay away, particularly when they overestimate themselves or have other dubious reasons to contest. But that is not the case with the group of credible citizens and spirited activists who have come together with the sole desire of uniting for Mother Goa. They are genuine and selfless and their love for Goa can never be in doubt. But for these very reasons, it may be imprudent for them, at this stage, to turn into a political force, giving margin to further vote splits and defeating the very purpose of their unity.

Our greatest blessing in this country has been the united efforts of Opposition parties to derail the obnoxious and determined plans of the BJP to impose their agenda of religious and casteist hatred among the people of India. Besides the minorities, the dalits and a good section of students are also up in arms. The BJP will not have it easy in the country. But when parties from various regions, with different ideologies can unite because the need of the hour is not to allow a greater enemy to rise, why can’t this smallest State emulate them, if our love for Goa is sincere and we are willing to put its interests above our own? Is it too much of a sacrifice for our land and our people?

 

The Return of the Ghost of Official Language -- By Fr. Victor Ferrao

Fr. Victor Ferrao

Can we avoid an oedipal relation to the issue of official language that has come to haunt us again? An oedipal response is always triggered by anxiety and fear.  Perhaps, we will have to be watchful lest we become captive to the Oedipus complex. We Goans seem to be living with a fractured self. The mother tongue controversy is also one ground that fragments us.  Konkani in spoken as well as written form is determinable. The mode of speaking and writing of Konkani has religious, regional as well as caste lines that draw lines of division among the people both in Goa and beyond it. If it was possible to remove all these lines of division and reach an ideal Konkani, will we have any Konkani left at all? Will not such an abstraction of Konkani only blow away our mother tongue? Konkani lives and breathes in its speakers and writers and hence, always remain in its pilgrim condition. Hence, like all other classical languages that died on the altar of standardization, Konkani might die if we snuff out its plural nature.  In fact, the return of the ghost of Official language seems to draw its teeth from a reductive ‘nagrization’ of Konkani. Most Goans appear to agree that ‘nagrized’ Konkani does not represent all speakers and writers of Konkani.  This sense of being left out by the Official language may be the under current that fires a sense of dissatisfaction which irrupts often in different ways in our society. Hence, there is a profound resistance to a singularized representation of Konkani.

The question that we may need to ask: Can we really represent the profound vibrancy, creative fertility and dynamic plurality of Konkani? Can the legal aspect represent the social, psychological, linguistic and anthropological dimensions of Konkani? Language like music resists our tendency to capture it into reductive and static categories. Hence, we need to understand that the dynamism of Konkani requires us to accept a kind of non-unitary approach that is open to the excess or surplus that is both enmeshed and springs forth from our mother tongue. This means we are challenged to interrogate the uncritical acceptance of Konkani as self same through binary of identity (same) and difference. By this logic every other forms of Konkani are de-Konkanized and set aside. But can the fertility and dynamism of Konkani be de-Konkanized in the power of law?  It appears that the oedipal hand of law is inadequate. Hence, we are challenged to recognise that Konkani cannot be fully represented in caged legal, religious, national and even caste categories, though all of them cross lines within it. There is always the other Konkani that resists such reductive thinking.  Hence, Konkani resists its devaluation and degradation that is imposed with the arm of law in Goa. That is why a non-unitary mode of thinking of Konkani might assist us understand why the ghost of the official language has come back to haunt us after thirty peaceful years. 

It might assist us to understand the dynamic plurality of Konkani if we continue this detour into musicology. Music is enjoyed and appreciated by humans because it lends itself to recognition of a sense of repetition of an experience. It is this sense of repetition that draws humans and leads them to identify some sameness which produces pleasant, enjoyable and meaningful affects.   Like the musical experience, Konkani, both in its spoken as well as written forms works within the logic of sameness that is recognised and construed. But every repeated experience of music is never the same. Indeed, a repeated musical experience leads us to actualize the experience of joy and content in different degrees the virtual potentials that embedded in it. This means every repeated experience is somewhat new. The same is true about Konkani. It is through the recognition of repetition that bestows on its speakers a sense of joy and meaningfulness of life as Goans, that Konkani lives and flowers. It is in this recognition of relation of repetition and difference that we can see how every repeated speaking or writing of Konkani is creating difference. This construction of difference in the very act of speaking , writing  and even thinking becomes the spring board for the eruption of the other Konkanis. Unfortunately, this other Konkanis are viewed as corrupted and are deemed as causes of disruption. The truth is Konkani can only be Konkani by inscribing difference into it. If we fail to recognize this difference speaking in and through Konkani and view it in positive terms, Konkani is certain to die.

The de-recognition of difference that is pouring out of Konkani is the cause of the return of the ghost of the official language. The rejection of the Romi version of Konkani has led a sizable number of Catholics in Goa to seek substitute in English. The perception of caste difference that is gushing forth from the ‘nagrized’ version of Konkani has already pushed the bahujan Hindus towards Marathi.  In some way we may have to grant that it is the absence of the mother tongue that produces a sense of loss that seems to be pushing some Catholics and the Hindu bahujans  towards English and Marathi respectively. Everyone is inscribing difference in taking these positions. But unfortunately this difference is put on a ladder of hierarchy of purity and pollution and thus converted into a cultural capital that feeds into narcissism and its surrogates across all lines of the above divide. Thus, the out pouring of difference in Konkani not just constructs other Konkanis in Goa but also degrades some of them. The degradation mainly happens because a certain difference that springs forth from a ‘nagrized’ Konkani is put into a static mould and is regarded as a measure or standard scale for every other Konkani. That is why we are challenged to hear the inter-voices springing forth from Konkani. There may not be a final solution to the language issue in the days to come. The law that grated official language status to Konkani seems to have failed our society. The wounds have not yet been healed and slight provocation might put us into a conflict mode. This law has oedipalized in as much as it silenced and pushed the other speakers of Konkani into latency. The latent other speakers of Konkani have become anti-oedipus and are resisting their infantalization loudly. Therefore, we might understand that it is in recognition of the reducible plurality of speaking and writing of Konkani by everyone across the lines of divide that we might bring healing and closure to this complex discomforting issue that has returned to haunt us.

Sausage Empadao (Pie)

Requirements:-

100 Goan sausages

12 big mashed Potatoes.

Onions.

Garlic.

About 1 or 2 tbs of flour

(according to the amount of meat used)

Milk

Salt,

Pepper

Egg yolk

Preparation

Cut open the sausage cover and separate the meat. Slice onion and garlic. Cook it in a pan, add the flour stir very well, add milk and cook for a few minutes until you get a creamy meat mixture.

Add a dash of salt and pepper.

Put a layer of mashed potatoes, spread the meat over it and then cover it with a second layer of mashed potatoes over the meat. Ensure that the meat is covered.

Brush the top with the beaten yolk.

Bake in the pre-heated oven (180ºC) until the top is light golden