National Seminar on Scripts ad Languages in Modern India with Special Reference to Konkani-- A Report

A two-day National Seminar organised by Jagotik Konknni Songhotton on “Scripts ad Languages in Modern India with Special Reference to Konkani” was held on March 10 and 11, 2012 at Kalangann, Mangalore.

In his introduction to the seminar, General Secretary of Jagotik Konknni Songhotton, Eric Ozario clarified the official opposition of JKS that JKS was against the unilateral imposition of a single script on Konkani speaking people of all regions. He said that JKS was for recognition of all scripts but should there be a need for a single script for official reasons then the decision should be a democratic one. He said monoculture in the context of language and script of Konkani smacks of fascism. According to him one of the mail purposes of the seminar was to deliberate on the survival of Konakni in the globalisation context with reference to the scripts being used.

The keynote of the seminar was delivered by Valerian Rodrigues, Professor, Centre for Political Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi. He remarked that script and language mark civilisations. Although language and script are distinct they are related. The internal and external diasporic constitution of Konkani speakers need to be factored in. He stressed the need to defend the minority status of the language. Speaking on the question of resource he said it needs to be discussed whether the resources within Konkani go to the marginalised scripts and dialects within Konkani or to those which are prominent. He also discussed the need to stay with a script and yet explore ways of connecting to other scripts.

Speaking on “Script and Language: Relationship and Contentions” Anvita Abbi, Professor of Linguistics, Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi dwelt on the relationship between script and cultures with a contrast between scripts found in India with those of Europe, Egypt and China. She said all the scripts evolved in India are derivatives of Brahmi script. Since in India oral tradition was more predominant, the languages did not experiment on the aesthetics of the script, as against the Roman script. She also said that the Brahmi script was also a way of organising the phonetics system of the language. Due to these reasons, she pointed that the scripts were mutually intelligible. She also drew attention to the fact that scripts are also mediated by technologies and gave the example of Roman script being used by various language users to communicate via digital technologies. She also said that script diversity should not be seen as a burden but as a blessing. As a way of addressing the present crisis she suggested that Konkani could emulate her work on Great Andamanese where she brought out a dictionary of Great Andamanese using three scripts. She warned that shifting to one script or forcing people to use only one script could render users of other scripts illiterate overnight. She concluded with a reading of an extract from the resolution of the first session of the Konkani Parishad whose primary agenda was to resolve the script question and wondered whether nothing had changed in the script debates in the last seven decades.

The last programme of the day was presentation of the play Tulsi. The play was written by Arun Raj Rodrigues based on the novel by Ravindra Kelekar of the same name, directed Christopher, Ninasm and presented by Kalakul Repertory, Mangalore

On the second day, Alok Rai, Professor of English, Delhi University spoke on “Language, Script and Dominance in India”. That the audience came to know through Prof. Rodriguez that Alok was the grandson of Premchand added to the interest of the audience in his arguments. Rai presented the case of Urdu-Hindi language and script conflict in the late nineteenth and twentieth century. He delineated the origin of the Hindi-Urdu conflict and traced their historical trajectories culminating in the present dominance of Hindi over Urdu and attempts within Urdu to transliterate Urdu literature from Perso-Arabic to Nagari script. Using the analogy of Hindi-Urdu contentious relationship he argued that local contexts have their ramifications far beyond their original contexts. As the unrest grows a host of other political and economic issues join the initial context and the issue snowballs into a major struggle. He dwelt on the possibility of looking at the script issue in Konkani using this analogy. At the same time he also warned the dangers of adopting the analogy as such an attempt runs the risk of overlooking issues specific to the context it is applied to. Citing the words of his Sri Lankan friend he said that a demand for one language might create two nations whereas acceptance of two languages might create one nation. He concluded his presentation asking what would be lost if a script died?

Asha Sarangi, Centre for Political Studies, New Delhi who spoke on “Languages and Territory: Issues of Rights and Identities” brought in social science perspectives on the issue. She argued for locating the issue of multiple vs single script in Konkani within the larger political and social history and the present political and linguistic context in India. She said that the language was linked to the social person. She drew attention to the fact that State Reorganisation committee did not make any reference to Konkani. She located the origin of Konkani in Dravidian and Austro-Asian language family rather than Indo-Aryan. She suggested that the Konkani language and script issue also needs to be seen in its relationship to territories. She felt that the role of print in shaping the existing divisions and debates on script needs to be explored. She questioned the relationship of Konkani with other languages namely, Tulu and Kannada, and the role and place of Konkani in state functions such as law, policy, education and cultural aspects such as music, and arts. She mentioned that while Tulu got a place long ago in Mangalore University, Konkani is yet to. She stressed the need to enumerate the practices of Konkani. She insisted on looking at the political economy dimension of the present issue. She said the issue of script could deepen the question of language as a political right and a cultural right. She indicated that not much of intellectual and activist work with relation to equations with the state had taken place since the inclusion of Konkani in the eighth Schedule of the Constitution.

Madhavi Sardesai, Department of Konkani, University of Goa, did not come for the conference but sent a paper titled “The Case for a Single Script for Konkani”. The paper was read by Anil Pinto, Department of English and Media Studies, Christ University, Bangalore. The paper argued in favour of the Nagari script for Konkani citing its use by Monsenhor Dalgado and Shennoi Goembab, and resolution of the first session of the Konkani Parishad in 1939, second session in 1940, the third session 1942 to make Nagari the official script. The other reasons cited by her are cross-script ignorance of literature among Kokani speaking people of different scripts, a century old legacy of Konkani literature in Nagari script, and need for a Nagari script to from a “practical and Economic grounds.”

Barbara Roeber from Germany spoke on “An International Perspective on Scripts and Languages”. She discussed the script issue in Europe in the context of Serbo-Croatian and Bulgarian languages, in Africa in the context of the Coptic, the Ethiopian, the Tamashek languages, in America in the context of the Cherokee, the Aleutian, and the Cree languages, and in Asia languages of Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Turmenistan, and Thai. She said that in comparison to the script issue in all these languages, the script issue of Konkani presented the most unique case as it used five different scripts. She said language and script are “constitutive parts of the culture and form the identity of a language community” and that a “written language acquires through its script an important permanency of a culture.” For her the Konkani speaking people of Karnataka had acquired their cultural identity by writing the language in Kannada. She felt that imposition of one script of over users of other script could make the imposed communities lose their culture and identity.

Pratapananda Naik, Director, Thomas Stephens Konkkni Kendr, Goa, spoke on “The Case for Multi-scripts in Konkani.” He presented a brief history of Konkani language with reference to scripts. He dismissed the claim that Kannada was adapted in Karnataka by the migrated Konkani people. He gave examples of text written in Goa in Kannada script in the seventeenth century. According to him while Konkani is written five scripts, in Goa until 1961 Konkani meant Konkani in Roman script. He gave the statistics of statewise population of Konkani speaking people, scriptwise distribution of periodicals, which showed a vibrant print culture in Kannada script and statewise status of Konkani. He mentioned that because of the imposition of Nagari script over Konkani in Goa, the Konkani schools were losing out to English medium schools. Hence he made a case for multi-script arguing for the use of script in a particular place depending on the extent of its usage. He said different scripts in turn represent many dialects, which can be preserved only through multi-scripts, emotional affinity, non-commercial dimension, education, use of scripts, primacy of spoken dialects over script to unite people, betrayal of Nagari script users by joining Marathi, politics of award in single script, lack of demand for single script from users other than Nagari proponents, non-acceptance of Nagari by the Hindus, popularity of Roman script despite lack of state patronage, preservation of democratic aspirations, equation between Aryan, Brahmin, Sanskrit and Nagari script were the other reasons given by him against imposition of single script.

 In his concluding speech, Prof. Rodrigues drew attention to the majoritarian politics marginalising a vast population in India whose basic worldview was acceptance of the plural. He suggested that the script question also needed be careful of this tendency.

At the suggestion of Anvita Abbi, General Secretary of JSK, Eric Ozario proposed the resolution to request Sahitya Akademi to consider all scripts equally for awards. The Seminar passed the resolution with voice vote.

Mr Ozario in his closing remarks said that the next course of action would be to bring all the parties concerned with the script issues on one platform to deliberate on the issue of script and come to a collective decision through democratic process.

Certificates were distributed to all the participants along with copies of Vazram Mothiam CD.

 13 March 2012   

Anil Pinto

The audio recording of the seminar presentations and discussions by Miguel Braganza can be found by clicking here. 

                                                                           

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Myth Today--Discussion Board

Dear III BA English Honours Cultural Studies course participants, you may post your questions and comments on Barthes' "Myth Today" in the comments section below.

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National Seminar on Feminism in India: Emerging Trends and Issues: Call for Papers National Seminar on Feminism in India: Emerging Trends and Issues: Call for Papers National Seminar on Feminism in India: Emerging Trends and Issues: Call for Papers

The Department of English of Shri Shankaracharya Mahavidyalaya Sector-6 Bhilai (Chhattisgarh) is organizing a Two-day UGC Sponsored National Seminar on Feminism in India: Emerging Trends and Issues (FIETI 2012). This seminar offers a common platform for English professionals to come together for a fruitful interaction on the future of woman in society,which is at the heart of a radical movement striving to create a brave new world for woman.

Date: 4 - 5 March 2012

Please send in your abstract in about 150-200 words on or before 20 February 2012 and full length papers in about 1500-2000 words on 4 March 2012 as per latest MLA style sheet to be published in the proceedings after the seminar to fieti2012@gmail.com. TA for attending the seminar will be given to suitable candidates only.

For further information please contact:

Dr. Rahul Mene

HoD English and Convener

09893215097

Walter Benjamin- The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction- Section 9

Walter Benjamin- The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction (1936)

http://www.marxists.org/reference/subject/philosophy/works/ge/benjamin.htm

Discussion on section 9 

Shift from painting to photography, theatre to movies. Photography isnt just an extension of painting: Aura is lost in this process, and we think certain dynamics are inherent to these mediums, but not necessarily so, and these dynamics maybe inherent to milieu in which it worked out instead. Medium has something inherent to it and when you move from it, something changes to it.

Eg: Digital Classroom course by Pinto and CSCS- studied how education has changed and is changing with introduction of technology.

Eg: Tagore tried to remove 4 walls of classroom but still there was only 1 knower. Now with tech, its no more about 1 to many but from many to many.

Eg: Blackboard evolution: from writing on sand, to slate, to blackboard, to OHP/ computer/ white board... and sometimes all at the same time. And on computer itself you can keep shifting screens from wikipedia, to youtube, etc. Eg: with online couses (like Pinto‘s Masters course or my certificate course), people can chat on other things other than the course and no one will know, due to multiple windows.

So what is role of teacher now?

So, what is the thing that if you remove, the whole thing will collapse. Eg: if you breathe pure oxygen, you wont survive, but if u remove oxygen from the mixture then you will die!

So in education, teacher is most important- you can have a building without students and it will still be an educational institution.

So teacher is a function. Teacher has to certify, they can fail or pass students. No office staff can do this, you can have them arrested.

But can computer decide pass fail? Eg: with multiple choice exams.

So yes, then teacher function is gone.

New model coming in education, where it doesn’t matter if u went to school/ college or not, or where you went to study, as long as you complete your national exam. Eg: in computers and medicine

All poets and philosophers, until Renaissance, were warriors- Plato’s uncle had to give him bail. With Romantic age, they could be full time poets.

Section 10

Benjamin moves to spaces, other objects, and the mechanical representations of the same (painting to photo, etc). So if photography takes the place of representing image, cinema takes job of represrntaing moving image. Not that the former disappears, but something happens to the former. So painting goes abstract. In India, painting was never (?) representative of reality, except with Ravi Vama. In Europe, it was achieved with Rembrandt. With Monet, began communicating emptions, expressions, etc. With camera, painting goes abstract- eg: Cubism, Dali- because now camera will do it for you.

Similar with cinema and theatre. In theatre after cinema, there now arose a specialised role of the director, who gave his interpretation of the text, which neednt be the authorial interpretation of the text. Playrights no more direct their plays. Eg: Karnad wont direct his plays, he doesnt want to impose their views on their work. 

Thus now, a critic is born. Point is no more about what the author said, but what the critic said. 

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III BA English Honours HEN652 Cultural Studies CIA 3

CIA3 criteria.

10 Marks: Structure of research paper - Abstract (about 150 words), introduction, locating research question in the existing body of knowledge, exploring the research problem using the cultural site given (e.g. Jaipur literary festival is a context), conclusion, works cited (MLA style), in-text citation. + Sharing of paper with all (2 marks)

10 marks: logical development of the research problem, rigor of the exploration of research question. logical flow of conclusions based on the exploration and analysis. 

Other guidelines

Last date for sharing the complete paper with the course instructor and coursemates: 10 Feb 2012 (IST 24 Hrs)

Length of the paper: 5-7 pages, including works cited section. 

The paper needs to be shared with all the coursemates. 

The should be either in google doc format. Please avoid uploading the word document. 

Please use times new Roman, 12 font with double line space, including between paragraphs. Indent the first line of new paragraphs. 

Please write your name and register number at the left hand top corner of the first page.

File name: HEN652+_+Title of the paper+_+ your name. 

Please do comment on other's papers once they are shared. 

(PS: Please be nice and kind to me in the next class, as always :-))

Call for Papers: National Seminar on Fiction and Film - An Interdisciplinary Approach

Dates: 14, 15 and 16 March 2012

Organized by Department of English, Government College for Women, Thiruvananthapuram

In association with the Kerala State Chalachitra Academy

Fiction has inspired films right from the birth of the latter. This has grown into a kind of symbiotic relationship. Cinema, being a pan art, has almost all ingredients of drama such as characters, plot and spectacle. But it is quintessentially a narrative medium. The process of trans-creation from a book into a film, from its printed page into screen, is rather complex. The film maker utilizes a different language - the language of film - to create the story anew. Just as in any translation much variation may occur in this trans-creation as well. What is lost and what is gained could be the result of the peculiarity of the new language adopted. But it could also be a compulsive play of the hegemonic tastes of cinema. It would be interesting to analyse the dynamics behind the manifestation of such hegemony on screen.

The proposed seminar will give an interdisciplinary approach to the difficult aspects of the process evolved in turning a literary text into a film and its importance as a pedagogical tool.

Call for papers

Papers on the theme of the conference are invited. 

For more details, please contact the conveners Ms Krishna Prabha (9495625859) or Ms Neeta Sasidharan (9446177160) at engdeptgcw AT gmail.com

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Press/ Do you wish to start a New News Paper/Magazine/ Periodical/ Journal:-

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