Are you Konkani ?

"Are you a Konkani?

If you are staying or travelling abroad, it is most likely that you have come across this question at least once: "Are you Hindi?" 

Probably they mean to ask "Are you an Indian?" or "Are you a Hindu?" or "Do you speak Hindi?"

Yes, some languages denote nationality too - like The French or The German. But not Hindi.

I have come across this question many times in my life: "Are you a Konkani?"

Alas, most of the time, the intention behind the question is identification or generalization. 

Konkani is a language. It, in fact, is one among 17 languages are present in an Indian Currency note.

Konkani is my mother tongue.

But, no, you cannot generalize people who speak a language. There is a huge mistake in generalization. 

For, infamous people like Dawood Ibrahim, Zakir Naik and Vijay Mallya are Konkanis.

Yes, Indian film personalities like Late Guru Dutt (Vasanth Kumar Shivashankar Padukone), Deepika Padukone, Genelia D'Souza, Amrita Rao, Urmila Matondkar, Illeana D'Cruz, Frieda Pinto, Isha Koppikar, Kiran Rao, Girish Karnad, Shyam Benegal, Anant Nag, Shanker Nag, Leena Chandavarkar, Varsha Usgaonkar are Konkanis. Or Politicians like Late Abdul Rehman Antulay, Suresh Prabhu, Manohar Parrikar, Late George Fernades, Oscar Fernandes, or journalists like Shibha De, Fareed Zakaria, Rajdeep Sardesai and M.V. Kamath are Konakanis. Or singers like Lata Mangeshkar, Asha Bonsle, or activists like Medha Patkar. In sports, you can find famous Konkanis like Sachin Tendulkar, Prakash Padukone, Sunil Gavaskar, Ajith Agarkar, Dilip Vengsarkar, Sanjay Manjrekar. Or Konkani activist and poet Shenoi Goembab, Ravindra Kelekar,  Pundalik Naik, Basti Vaman Shenoy  or prior Infoysys chairman  K. V. Kamath are konkanis.

A significant number of Konkani speakers are found in Kenya, Uganda, Pakistan, the Persian Gulf, and Portugal.

Obviously you cannot generalize any individual based on language, caste, creed, religion and even nationality. 

J

How many of you know that Konkani is one of the oldest languages in Asia which dates back to pre-classical Sanskrit?

Ancient Hindus (I am using the word Hindus to describe people lived between Caspian Sea and Indonesian Islands before the birth of aggressive Semitic religions) were using the language "Prakruta" (meaning original, natural and artless) which progressively developed into Vedic Sanskrit (Pre-classical Sanskrit). Later Panini, an ancient Sanskrit philologist and grammarian, laid out in the grammar of Classical Sanskrit.

The script used to write was Devanāgarī was developed from Brāhmī alphabet. Konkani is also part of Prakruta language and used the Devanāgarī script. Hence Konkani existed in Devanāgarī Lipi.

Konkani has been used as mother tongue for the last (at least) 4000 years by broadly two divisions of people.

1. Communities following Vedic culture like Goud Saraswat Brahmin (GSB), Chitrapur Saraswat Brahmins (CSB), Rajapur Saraswat Brahmins (RSB), Kudaldeshkar Saraswat Brahmin ( KSB), Daivadnya (Daivajna) Brahmins, Chitpavan Brahmins (Konkanastha), Karhada/Karade Brahmins, Padye, Bhatt Prabhu, Vaishya Vani, Komarapant Joshi, Vishwakarma manu maya brahmins, Kansar, Kulvadi etc

2. There were lot of other communities which were not strictly following Vedic culture. They followed a mix of indigenous and Vedic culture. They were Maratha, 96 kuli Maratha, Konkan Maratha, Kunbi, Kudumbi, Kharvis, Bhandary, Siddhi Hindu, Gaude, Velip, Gabit, Kumbar, Madval, Dhangar,Gavli, Chamar, Mahar, Koli, Agri,  Gomantak Maratha, Naik Maratha, Nutan Maratha etc.

Later during brutal Portuguese inquisition, the classical Konkani was destroyed by those lunatic invaders - . They introduced many new words and used Roman script. Hence people started using two scripts for Konkani then - Roman and Devanagari.

The original Konkanis, who faced terrible situation in Goa, have lost everything - wealth, land, temples, institutions and took plight to Tulunad in  Karnataka and Kochi in Kerala, Mumbai in Maharastra. Later those settlers in the south states started using Kannada and Malayalam Scripts for writing Konkani. So most of them do not know the script of Konkani. We know no language will survive without flourishing economy of users. 

And then, during invasion of Tipu Sultan, lots of Konkanis were forced to convert into Islam. The Muslims started using 'Perso-Arabic',

Thus Konkani became mother tongue for Christians and Muslims too. Among Christians various communities like Catholics, Charodi, Syrian and Siddi use Konkani. Among Muslims communities like Navyat, Jama-ati, Dalji and Siddi are using Konkani.

In short, Konkani is now written in five scripts: Devanagari, Roman, Kannada, Malayalam, and Perso-Arabic.

It is spoken in different dialects like Malvani/Kudali, Saxtti,  Bardeshi,  Antruzi,  Karwar,  Nawyati,  Mangalorean,  kochi, Chitpavani, Karhadi/Karade, Koli, Agri, Siddhi, Sangameshwari

Than dividing ourselves as Goans, Sindhudurgkar, Karwarkars, Mangalorean etc. by your regional identity.

Be proud to tell your Linguistic and Ethnic identity which is one and Only KONKAN💚