The recent disruption in the Indian Parliament during the Monsoon Session of 2025, which prevented the discussion of the Readjustment of Representation of Scheduled Tribes in Assembly Constituencies of the State of Goa Bill, 2024, has sparked outrage and exposed deep-seated political contradictions. This bill, aimed at ensuring reservation for Scheduled Tribes (STs) in the Goa Legislative Assembly, was...
Linguistics and the Myth of Privileged Scripts: Konkani as a Case Study
The study of linguistics, particularly in its structural and synchronic approaches, reveals a fundamental truth: no script is inherently privileged over another. Scripts are human inventions, cultural tools designed to represent spoken language in written form. Unlike the natural, biologically rooted systems of phonology, morphology, or syntax, scripts are arbitrary and context-dependent, shaped by historical, social, and political forces...
The Nagrization of Konkani and the Death Drive: A Žižekian Exploration
The “nagrization” of Konkani—a term referring to the imposition of the Nagri (Devanagari) script as the singular, standardized form of the Konkani language in Goa—has sparked fierce debates about identity, culture, and linguistic hegemony. This phenomenon, often tied to upper-caste assertions of cultural purity, can be fruitfully examined through the lens of Slavoj Žižek’s rearticulation of the psychoanalytic concept...
Konkani Bhaxea ani Lipiche Bondon
(Speech at Gulab Awards) 1. Konkanichem girest Daiz Konkani vixim amchi nodor mottvi Konkani bhasxeche lipikoron ( scripto-centric reduction) Poroxn Chin : Konkani nagri purti ? (intorogating the nagrization of Konkani) Konkani lipichea sankleache bondentelan mekleponn/ sutka ( Nagrization is not merely choice of script. It is political and caste laden) 2. Lipiche bondon somzunk adar Martin Heidegger’s...
Ganvkarias in Danger: and Second coming of Goa Migrant Settlement Bill ( Bhumi Putra )
The Ganvkarias, the indigenous tribal communities of Goa, revered as the original settlers of the state, face an uncertain future as the Goa government pushes forward with plans to legalize encroachments through new legislation. This move has sparked concerns among locals, environmentalists, and legal experts, who fear it could further marginalize the Ganvkarias, erode their ancestral lands, and alter...
Frantz Fanon’s and The Marathi-Konkani Controversy and Nagri-Romi Imbroglio
Frantz Fanon’s Black Skin, White Masks (1952) is a profound exploration of the psychological and social impacts of colonialism, where colonized individuals internalize the cultural superiority of the colonizer, adopting a white mask over their authentic identity to navigate a world that devalues their “black skin.” This framework, rooted in the analysis of racial hierarchies, offers a powerful lens...
Breaking the Fourth Wall: Goa’s Citizens Protest Against an ‘Undeclared Emergency’
In a powerful act of resistance, the people of Goa have gathered at Azad Maidan in Panjim to protest what they describe as an “undeclared emergency” under the BJP-led state government. This demonstration, organized by Citizens For Goa and bolstered by political figures like Vijai Sardesai, the President of the Goa Forward Party and MLA from Fatorda, is a...
The Nagrization of Konkani: A Bloomfieldian Morphemic Analysis
Konkani, an Indo-Aryan language spoken primarily along India’s western coast, is a linguistic mosaic, written in five scripts—Devanagari (Nagri), Roman (Romi), Kannada, Malayalam, and Persian-Arabic—and spoken in diverse dialects across Goa, Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Kerala. Despite its rich pluralism, the institutional privileging of Nagri Konkani as the sole official script in Goa, cemented by the Official Language Act of...
Deconstructing the Scripto-Centricity and Nagrisation of Konkani: A Phonemic and Glossematic Approach
Konkani, an Indo-Aryan language spoken across India’s western coast, embodies a vibrant linguistic tapestry shaped by centuries of migration, colonialism, and cultural contact. Yet, its identity is increasingly constrained by scripto-centricity—the privileging of written script as the primary marker of linguistic legitimacy—and nagrisation, the imposition of the Devanagari script as the “authentic” orthography, often at the expense of other...
Contesting the Scripto-Centricity of Konkani: A Structural Linguistic and Psychoanalytic Perspective
Konkani, a vibrant Indo-Aryan language spoken predominantly along India’s western coast, is often entangled in debates over its script, with Devanagari, Roman, Kannada, Malayalam, and Perso-Arabic scripts vying for prominence. This scripto-centricity—where the choice of script overshadows the language’s structural and cultural essence—has constrained Konkani’s linguistic identity and its speakers’ agency. By employing Ferdinand de Saussure’s structural linguistics, Roman...
