He was a short statured person with a frail body. As he walked on the streets of Bombay, he seemed like just one amongst the masses. His presence in the audience at any program usually went unnoticed. But once he began to speak, his voice was like a temple bell that attracted the attention of even the most disinterested member of the audience. His intellectual calibre, command over language, fluency in Konkani and choice of vocabulary were remarkable. His Bhatagrami style of Konkani kept his audiences spellbound not only as long as was on the mike, but even for some minutes afterwards and they carried back with them an image of a tall man amongst pygmies.
Who was this man, who walked the corridors of small and big libraries in Bombay, even rummaging through stalls on the footpaths in search of old books? Unlike others, he was not interested in any luxuries of life. His only interest was books, especially old and secondhand, which he promptly purchased without any bargaining, obtaining the satisfaction a fisherman gets when he nets a good catch. He dressed simply, in a long Jodhpuri coat and white dhoti with a cap on his head, just like any other middle class gentleman living in the Maharashtrian-dominated areas. He had a striking moustache. On special occasions, he would wear a turban and apply 'tilak' on his forehead.
This was Vaman Raghunath Shenai Varde Valaulikar, who later came to be known as Shenoy Goembab, the penname with which he wrote books on practically every aspect of society, as he sought to revive the lost identity of the Konkani language. Born at Bicholim, Goa on 23rd June 1877, he completed his primary education in Marathi and Portuguese and subsequently went to Bombay for his high school education. After matriculation, he first worked as a teacher, then as a clerk at Karachi and later joined a multinational company at Bombay, where his hard work and sincerity paid rich dividends. But his refusal to lower his self-respect by showing unnecessary servility to his superiors compelled him to resign from his job. Instead, he decided to devote his life to the mission of restoring the lost identity of Konkani and to give his mother tongue its rightful place among the other languages of India.
Goa was then reeling under Portuguese rule and the lack of freedom of speech or expression had made life miserable. But this was no justification for Goans settled in Bombay to compromise their self-respect in an effort to win over the goodwill of Maharashtrians. Many Goans were willing to reject their language, considering themselves as a part of Maharashtrian society. Konkani, they argued, was merely a dialect, a regional form of the main Marathi language. Their concern for language, literature or culture became so casual that they even clapped at any statement made by speakers against the Konkani language or its supporters.
What pained Shenoy Goembab was this callous indifference of the Goan community to the humiliation of its mother tongue and the foolish opposition by its own sons and daughters in order to win the goodwill of the Marathi community of Bombay. He wanted to revive Konkani because it had suffered a lot under successive regimes of the non-Konkani dynasties that had ruled over Goa. Throughout history, different rulers had imposed their languages as official and religious mediums. The Kannada dynasties were the first to suppress Konkani. The Marathi speaking Yadavas continued the process. The Muslim rule did not make any difference, as the rulers were more concerned with their hold over territory. The Portuguese came next and they left no stone unturned to uproot Konkani from the soil of Goa. All these atrocities took place right before the eyes of the sons and daughters of Konkani, who did not even raise a voice of protest, leave aside saving it from sacrilege. The renowned Portuguese scholar, Cunha Rivara, aptly summarized the outcome of the Portuguese policy in these words:
“In spite of the great impulse which the language received in the first century of Portuguese domination, there was waged against it an implacable war with attempts to entirely extinguish and proscribe it. Although this was not possible to receive this end fully, as it is beyond human power to suppress a language, it has, however, been corrupted and adulterated and its literary records practically destroyed with serious loss both to the intellectual and to the moral culture of the people.”
Later on, the Portuguese followed a policy of even greater hostility to Konkani, launching a program for its extermination. In 1684, Conde de Alvor, the Viceroy, decided to abolish the speech altogether, according it a lease of life for three years. Yet Konkani did not die. So the earlier decree was further promulgated with more vigour. In 1731, the Inquisition resolved that Konkani Christians should give up their language and speak only Portuguese. In 1745, Archbishop Lourenco de Santa Maria made it incumbent on all Christians to speak Portuguese. If they did not, they would not be allowed to marry or become priests. In 1812, children were prevented from speaking Konkani in schools.
The demoralization of Konkani speakers was now complete. Many Goan families began to call Portuguese their mother tongue and spoke the language even at home. Konkani came to be considered as alien language in its own habitat. Perhaps no language in the world has suffered such barbarous persecution.
Shenoy Goembab believed that the Konkani community was a distinct community of this country, with its own geography and history that in turn, shaped its distinct identity. He expected speakers of the language to be proud of their heritage. He wanted Goans to assert themselves collectively and attain their freedom from the Portuguese colonial yoke and join the national mainstream without losing their identity. Konkani was not merely a means of communication, but bonded people of diverse religions, castes and communities into one cultural stream. He began an unceasing campaign to awaken the Konkani community. The books he penned are a reflection of his intelligence and research and an inspiring reminder to Goans of their history, religion and culture. Shenoy Goembab revealed the richness of Konkani vocabulary and many other peculiarities of the language, proving that Konkani was an independent language of India, perhaps even senior most among its sister languages.
Shenoy Goembab realised that Konkani could be the key to revive and restore the lost self-respect and self-confidence of the people of Goa. He also realised that Bombay could be a safe ground to promote the cause of the language, literature and culture. Apart from lectures, which had limited impact, Shenoy Goembab took up the cause of the suppressed Konkani language and identity through his writings. His devotion to the mission was unparalleled. He was ably supported in his work by the owner of the Gomantak Printing Press, Kashinath Shridar Nayak, an eminent Konkani poet himself. The servility of Goans to Marathi by grossly neglecting Konkani had angered both Valaulikar and Nayak who had discovered that Konkani people were distinct from Marathi people in their customs, values of life, temperament, diet, culture and indeed their language. An acrimonious controversy followed and Shenoy Goembab used all his powers to present the case of Konkani, mercilessly attacking the anti-Konkani and anti-Christian attiude of his rivals. The war did not end with his death.
The very fact that Goa observed his 125th birth anniversary as a year of Konkani identity proves that he continues to inspire generation after generation, which is, step by step, moving in the direction of the goal set by Shenoy Goembab. How an idea, however difficult or impossible it may appear, can bring about a revolution through the efforts of single man, is an example that he set. The Sahitya Akademi recognised Konkani as an independent literary language of India in 1976 and later the Indian Parliament accommodated it in the 8th schedule of the Constitution in 1992. Shenoy Goembab was a genius in every sense of the term and his work will continue to inspire Goan and Konkani society to achieve greater heights of glory and win the love and respect of the entire humanity.
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Former editor of the 'Rashtramat' and the 'Sunaparant' (the first and only Konkani daily in Devanagri to be published from Goa), Chandrakant Keni is a prolific writer and recipient of several awards including the Sahitya Academy Award in 1989 for his story 'Vhakalpavnni'. He served as chairman of the NRI (Goa) Facilitation Centre and also established the Goa Information Centre at New Delhi to disseminate information about Goa to other parts of the country. Chandrakant Keni was a founder-member of the Konkani Bhasha Mandal (Goa) and is a staunch champion of the Konkani language.