Last week, on August 20, Konkani speakers across India celebrated the day of Konkani, in 1992 when the anniversary of the day became his mother tongue, as was “officer” in the eighth program of the Indian Constitution. It was a very desired result of a movement that had been going on since 1962, when the proposal to absorb Goa, the new -free from the Portuguese rule, came first in the state of Maharashtra. Fearful that this would mean that not only Goyas, but also his main language, cracks of Konkani, this step was staunchly opposed by Goan.
In 1967, a referendum called the Goa Opinion Poll made ensure that Goa maintained its position as an independent state. But the fight for the position of Konkani as a separate language – it was widely considered a bid of Marathi – continued. In 1975, an officially appointed committee of linguistic experts concluded that Konkani was actually an independent language. This did not change the daily stimuli faced by Konkanis in Goa, however – the official languages ​​there remained Marathi, Hindi and English. Finally, after an angry movement, in which six dead were released, Konkani was declared the official language of Goa in 1987. In 1992, it became the 16th official language of India.
Although Goa Konkani remains the largest number of speakers (42.7% out of about two million in India), 35% in Karnataka is one large, one of which lives in Bangalore.
Perhaps a good way to celebrate this important linguistic anniversary, therefore, remembering the Himalayan contribution of Benegal Narsing Rau (BN Rau), an exceptionally fulfilled Konkani jurist and diplomat from Karnataka, who prepared the first draft of the Indian Constitution.
Born in 1887 in Mangalore, BN Rau attended the newly -Mented Canara High School (Estd 1891), graduated in 1905 as Madras University topper and a triple gold medalist (English, Physics, Sanskrit and a year later, mathematics). In 1906, he went to Cambridge to read mathematics, where his ruthless fellow Cantbridgeian, Jawaharlal Nehru referred to Rau in a letter, as “terriblely clever”. Returning to India in 1909, Rau was posted in Bengal by successfully approving the Indian Civil Services (ICS) examination, where he served as a judge in many districts of East Bengal and Assam.
By 1931, RAU had increased with such a prominence that he was invited to be part of the second round table conference, one of the three peace talks organized by the British government to discuss constitutional reforms in India. In 1935, working with the Reform Office, he drafted a landmark piece of law called the Government of India Act, 1935, which proposed a federal system of the government, gave 11 British -ruled provinces a great measure of autonomy, established a federal court (forerunner of Supreme Court), and invited Miro to become part of the most demoran. Its favor).
Nobody surprised when another important document, the work of drafting the Indian Constitution, came in 1946, it was seen by Sir BN Rau (Nightthood was honored in 1938). On August 29, 1947, partially elected, partially nominated body called the Constitution Assembly of India, who first met on 9 December 1946, Dr. Selected a drafting committee headed by Bribedkar, with Rau as a constitutional advisor. In October 1947, RAU presented its draft of the Constitution, including 243 articles and 13 schedules, to the draft committee for consideration. By the time the “Constitution of India” was adopted on 26 November 1949, a passionate debate of about three years later increased to 395 articles and 8 schedules. In his speech for the assembly on that historic day, Ambedkar accepted Rau’s role. “The credit I have been given to me is not really,” he said. “This is partially from Sir BN Rau.”
(Rupa Pai is a writer who has long love affair with his hometown Bengaluru)
