A Suitable Language: How Konkani Met the Pressures of Nineteenth-Century Philology

Rochelle Pinto (Independent Scholar, Bangalore)

A phenomenon that marks translations of Konkani texts from the nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century is the desire to salvage sixteenth-century versions of the language while evacuating it of its script, refashioning it, or reviving sixteenth century usages, all with a view to producing an object that met the requirements of literary nationalism. As a response to the extraordinary weight of nineteenth century philology on literary history and the formation of a statist model for Indian languages, translations functioned primarily as a corrective to the language spoken down the west coast of India. As written in the Roman script predominantly in Goa, Konkani was an exemplar of languages that did not appear to be autonomous and historical entities belonging to territorially defined communities, with a continuous history of writing. The lecture explores alternate approaches that address attributes of Konkani textual production.

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The seminar is open to all; no registration required.

Convenor: Shabnum Tejani, st40@soas.ac.uk