KOCHI: N Purushothama Mallaya, the only Keralite among the 75 honorees named for the Padma Shri awards on Sunday, is regarded as a dedicated educationist, who wrote letters persistently and passionately for the recognition of Konkani language.And it was mostly because of his letters that Konkani was included in the Eight Schedule of the Constitution.
According to former Kochi mayor K J Sohan, Mallaya is a part and parcel of Mattanchery and has been actively engaged in “precise research” on Konkani for its promotion.
“He can speak authoritatively on the subject and has been instrumental in setting up the Konakani Bhasha Prachar Sabha in Mattanchery in 1966,” Sohan said.Born in 1929, Mallaya did his schooling in Mattanchery and obtained a diploma in commerce from the Government Technical Institute at Edappally.
Later, he set up Sree Rama Krishna Technical Institute in Mattanchery to provide coaching to students in the disciplines of commerce.He turned his focus towards promoting Konkani after the language was listed as a dialect of Marathi in the 1954 census.
Based on the census, when Maharashtra demanded the Karwar-Belguam region in Karnataka, that has a sizable population of Konkani-speaking community, to be included as a part of it, it was Mallaya’s work that helped Karnataka retain the regions.
Mallaya listed a group of words that have different pronounciation but convey the same meaning in Konkani and Marathi to establish that Konkani is distinct from the latter. In the 1970s, his efforts led to the state government according minority language status to Konkani.