August 15, 2022 marks the 75th anniversary of India’s independence. This event would have gone unnoticed were it not for a Facebook post by Shiv Kumar Singh, a Hindi reader at the Lisbon Faculty of Arts, as well as a translator and author Hindi-Portuguese-Hindi Dictionary (Hummingbird, 2018).
India is only the second most populous country in the world, just after China, with about fourteen hundred million souls. It is also the seventh largest region after Russia, Canada, China, USA and Australia. It borders Pakistan to the west and, clockwise, China, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar. It is also the birthplace of four major religions (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism) and many others.
Hindu-majority India and Muslim-majority Pakistan (along with what today corresponds to Bangladesh and Myanmar) constituted the so-called British India or Raj British. It was at the moment of gaining independence that Pakistan (August 14, 1947) and India (the next day) separated, resulting in two separate countries, relations between which are not peaceful today; this split led to a massive movement of people: Muslims towards Pakistan, Hindus and Sikhs towards India. Portugal maintained three enclaves in Indian territory, Goa, Daman and Diu, until 1961.
India is an invaluable treasure for anyone interested in historical linguistics, linguistic typology, sociolinguistics and language policy, to name but a few of the fields of study.
India is an invaluable treasure for anyone interested in historical linguistics, linguistic typology, sociolinguistics and language policy, to name but a few of the fields of study. The census data on native languages spoken in India which is still valid (for 2021 not yet), this is still 2011 data. In them, the respondents indicated more than nineteen thousand five hundred names of languages or dialects that they considered their native languages. Because these raw data were not reliable, a linguistic check was applied to them, resulting in the still impressive number of 1,369 native languages; of these, 121 are mother tongues of at least 10,000 inhabitants. The cleaning that the data has undergone is proof of how difficult it is to establish linguistic statistics. With such diversity, it is perfectly natural for every Indian to speak two or three languages in everyday life.
The languages of India are grouped into six families – Indo-Aryan (a branch of Indo-European, which includes Hindi), Dravidian, Austro-Asiatic, Tibeto-Burman, Thai-Kadai and Andaman. Several Portuguese-based creoles, collectively known as “Indo-Portuguese”, have emerged in South Asia; Representatives of Diu, Daman, Korlai and Kananor have survived in India. The concept of “national language” is not used in the country. The official languages of the Indian Union and its administration are Hindi written in Devanagari (the system used for Sanskrit) and English. In addition to English, the 2007 Constitution establishes 22 officials: Assamese, Bengali, Bodo, Dogri, Gujarati, Hindi, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkanim, Maitili, Malayalam or Malabar, Manipuri, Marathi, Nepali, Oriya, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Santale , Sindh, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu; with the exception of Hindi, the official languages are state-owned.
With all these languages, cultures and also religions like shards of colored glass, India is a veritable linguistic and cultural kaleidoscope of thousands of different little mosaics, not always peaceful or easy to manage.
I hope I have piqued the reader’s curiosity.
Professor and researcher, Portuguese language portal coordinator
Method Media Bermuda will present the documentary FABRIC: Portuguese History in Bermuda on Thursday, December 29 at the Underwater Research Institute of Bermuda.
A spokesperson said: “Method Media is proud to bring Bermuda Fabric: Portugal History to Bermuda for its 5th and 6th showing at the Bermuda Underwater Observatory. In November and December 2019, Cloth: A Portuguese Story in Bermuda had four sold-out screenings. Now that Bermuda has reopened after the pandemic, it’s time to bring the film back for at least two screenings.
“There are tickets Ptix.bm For $ 20 – sessions at 15:30 and 18:00. Both screenings will be followed by a short Q&A session.
Director and producer Milton Raboso says, “FABRIC is a definitive account of the Portuguese community in Bermuda and its 151 years of history, but it also places Bermuda, Acors and Portugal in the world history and the events that have fueled those 151 years.
“It took more than 10 years to implement FABRIC. The film was supported by the Minister of Culture, the Government of the Azores and private donors.
“Bermuda Media Method [MMB] Created in 2011 by producer Milton Raposo. MMB has created content for a wide range of clients: Bermuda’s new hospital renovation, reinsurance, travel campaigns, international sports and more. MMB pays special attention to artistic, cultural and historical content.
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Maestro Filipe Cunha, Artistic Director of the Philharmonic Orchestra of Braga, has been invited to conduct the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra, as announced today.
According to a statement sent by O MINHO, “he will be the first Portuguese conductor to conduct this orchestra in its entire history.”
In addition to this orchestra, the maestro will also work with the Lyceo Mozarteum de la Habana Symphony Orchestra.
The concerts will take place on 4 and 12 March 2023 at the National Theater of Cuba in Havana.
In the words of the maestro, quoted in the statement, “these will be very beautiful concerts with difficult but very complex pieces” and therefore he feels “very motivated”.
From the very beginning, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2 will be performed by an Italian pianist (Luigi Borzillo), whom the maestro wants to bring to Portugal later this year. In the same concert, Mendelshon’s First Symphony will be performed.
Then, at the second concert, in the company of the Mexican clarinetist Angel Zedillo, he will perform the Louis Sfora Concerto No. 2. In this concert, the maestro also conducts Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony.
“This is an international recognition of my work. An invitation that I accept with humility and great responsibility. I was surprised to learn that I would be the first Portuguese member of the Cuban National Symphony Orchestra. This is a very great honor,” the maestro said in a statement.
“I take with me the name of the city of Braga and Portugal with all the responsibility that goes with it, and I hope to do a good job there, leaving a good image and putting on great concerts. These will be very special concerts because, in addition to performing pieces that I love, especially Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky, I will be directing two wonderful soloists who are also my friends. It will be very beautiful,” concludes Filipe Cunha.