Rajan's role in the Konkani movement would be another interesting issue for research. Many a Catholic from Goa, both here and among the diaspora, tends to read him as being a "hero for Konkani". (Dr Teotonio De Souza, historian, commented on Goanet on September 18, 2003: "I have known Rajan Narayan while still in Goa and admired his contribution to the Konkani cause.")
But the issue is more complex. Needless to say, Goa's media adopts a dog-does-not-eat-dog approach, and for most of the time avoids criticising each other. Rajan's role in the language agitation is yet to be adequately evaluated. The Week magazine, in an article written by the journalist Ashok Row Kavi (who went on to become a prominent gay activist, but that's not particularly relevant here) did a critical piece on the role played by Rajan and the other Narayan, Athawale:
It's titled 'The two Narayans' and says:
THE three worlds in Hindu mythology always shuddered when the chant 'Narayan, Narayan' echoed in the cosmos. It meant that Narada, the roving rishi, was making his petty-fogging presence felt.
Goa has two Narayans and there is internal trouble there. One is Narayan Athavle, editor of the Marathi daily Gomantak, and the other Rajan Narayan, editor of O Herald an English daily from Panaji. They are fighting each other claiming that they are fighting for two languages, Marathi and Konkani.
Their credentials can be questioned, though no one
bothers to do that. Athavle is an outsider: a
Maharashtrian Chitpawan Brahmin; Rajan Narayan is from
South India and is fighting for Konkani in English.
Athavle's editorials are pure petrol on Goa's red hot embers. Starting with Ooth Marathe Ooth (Wake up Marathas, wake up), Athavle, who supports Rane, has carried on a relentless battle to show that Konkani is a 'boli' (dialect) and not a 'bhasha' (language). Athavle has published some 25 eminently forgettable novels, and has had a lackluster career in Lok Satta, the Marathi daily of the Express group.
Athavle gets quite alarmed when someone mentions 'Vishal Gomantak' (Greater Goa), which to him means 'expansionism'. But he has no qualms at all when he says that Goa should finally merge with Maharashtra because "their cultures are the same".
In his zeal to propagate the interest of Marathi, he has even neglected the success of his newspaper which has been falling in circulation. Tarun Bharat, published from Belgaum in Karnataka, has taken away 6,000 out of the 18,000-odd Gomantak circulation. Yet Athavle has such a strong grip over the owners, the Chowgules, that he even overseas recruitment. No Christians are employed in that daily.
Apart from editing O Heraldo, Rajan Narayan, a former editor of Imprint, now speaks from political platforms. Narayan has become more a pamphleteer than a journalist. He often attends the strategy sessions of the KPA. He has at times tried to maintain a balance but has failed because he is viewed suspiciously by the Hindus and because the Christians patronise him.