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| Jammu’s indifference to Urdu at its own peril | | Straight Talk | 
By K.B. Jandial
Even though the choice of language for studies is an inherent right of the child and his parent but indifference to State official language, Urdu by Jammu students has created an unintended dreadful situation in administration, at least in some of the departments. Gradually, some of the Govt. Departments are becoming the exclusive domain of a community, not because of the intentional policies of the successive Govts. but due to lack of knowledge of Urdu in which the major work in these Departments is conducted.
Every now and then, cries of discrimination against Jammu are heard which reach its crescendo at the time of elections. But is anyone from Jammu’s civil society to Jammu centric political parties, aware of the alarming situation developing in some of the vital Govt. organizations with dwindling number of Dogras (read Hindus). In not very distant future, there might not be any such souls in the Departments like Revenue, Police, Forest etc. The usual “guldasta” representing our proud pluralistic society would be missing and unintentionally some Departments might become “monopoly” of one religion. This is not even good for any democratic political dispensation which is committed to secularism and equal distribution of available resources and opportunities for growth. Suspicions and distrust against the Govt. would increase. But nobody has time to think about the growing bleak future of Jammu Dogras except for shedding “crocodile tears” in cozy drawing rooms’ gossips.
Language is, indeed, the most powerful means of communication and expression of ideas. It also represents the culture and value and accords identity of the region and the community. Language has no religion or caste and cannot be confined to exclusive use of a particular section or community. But unfortunately at times, language is linked to a particular religion and in the process not only its development but even its adoption by all gets impaired.
Linguistic diversity is as important for our survival as biodiversity. It is imperative that we make provisions for education in the mother tongue(s) of the children and train teachers to maximize the utilization of the multilingual situation. Recent researches have demonstrated the positive correlation between multilingual language proficiency and academic achievement and job opportunities.
India is a home to several hundred languages and some of the Himalayans languages are still unclassified. The SIL Ethnologue lists 415 living languages of India and the Census report records 122 languages, though the number of the constitutionally recognised official languages in the country is only 23. Every language has a rich history and literature and thus a place of respect in the composite society.
Urdu has a long history in J&K. Even Dogra rulers made their contributions for its growth and it became official language during their rule (1889 AD). According to a Urdu scholar, Nishat Ansari, Persian language dwindled In Kashmir with the end of Afghan rule and beginning of Sikh rule. Urdu, however, had sprouted in Kashmir in the State courts, Revenue department and other government and semi-government offices. Prior to this linguistic change in the State, Urdu had come to the forefront during the reign of Jahangir in northern India. The British encouraged use of Urdu to strengthen their political and administrative control and to facilitate their communication with the Indians, which helped Urdu to flourish and dominate. In undivided Punjab this new language had influenced the rich as well as the middle class people. Since the link between Kashmir and the rest of India was through Punjab, the impact of Urdu on Kashmir became obvious.
During the reign of the founder of J&K State, Maharaja Gulab Singh the Dogra region of Jammu had accepted the impact of Urdu more quickly than the people of Kashmir even though the official and court language continued to be Persian. It is said that during the popular uprising of 1857, the British authorities had sent an appeal to Maharaja Gulab Singh for help that was written in the Urdu. Maharaja Ranbir Singh had affected many reforms including the Criminal Code of his State in Urdu.
Like all countries, India too has an official language. According to Article 343 of the Constitution of India, “Hindi in Devanagari script shall be the official language of the Union”. It also allowed continued use of English language for official purposes. But Article 345 allows the State Legislatures to adopt by way of law any one or more languages as State’s official language with continued use of English. Accordingly, all States adopted different regional languages as their official languages.
J&K which has its own Constitution too made its own choice. Section 145 of the Constitution provides that Urdu shall be the official language of the State but English shall continue to be used for all the official purposes as before. J&K is the only State in the country where Urdu is the official language, even though a large number of populations speak Urdu in at least 10 other States including UP, Bihar, AP, and West Bengal.
Urdu is unfortunately taken as language of Muslims and non- Muslims distanced themselves from it. Politicization of Urdu also inducted a communal overtone to the language. Linking Urdu with Islam too restricted its acceptance by some Hindus and other Non-Muslims as language for study as a subject.
Contrary to the popular impression, Urdu has neither been the mother tongue of majority of Muslims nor the language of the community exclusively. As per the 2001Census data of languages released in 2007, (data of 2011 census not available yet) Urdu is spoken by hardly five percent of Indian population and that too all of them are not Muslims, whose population is above 14 percent. Thus, projecting Urdu as a language of Muslim community and linking it with their cultural identity is untrue. It is said that had Urdu been the part of the cultural identity of the Muslims, there would not have been any conflict between the Urdu speaking Muslims of West Pakistan and Bengali speaking Muslims of erstwhile East Pakistan, now Bangladesh.
In the present day era of technology, influence of the language on the people especially the children cannot be restricted, no matter what prejudices one might have. There is an interesting episode about the worry of a Pakistani mother upset on her children's use of Hindi words, picked up from television. The cartoon channels carried Hindi programme is popular in Pakistan like in our country including Kashmir. A Lahore teacher reported to her superiors that children in her class had begun to use vishaal, shanti, mukti and adhikaar in conversation. Cartoon Network, Pogo and host of kid channels are available in English also. According to a cable operator from Allama Iqbal Town, Lahore, Pakistani children preferred these cartoons in Hindi. This was apparently a very “bad thing” for them but they had no solution.
Despite being the official language of the State Urdu is not read by a substantial section of J&K (Non Muslims), especially in the districts of Jammu, Kathua and Udhampur. No religion or caste.
Why Dogras (non Muslims) don’t read Urdu? Is there any issue of abhorrence? There are no anti Urdu sentiments in Jammu heartland. Moreover, Urdu has also linkage with Dogra rulers. Their non- study of Urdu is creating a situation for them as well as for the region. Their entry in to some of the Govt. departments is practically closed for want of knowledge of Urdu in which most of work is done. In view of necessity of knowledge of Urdu the recruitment rules for Revenue service have been amended to bar entry of non Urdu knowing youth. So is the case with the police establishment at lower level where the entire record like roznamcha is in Urdu. Knowledge of Urdu is essential for legal profession and Judiciary where most of the work in subordinate Courts is conducted in Urdu. Information and Forest Department are yet other organizations where knowledge of Urdu is essential. In fact all Departments especially at field level need Urdu knowing staff to deliver fast and that’s why all IAS, IPS, KAS and KPS officers have to pass Urdu examination.
The solution does not lie in change of recruitment rules but making Urdu as compulsory subject, at least up to middle standard in all schools including private institutions. At least one must have proficiency in Urdu to the extent that one can comfortably read and write simple Urdu. Otherwise also this will make them self reliant as many applications are made by the people in Urdu in most of the parts of the State.
The Central Govt. had launched the three-language formula in 1968 on the recommendations of Kothari Committee.It was revisited in 1986 and 2005. Apart from English and Hindi teaching of one local/ regional language was made compulsory. The civil society, political parties and the State Govt. must debate on this urgent matter and take steps to address the issue to ensure equal placement of all sections of the society in the administration.
(The writer is former Secretary Information, health, transport, CAPD departments and a member of Public Service Commission, feedback: [email protected])
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