Valley divide impacts Kashmiri language
Posted by Jaiken Struck on June 8th, 2009There is a new offshoot to the Valley divide following the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits — the Kashmiri language, which used to be a binding factor between Valley Muslims and Pandits, is undergoing a transformation.
For centuries, the accepted Kashmir script has been Perso-Arabic but Kashmiri Pandit organisations are promoting the language among their youth using Devnagari. The reason: the young generation of Pandits born outside the Valley have no knowledge of the Perso-Arabic script, the accepted form of writing among Hindus and Muslims for centuries in Kashmir.
The annual Khir Bhawani M
ela at Tullamula in Srinagar last week — it has now become the biggest Kashmiri Pandit gathering in the Valley — was witness to the change. Most organisations were distributing literature in Devnagari. Shailender Dhar of Satisar Foundation, a non-profit organisation formed eight years ago in Jammu, said: “We are concerned with people who form our audience. That is why we use Devnagari. They can’t read any other script.”
Even the weekly and fortnightly classes that the organisation holds to promote Kashmiri culture among the youth are in Devnagari. “We are not creating a wedge between the two communities, we are just trying to promote the dying Kashmiri Pandit culture. Our aim is to preserve and promote age-old values of the Kashmiri Hindu cultural tradition which includes language, philosophy, art and literature, history, sciences and the spiritual tradition. We are not against any script but we are just trying to revive our old roots,” said Dhar.
Kashmiri language known as Kashur belongs to the Dardic linguistic sub-grouping, part of the Indo-European language family, and is spoken primarily in the Kashmir Valley and parts of PoK. It is one of the 22 scheduled languages of India.
Read more: Indian Express
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