Srinagar: February 21 is undoubtedly an important day for language patriots across the world as it is the “International Mother Language Day.” It is a day to promote awareness of linguistic diversity and cultural diversity and to promote multilingualism.
As far as the Kashmir Valley is concerned, Kashmiri has over seven million native speakers. Despite being included among the 22 scheduled languages of India, Kashmiri is on the brink of oblivion.
Though Jammu and Kashmir administration has tried to promote the language by introducing it as an optional subject in the schools, the results haven't been satisfactory so far.
On the occasion of World Mother Language Day, ETV Bharat spoke to Kashmiri youth regarding the issue. Interestingly, most of them were of the opinion that parents have to take the lead. Kashmiri poet Asif Tariq Bhat said,
"Man is endowed with eternal blessings and language is the greatest blessing. One can express feeling only through language. Our mother tongue is Kashmiri. If we want to keep our identity intact, we have to love and respect our language".
He added that if we look at Japan or China, all signboards will be in their mother tongue. That is one way to ensure we don't forget our mother tongue even as we learn new languages.
"It is a pity that when a child is born in our society, we speak in English or Urdu to him. If we look at Japan or China, all signboards there are in their own language, not in English. Learning a new language is not wrong, but forgetting one's mother tongue is wrong," he added.
For Syed Samreen Sajad, a research scholar at Kashmir University, "Kashmiri language is not being taken seriously by anyone."
"The Kashmiri language has been introduced in the school curriculum but no one is learning this language with interest. It is not taught properly in schools because the focus has always been on English and Urdu," she said.
Samreen feels that the parents should be at the forefront if they want Kashmiri to survive as a language.
"I think parents should create a Kashmiri environment for their children at home. They should focus on the mother tongue, the rest of the languages can be learnt by the children in schools. It has been scientifically proven that if a child learns his mother tongue first, his intelligence quotient is better than others," she says.
Another research scholar, Beenish Afzal, says, "If we want to promote and protect our mother tongue Kashmiri, it is necessary to focus on it from the elementary stage. Nothing much can be done at university level. We must make our children understand the importance of mother tongue."
"Take the example of South Indian states, they prefer their language over any other language. We should learn from them or there will be no Kashmiri speaker down the years," she said. She added, "We faced a lot of difficulties during data collection for our research as most of the educated natives were either uncomfortable or embarrassed to communicate in Kashmiri."
While Dr Mehnaz Rasheed, another scholar, argued that before blaming others one should do introspection.
"First we must do introspection. If we want to protect our mother tongue, we must first make ourselves aware and then society. We must be proud of our language, only then we can save our identity," she said, adding, "Parents have a vital role too. They should encourage children rather than making English speaking priority."
Another researcher, Ishfaq Ahmad Ahanger termed Kashmiri as the sweetest language and needs to be given it's due.
"Our language is a very sweet language. Those who feel ashamed of it have actually not understood the language and nor have they followed the Kashmiri literature work," he said. "We all have to work to promote and protect the language at our own level," he added.
