There are thousands of languages but most of these have few speakers compared with major languages. In realization of the importance of mother language, International Mother Language Day is celebrated annually on 21 February across the world. First announced by the United Nations’ Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) on 17-11-1999, it was formally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in a resolution establishing 2008 as the International Year of Languages. This is held to promote awareness of linguistic & cultural diversity and multilingualism. Mother language is a corner stone of the edifice of a nation, symbol of collective identity, a sign of sovereignty, a means of knowledge and communication. It is the only best form one can express in. Language identifies the speaker with a nation or part of the world he/she comes from. A person speaking Arabic with native accent & tone is easily taken as an Arab or belonging to Arabic speaking part of the world. Same is the case with other speakers. Powerful nations do not speak in the language of others. Even at international fora they speak in their mother language and have a dragoman to communicate it to others. Weak nations do otherwise, thus lose their originality and identity. We Kashmiris are not English still suffer from Anglomania downplaying our own language having 5000 years old unique civilization and culture. None of us has ever so far any mastery over English language. Even doctorates fail to enjoy complete proficiency over a foreign language to fully express themselves. We do not even scale up to the elementary levels of Urdu language although it is the most widely spoken, written and understood language in the sub-continent. This is unlike a mother tongue where an illiterate can express and understand every/any aspect of human activity be it in prosaic or poetic narration.
In this scenario we are deviating from our intrinsic competence of communication in our mother tongue to the adopted incompetency. Some of us say ‘chori rakho’, (by that they mean hide this) instead of ‘chupa kay rakho’ or ‘ khada baitho’ instead of ‘ khada raho’. In English we hear ‘he did not told me ‘ or ‘If I will go there I will brought something for you’. Numerous are such instances where can barely suppress a laugh. In English/other countries there are no sign boards, name/number plates, advertisements, conversation, communication etc, in Kashmiri or Urdu whereas we have opposite of it. Kashmiri language has been deserted to the backyard. The Urdu language too has been divorced from private/public offices notwithstanding the fact that it is the official language of J & K. Confirmation, recognition of their status and call for their promotion & preservation comes us daily from the legal tender/currency notes where the two are positioned 5th and the 15th respectively in the number of fifteen languages scripted thereon. The language policy of Government of India too has been pluralistic giving priority to the use of mother tongue in administration, education and other fields of mass communication.
One should not demean any language including English which has its own treasure-trove to be benefitted from. Indubitably nobody should be averse to be a polyglot, but better and appreciable is to further mother language. It should be used to the extent possible so that it can sustain, grow, prosper and the speakers survive as a nation. The English do not speak in Kashmiri or any other language except for a fun. Adopting other’s language and culture is often a manifestation of inferiority complex and a death blow to one’s own language enslaving one ideologically thereafter culturally and socially. A teacher in a class room from pre–primary level to apex one while teaching/lecturing on a subject should be 100 percent in the language of the subject except for simplifying the knots with clarifications or explanations through the mother tongue. However, while conducting outside mother language should prevail and be pervasive for interaction unless we are confronted by a foreigner by language, without any interlarding as it denotes bankruptcy of our knowledge of the word required to fill in or the deficient language itself.Pertinent to mention that in re-organisation of 525 princely states in 1956 by Mr. Vallabh Bhai Patel the then Home Minister of India, formulation and amalgamation of states was done mainly on linguistic attributes under States Re-organisation Act,1956.
Mandarin with the highest number of 845 million native speakers followed by Spanish with 329 million speakers, English is the largest spoken language with 1,500 million including 328 native speakers in the world. Language needs at least 1,00,000 speakers to survive. It is believed that about 7,000 languages currently spoken in the world will have become extinct by 2050 as the language system of the world has reached a crisis stage and is dramatically restructuring. This development seems to be truer in our case as we are vandalizing our own rich store. We have language phobia also. Anyone speaking English fluently is perceived to be intelligent, intellectual and a genius without pondering over the fact that an illiterate & vulgar Englishman too does so. We have a rich history of culture and civilization of thousands of years no less than others in comparison of dignity, Communication skills, terse proverbs, vocabulary, adages, poetry art & craft etc, that suffice our needs. Compilation of 1,518 Kashmiri Proverbs in Priest Hunston Novel (1885) and its translation in Kashmiri in 2016 by Mr. Kacho Asfandyar Khan Faridon (retired IAS Officer from Kargil) is one of the testimonies to the fact. No language can survive unless and until its natives read, write and speak it in routine living. Fountain of this lies in the mouth of the parents who should transfer this storehouse to their progeny and not mislead them by any hotchpotch. The inherent general appeal of the event (especially to those who are assigned with the job of language promotion besides Kashmiri writers in prose/ poetry/drama ) is to uphold, preserve, promote and propagate mother language Kashmiri. A language develops by preserving original words, script and addition & usage of new words. So can Kashmiri. One way of achieving the main objective of celebrating this day can be attained by introducing Kashmiri as a compulsory subject up to 12th standard in the Department of Education for protection of centuries old Kashmiri culture & civilization that needs to be preserved. This occasion reminds us all to deliver to the objective of the celebration. If natives do not honour, read, write & speak Kashmiri, there will be no Kashmiri and ultimately no Kashmir.
The author is a former Sr. Audit Officer and Consultant in the A.G’s Office Srinagar.