J&K now has 5 official languages
URDU HAS BEEN the official language of the erstwhile state of J&K since 1888 when autocratic Dogra rulers recognised it as the state and official language, replacing Persian.
The Centre’s decision to make Hindi, Kashmiri, Dogri and English official languages of Jammu and Kashmir apart from existing Urdu has been both hailed and assailed by people of the twin regions — Valley and Jammu — of the Union Territory.
However, many people saw ‘anti-Urdu bias’ behind the move and also believed that it has been done for political reasons by the present dispensation at the Centre. The legal experts, on the other hand, said that it is a violation of the J&K Reorganisation Act, 2019 which empowers the new Legislative Assembly of the Union Territory. to take such a decision.
The Union Cabinet on Wednesday, more than a year after J&K was stripped of its special constitutional status and split up into two UTs, approved the introduction of the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill 2020, in which 5 languages Urdu, Kashmiri, Dogri, Hindi and English will be official languages, in the Parliament
Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Prakash Javadekar, claimed that this has been done based on “public demand” and did not elaborate.
Urdu has been the official language of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir since 1888 when autocratic Dogra rulers recognised it as the state and official language, replacing Persian which had been the official language of the princely state for several centuries, spoken and written by both Muslims and Hindus.
It is said that the then Dogra ruler Pratap Singh replaced Persian with Urdu as the official language at the instance of the Urdu knowing Punjabi Hindus recruited by the Maharaja on some key posts in the state services.
“The Kashmiri Pandits, constituting a major component of government services, were proficient in Persian and were severely affected by the change. They raised their voice against it,” writes author and columnist Khalid Bashir Ahmad in his book Kashmir-a walk through history.
He adds, “So far, as Muslims were concerned the change did not affect them much as their presence in the state services was negligible and Persian and Urdu both had the same Arabic script.”