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Teach Kashmiri in schools Sir, Being out of my State (Kashmir) for a considerable time now, I am in touch with what's going on there through your paper. For this reason, I would like to express my views regarding the usage of Kashmiri language in our motherland, which,in my opinion, happens to be under threat. To start with any Kashmiri youth would want to ask a question to their leaders, why isn't Kashmiri taught in our school? Urdu is not close to the Kashmiri language, so why it happens to become our official language? Just because Urdu happens to be the language of Muslims in India and Pakistan does not necessarily bind us to sacrifice our precious heritage. I, as a youth from Kashmir have an outsider's view of what is going on in my motherland. My heart bleeds at how our leaders all along have allowed our culture, identity language to be raped by outsiders. As the authors of various columns on this subject had pointed out, there have been similar cases in other parts of the world. And it's no secret that countries all over the world impose strict penalties if their language rules are violated. Take the case of Quebec in Canada, even though the rest of Canada is English speaking, Quebec Province is French speaking. All their schooling and business is carried out in French. Everyone all around Canada respects the wish of the people of Quebec to maintain their identity. On the other hand, take the case of Kashmir, no one sought the wishes of the people while deciding what the medium of instruction should be in our schools. Even the history what we are taught has no mention of Kashmiri history, yet we are taught about kings in south India who probably never even heard of a country called Kashmir at the time; How many school kids in Kashmir know of Budshah, Lal Ded, Yusuf Shah Chak and so on? How may school kids know what our history was for the last 600 hundred years? If the medium of instruction were Kashmiri, the literacy rate in Kashmir would have been outstanding. This is because when a child enters school, and is suddenly facing a teacher, teaching a subject in a foreign language, he/she is bound to get discouraged and eventually drop out of school. In my opinion all primary classes should be conducted in Kashmiri. And English should be taught as a second language because it is a Universal language. After primary schooling, all subject can then be taught either in Kashmiri or English depending upon the choice of the student. This is the democratic way of any schooling, anywhere in the world. Instead of thrusting upon a foreign language upon the people of Kashmir, the leaders should work towards making Kashmiri language an integral part of our heritage. Yours etc.... |
