Jammuites
and the Dogri language
Sir,
A thee day
meet of poets, short story writers,
novelists, play wrights and scholars from
across India is being inaugurated by the
Prime Minister of India on 25th Sep.,
2003 at New York. The readers may perhaps
be interested to know that the fourteen
languages which are being represented are
Kashmiri, Punjabi, Gujrati, Marathi,
Sindhi, Kannada, Malayalam, Tamil,
Telugu, Orya, Bengali, Assamese, Hindi
and Urdu. It is surprising to note that
the dogri language is not being
represented.
I believe
unless the language is owned and
practiced profusely by the Jammuites, it
may not have the required recognition.
For instance last month a silent march
was taken through the bazaars of the
Jammu city by the protagonists of the
language. At the end of the march, one of
the protagonists, the eminent Dogri short
story writer, Dr. Lalit Magotra of the
Jammu University spoke to Radio Jammu for
its 'Shub Prabhat' Programme about the
purpose of the march. The cause being
that of the dogri language, he should
have as a natural course spoken in Dogri.
Instead he spoke in hindi. Another
protagonist C M Sharma also spoke
likewise.
Again last
month a sonorous and a popular voice of
the Jammu radio talked to a farmer on
24.06.2003 in the field so as to record
his views about development of a village
for the 'Yeh Jammu hai' programme. The
farmer spoke all through in sweet chaste
Dogri. But the radio artist never got
prompted to address in dogri.
Actually
we have nationally acclaimed authorities
in dogri language-the two Padam Shris,
Prof. Ram Nath Shastri and Ms. Padma
Sachdev. Also in dogri literature we have
the pride of Jammu city, Dr. Jitendra
Udhampuri. That being so, the New York
Managers should not have erred to forget
about the Dogri language.
For
inclusion of the Dogri language in the
8th schedule of constitution of India,
processions are taken, dharnas are held
in front of the Divisional Commissioner's
office and the Governor's secretariat.
Several times Dr. Karan Singh makes his
meaningful appeals. The State Chief
Ministers right from Dr. Farooq Abdullah
have been upholding the need of inclusion
as such and have been making promises of
getting the language included in the 8th
schedule. Even our Prime Minister
promised to do so in his public
address. In spite of all this, when
it came to enacting few more languages in
the 8th schedule about two months back,
the language of dogri was ignored.
There is,
therefore, the intense and urgent need of
encouraging profuse use of the language
leading it to the required level of
popularity. It could be so done by
i.
inducing the children and particularly
the youngsters to speak and converse in
Dogri both at home and the educational
institutions;
ii.
wherever and whenever non-english can do,
it should be so done only in Dogri
whether the gatherings be public or
private;
iii. the
Jammu radio should hold sittings (Mehfil)
with eminent Dogri scholars/poets so as
to inspire the masses about the essence
of the language;
iv. the
State Cultural Academy should also hold
occasional seminars on the works of the
eminent Dogri writers/poets.
Yours etc...
P N Dhar, Jammu.
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