Pardeep Kaul
Name of Book : Rationalized Roman
for Kashmiri Orthography for writing Kashmiri in
English Alphabet
Author : R L Bhat
Publisher : Published by Substance
Publishers
Pages : 251
Year : 2013
Price : Rs 475
The book Rationaized Roman for Kashmiri is book that took almost a full decade to get completed. Dr. R L Bhat, being a geneticist and political cum social analyst, the field of linguistics was new and rather a virgin one to explore. Being endowed with an analytical mind, he embarked upon with immense perseverance to see the fundamental flaws of the Kashmiri script called Nastaliq and devise means and ways so that the inherent limitations of this Persio-Arabic script used for writing the present day Kashmiri are removed. This is reflected in full force in the book. When study of language becomes a dream, one has to call the inmost spirit of inquiry to help understand the different aspects of languages and the scripts in which they are written. Linguistics is more or less a dry subject which is now on the decline and the truth is that there are fewer top linguistics than Nobel Prize winners.
The author comprehensively makes a cause with the need to write Kashmiri in Roman because of various reasons. Firstly, the basic flaws of the Nastaliq script which neither has the natural sound bits of Kashmiri nor is it student savvy Historically it is an imposition on Sharda script which too has minor aberrations yet represented the intrinsic sound bits and phonetic nuances so peculiar to Kashmiri oral cavity. Besides, Nastaliq has limitations beyond the frontiers of the north side of Peer Panchal. As more and younger Kashmiris are moving out of the valley, it becomes logical that to get acquainted with their great language, in a script that is rational, more universal and easy to grasp. Nobody will deny that the Persio- Arabic script is an external graft on the Kashmiri language, probably enforced to incorporate the ‘psychological’ sensibilities of the majority in the valley. Such attempts either defeat the basic cause of the promotion of a language as well as create an unscientific façade, which falls apart when tested on the touch stone of clarity and usability. Present day Nastaliq for Kashmiri has become a jumbled mass of confusion with a host of diacritical marks employed in it. To a learner or an admirer they create barriers and defeat the very purpose of the utility of a script.
This book incredibly has attempted to remove all such flaws by devising a Roman alphabet based scheme in an ingenious way so that the menacing diacritical marks and other such signs are totally removed. Seems the author in deference and deep love for his mother tongue has found a master key, which will help the coming generations and the present votaries of the language to unlock a door either deliberately or unwittingly shut. If a language is to be propagated, then its script must attend to the intricacies of the language and also try to evolve with the changing times. The Rationalized Roman devised in the book attends to all those cares with an amazing thoroughness.
The author has dealt very important points about the Kashmiri language with a master touch of a genuine researcher, who has neither to earn any doctoral dissertation nor keep a particular group happy with his work. He has no awards in sight too, because the way he has broken the unassailable myth of Nastaliq being the best script for Kashmiri, he is bound to hurt many. But when it comes to serve a language these considerations deserve a scant merit. This work is a master piece intended for young generations of Kashmiris who are living either in exile or outside the valley even across the seas. It is equally intended for the people in the valley who are now increasingly getting exposed to the English which has assumed the status of an international language. The author is well apprised of the limitations of the English language but by removing the flaws of English semantics, he has come out with an admirable scheme based on English alphabet, the reason why he calls it Rationalized Roman for Kashmiri.
There are in depth analysis of Kashmiri language, its vowel or consonant usages in the work. The book contains an incredible appraisal of evolutionary development from Brahmi to the present day English or Kashmiri and other languages like Hindi and Urdu.
Apart from being the seminal work inspired by an urgent necessity to have a rational script for Kashmiri taking in view the various hurdles, in its propagation and future scope by unshackling it from the Nastaliq script in which it has been held hostage, the book is a great attempt to understand the nuances of the grammar of Kashmiri language. The last chapter of the book profoundly delineates the different characteristics of the Kashmiri Grammar. The book is divided into seven chapters. The first deals with Scripts, second analyses the historic Sharda script in which it was written. Third and fourth chapter discuses the vowel and consonant fund of Kashmiri and its treatment in Rationalized Roman scheme. Interestingly, the chapters fifth and sixth, in a lucid way discuss how the Rationalized Roman for Kashmiri can be used for Hindi or Urdu as well. A forty page appendix gives illustrations of how the Rationalized Roman is used for Kashmiri, Hindi and Urdu by giving illustrations from prose and poetry pieces of these languages. In this appendix masterpieces both in prose and poetry have been rendered into Rationalized Roman for Kashmiri and extending this scheme to Urdu and Hindi literary pieces too.
Written in brilliant, lucid way and presented with an appealing Jacket, the book is both beautiful outside as it is profound inside. For all lovers of Kashmiri language, free from cultural and religious bias and willing to think new, reasonable and revolutionary, this book is a must read and must keep work. It is bound to create a flutter, instigate inquiry and incite a genuine debate.
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