There is no denying the fact that day by day the clamour for local, related consciousness and sensitivities are getting more manifest in the psyche and the craving of the people in so far as conserving and promoting language and culture and projections thereof are concerned. Feeling proud of local language spoken, culture, art, literature, signs and symbols, legacy and heritage, in fact, do provide a sense of belongingness and a connect with the past with a resolve to have the same projected and conveyed too for the future preservation. Besides other conventional modes employed for the said purpose like writing books, articles and research papers and even passing on the valued information through the word of mouth from one generation to the other, the most powerful mode is the satellite TV channel. Dogri, the language having attained its national importance by way of being included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India, has now ”graduated” to become international too by the Google starting Dogri Translate and thus bringing into fore the language spoken by millions. Enumerating the varied aspects and factors of the sweet language is not the subject of these lines though, but the question is why should it not get its share of being aired effectively through a Duggar TV channel not just for an hour or two in the evening hours but on a sustained 24×7 basis as is the case with DD Kashir which is a 24×7 satellite channel.
Denying its rightful place, the Dogri language and its various forms, dialects and accents spoken in different parts of the Jammu region even in those parts which in 1947-48 were usurped forcibly by Pakistan known as PoJK, the people of Jammu feel being discriminated against even in the area of promoting local culture, language, art, literature, folklore, rites and customs, cuisine and traditions and what not through the Doordarshan Jammu which needs a thorough revamping. Unfortunately, this Jammu channel is in utter dormancy otherwise nothing interesting to produce not even opinions of writers, professionals, journalists, experts in respective fields on different emerging topics of interest and national importance let alone popularising and promoting Dogri language, art and culture. It may be recalled that Doordarshan Jammu is having sufficient space, ambiance, staff, equipment etc and can easily requisition the ”services” of artists, talented in various fields, scholars and the like as the same are adequately and easily available in Jammu itself for giving a practical shape to the permanent 24×7 Duggar satellite channel.
It needs to be underlined that a large number of artists of Jammu region have given invaluable contribution to promote local culture, Dogri language and rich legacies of Jammu region, traditions and art but their perpetual neglect and the feeling of ”not required now” is dealing a severe blow to their creativity and the will to do more of it . Agreeably, all of them could not be required and engaged for the grand mission but in one or the other form, their direct and indirect contribution would broadly and generally benefit the Dogri language and those who talk and use Dogri language but the question is who will walk the talk and take a decisive step towards achieving the objective.
Economic feasibility, on the other hand, is definitely a big and important ingredient of the entire project to be run round the clock and what we see in respect of the mushroomed TV channels, the feasibility of the proposition needs to be looked into on comparative basis as to how feasibility of DD Kashir has been worked out so that the same factors could hold good for Duggar channel as well. The principle of ”earn for yourself” is definitely a sound economic principle but looking to the strategic nature of Jammu and Kashmir where such channels had the potentiality of not only preserving and promoting various native mother tongues spoken and the local culture in different and far flung areas of Jammu division but how malicious and hateful propaganda by Pakistan could effectively be countered using the Dogri language. Also, it has to be seen as to how border residents along Jammu -Pakistan border could tune in and watch Duggar satellite channel and not be inclined to watch Pakistani channels which are having high frequency transmission capacity but spew hate against the country.
The critical appraisal, however, of the entire project also needs to be made, again in a no-partisan and pure professional manner. To be sincere, how many people would really be inclined to watch the proposed channel looking to hundreds of channels available with tens of hundreds of varied programmes available even on mobile telephones? Agreed, there is a full fledged Department of Dogri in Jammu University where lot of work is being done in the field but how many parents are ensuring that their children are imparted basic education in mother Dogri language in consonance with the provisions of the new National Educational Policy. In the current fast changing ”values”, we prefer to ”converse” with even the pets in English, how can we feel proud to speak, write, converse and hear in our own sweet Dogri language ?
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