Sir,
Apropos “Urdu not mandatory for Naib Tehsildar Post” by former Dy. Director, Chairperson-Lok Adhikaar Mission J&K, Dr AC Bhagat (DE, July 1), the author has set the whole record straight by pinpointing the flaws in the article by former Principal District and Sessions Judge BL Saraf (DE, June 24) and justified the demand in Jammu seeking withdrawal of the notification which made qualifying Urdu test mandatory for the post of Naib Tehsildar. The J&K Government needs to take note of what he said about the educational system vis-à-vis study of Urdu, especially in Jammu province, as well as his strong assertion that “in both the wings of J&K & Ladakh High Court i.e. Jammu and Srinagar, most of the judges don’t have the working knowledge of Urdu and particularly in Jammu wing more than 90% of the legal fraternity (judges and advocates) don’t have working knowledge of Urdu but the judicial machinery of High Court is running smoothly” and withdraw J&KSSB’s advertisement No. 05 of 2025, dated 09-06-2025 to conciliate the protesting people of Jammu region.
The J&K Government should not only take note of what Dr AC Bhagat has said, it should also take cognizance of what Maj. Gen. SK Sharma (Retd) had said about the attitude of the School Education Department towards Urdu in his article “Is J&K promoting Arabic and Iranian Cultures” (DE, Nov 26, 2024) and review its Urdu policy. Gen Sharma had said, and rightly, that, as per the 2011 census, the number of Kashmiri-speaking people was 66,80,837; Dogri-speaking people 25,13,712; Hindi-speaking people 26,12,631; Punjabi-speaking people 19,193; Urdu-speaking people only 19,956; Pushto/Afghani-speaking people 17,942; and Arabic-speaking people a paltry 181 (mostly senior citizens), but the School Education Department in November 2024 referred to the J&K Public Service Commission Zero post for Hindi, one post for Punjabi, two posts for Arabic, three posts each for Dogri and Kashmiri, four posts for Persian, 36 for Urdu and 53 posts for English.
Manoj Thappa
Jammu
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