Kashmiri- Our step language
When the document of ‘Naya Kashmir’ was drafted it recognised Urdu, with Persian (Nastaliq) script, as the official language of Kashmir. The document in its section 48 dealt with the state languages and section 37 clearly mentioned that Urdu shall be the language of courts. After 1947, various political necessities asserted that Urdu shall be the official language, but English language shall continue to be the language of choice for official purposes.
In last 70 years, a large volume of literature, history and analyses have been produced in Urdu and English. These two languages have been taught at all levels of school, college and university education and most of the Kashmiris are acquainted with them in both written and spoken form. But, Kashmiri continues to be the household language. It is the language of the farmer, of the weaver, of the poor artisan. It is representative of all the bias it has met at the hands of its protectors for thousands of years.
Around two millinea back Sanskrit was the language of the court. It was used for all official purposes and all the literature was written and histories were documented in Sanskrit. The local Kashmiris learnt Sanskrit with such a zeal that Kashmir assumed the place of a High School of Sanskrit learning. Grierson confirms that for upwards of two thousand years Kashmir had been a home of Sanskrit learning and from this valley were issued Sanskrit masterpieces of poetry, history, philosophy and fiction. However, even then Kashmiri was the household language and met the same treatment. Use of Kashmiri back then can be substantiated by many verses in Rajtaranghni where Kalhana uses vernacular Kashmiri proverbs e.g “nov sheen chou gallon preanis sheenas” ( Book 5, verse 401) or “rangas helu dyun” (Book 7, verse 441–443). It was considered as the language of the poor or the “apabhramsa” by the religious and political high brows and became synonymous with the poverty. There is famous incident where Kalhana once ridiculed the ruler for using Kashmiri and calling it “language of the vulgar”.
At the end of Hindu rule, the muslim traders and travellers from Central Asia started coming to Kashmir and there was a gradual and peaceful conversion of masses at their hands. A strong influx of Persio-Arabic culture accompanied them. The Sanskrit which had remained in vogue for thousands of years withered away to pave way for Persian. When Rinchan Shah converted to Sadruddin, he in a letter to the Son of Ramchandra addressed him with a title, “Ji Dost” which is a title of honour in Persian meaning “respected friend”.
Thus the process of Persianisation started. Through the Shamiris, Chaks, Mughals, Afghans and even Sikhs and Dogra’s the language received a lot of patronage. The great histories of Kashmir are written in Persian. It was mastered by the Pandit and Peer intellectuals of the valley which produced enormous literature and philosophy in it. Kashmiri, however, continued to remain the spoken language of masses and became synonymous with the peasantry, with the heavy taxes levied upon them and with the miserable conditions they lived in.
For more than 5000 years the Kashmiri intellectuals could not put forth the case of Koshur. When the foreign language studies rose to eminence, the vernacular kept on getting bleaker.
Koshur, however, just like the native Kashmiri kept on surviving. It kept on fighting its extinction by absorbing all the infiltrations. Its kept on resisting. There are no chances in any improvement of Koshur language anywhere soon, but its state shall keep on reminding us of our negligence and step-motherly behaviour to it.
