Elections in the country have thrown up dangerous rhetoric in the past. Leaders have used unparliamentary language for opponents, communities, and genders.
Lok Sabha elections saw leaders doubling down on language against a community, instilling fear of `unpopular results.’
Assembly election in Kashmir works on the same rhetoric of possible rigging, unpopular results, the fear of not any community but a party, unemployment, reading down of special status, and downsizing of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir.
However, there is a phenomenon unique to the Kashmir election with no comparison in any other part. While in the rest of the country, language is a lethal tool to rouse emotions among the native voters, in Kashmir, lack of knowledge or proficiency in the language has become an election issue.
Criticism for lacking fluency in Kashmiri
Two-star campaigners of Valley’s traditional parties are criticised for lacking fluency and articulation in their native language, Kashmiri.
National Conference Chief Omar Abdullah and PDP president Mehbooba Mufti’s equally firebrand daughter have become targets of not just their opponents but netizens also for mispronouncing common Kashmiri words.
Abdullah has come a long way from dropping an occasional line of Kashmiri in a rally during his previous regime to trying to hold a conversation in the native language. However, one mispronounced word had everyone question his “Kashmiri credentials”.
Trying to evoke the emotional side of his voters, Abdullah was seen appealing to voters to vote for him and save his honour. Holding his skull cap in hand he appealed to the gathering to uphold the sanctity of the same.
However, he slipped when the Kashmir word for his cap came out all wrong. The scion of the valley’s first political family called it “toop” instead of “Tope”.
Abdullah became the center of memes, and ridicule on social media, and even his opponents like People’s Conferences Sajad Lone and Awami Itihad Party’s Engineer Rashid, questioned his language skills and his claims to be a representative of Kashmiri’s.
Also Read: J&K Polls: What the Historic Voter Turnout in Kashmir Means for the Region
Abdullah is the son of party patron Farooq Abdullah and his British wife Molly Abdullah. He has studied in schools outside of Kashmir and even stayed a large part of his young adult life outside the valley.
A few days later, the same thing happened to Mehbooba Mufti’s daughter. Iltija Mufti, the energetic young girl, who seems to have a lot of confidence and charisma, slipped while pronouncing “Benne ( sister)” and later her “Zeon (win)” sounded like “Zoon (moon).”
Iltija holds her forte against senior opponents and claims to carry forward her grandfather, Mufti Sayed’s legacy. However, netizens now insist she takes “Kashmiri tutorials” for clarity of the language.
However unlikely it may seem for political leaders or common masses not to be proficient, in the local languages, it is not an unheard-of scenario in Kashmir. Most of the urban, elite younger generation is not very well versed in Kashmiri. Their spoken language is as good or bad as the two politicians.
Tale of a dying language
While the current generation doesn’t speak Kashmiri well, even the older generations find it difficult to read and write in Kashmiri.
No matter how much Kashmir lovers talk about preserving the culture and heritage of the region, what people forget is that language is a very essential part of that heritage. This classic language goes back thousands of years, unfortunately is a dying language and it has been dying for decades.
The status of the language is a stark example of one of the myopic policies of consecutive central government regimes in Kashmir.
Till 2008 the language spoken by a majority of people in Kashmir was not even taught in schools. This happened during the first assault on Kashmir’s autonomy in 1953. It was only in the early 80s did it became a subject at the university level. Kashmiri language experts say the Centre was skeptical that strong language and cultural sentiments might strengthen the demands of separatism.
The Hindu majority Jammu region, on the other hand, was Dogri-speaking. The official language in the state was Urdu which had gained prominence from the Mughal times. However post reading down of Article 370, Kashmiri became one of the five official languages of the Union territory, the others being English, Hindi, Urdu, and Dogri.
PDP’s Iltija Mufti campaigning for the Jammu and Kashmir elections. Photo: X/IltijaMufti_
However, nothing has improved the status of the language in the region so far. The most used languages continue to be English, Urdu and Hindi. Even now, Kashmiri is not a medium of education in the valley and is taught as a third language.
From police FIRs to files in offices or even doctors’ consultations nothing is in Kashmiri and even the signboards have no sign of the language. An average shopkeeper or an auto or taxi driver still try to impress the customer with their Urdu/English’ skills.
Which dialect makes a person more Kashmiri?
When we were in schools in the 80s and 90s, speaking Kashmiri was “a punishable offense”. Speaking the language in our Christian missionary schools was out of the question, even in government schools, teachers would levy fines on people speaking the language.
Being a school kid from that era, although I speak Kashmiri with a sense of pride, like most of my peers the language might not be as chaste as puritans of a language would want it to be. Most people in my generation get stuck in counting, are not fluent in reading and writing, need easy synonyms for complex terms or find certain terms tongue- twisting.
Adding to the already dismal scenario, nursery admissions for two and three-year-olds are generally based on proficiency of languages that are not native. So, parents prefer English, Hindi/Urdu as the medium of communication.
People in the erstwhile state of Jammu Kashmir which included Ladakh spoke at least 13 languages in different regions. Even though Kashmir remains the largest spoken language in the state, the Kashmiri language spoken outside the valley and Pir Panjal regions is of different dialects. Even while going from North to South in the valley we find minor dialects change in almost all districts.
So the question is proficiency or fluency in which of these dialects would make a person more Kashmiri?
While proficiency in a native language, the small quirks, the little nudges might strike a chord with the audiences in a rally, but not knowing a language or not being able to speak it with finesse does not make a person any less patriotic or nationalist – for that matter even a good or a bad politician.
While I might or might not agree with these politicians on their policies and politics but do pardon them for their pronunciation.
A blooper by Omar Abdullah, Iltija Mufti, I, or my children doesn’t in any way make us less of Kashmiris.
Toufiq Rashid is a journalist who has covered the Kashmir conflict, health and wellbeing for top Indian newspapers for nearly two decades. She now works at @Pixstory.
