Brig Anil Gupta
Jammu is once again on the verge of explosion due to the recent attempt of imposing Kashmiri language in Jammu region. Some eminent thinkers and members of the civil society have labelled it as “Cultural Invasion”. To my mind it is much more than that. It is continuation of the politico-communal strategy adopted by the Kashmiri Muslim leadership to supress the Dogras and anything to do with the rich Dogra heritage. It all began in the third decade of the twentieth century when a few Kashmiri Muslims under Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah joined to form Reading Room Party followed by Muslim Conference that later split into National Conference. It was on June 21, 1931 that the YMMA (Young Man's Muslim Association), led by Sheikh Mohammed Abdullah, planned a public meeting at Khanqah-i-moulla. It was a unique meeting because all Muslim leaders of all hue and cry and irrespective of their schools of thought assembled there. The meeting was addressed by Abdullah himself. He asked all Muslims to unite against the Dogra rulers. All leaders swore in the name of the Holy book that they would remain faithful to the cause of Islam. Khawaja Saad-ud-din Shawl, Mirwaiz Moulvi Yousuf Shah, Mirwaiz Moulvi Hamdani, Chowdhury Ghulam Abbas, Agha Syed Hussain Shah Jalali, Khawaja Ghulam Ahmad Ashai, Munshi Shahab-ud-din, Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah, and Sardar Gohar Rahman were elected as representatives of the Muslims, majority of them Kashmiri Muslims.
The seditious speech delivered in this gathering by an outsider named Abdul Qadeer Khan instigating the gathering to rise against the Dogra Hindu Maharaja sounded the first bugle of revolt against the ruler of the state of Jammu & Kashmir that included Jammu, Kashmir, Ladakh and the remote areas of Gilgit, Baltistan, Hunza , Nagar and Chilas. Sheikh Abdullah thereafter took the reins of revolt in his hands and launched the Quit Kashmir movement. This movement itself was communal because the Kashmiri Muslims wanted the Dogra Hindu Maharaja to quit the Muslim majority Kashmir and were not demanding the abdication from the entire State. Through their venomous speeches the Kashmiri Muslim leaders created anti-Dogra Hindu sentiments in the mind of local Kashmiris. It was ingrained in their psyche to perceive Dogras as representative of their alleged oppression by the Dogra rulers. As the subsequent events unfolded and Sheikh Abdullah wrested absolute power in the State, anti-Dogra mind-set began to manifest. Many subsequent decisions taken by Sheikh were a reflection of this manifestation. In many decisions he enjoyed the support of his trusted friend and political mentor, Pandit Jawaharlal Lal Nehru.
Sheikh and his team had made up their minds to destroy all symbols of Dogra Rule in the State. With the cooperation of Nehru, Sheikh succeeded in becoming the Prime Minister of the State and undermine the Royal Authority to the extent that led to unceremonious exit of the Maharaja from the State. Accession Day, a major historical event of integration of the princely state with independent India, was not given due recognition but made an issue of dispute. The first major attack on the Dogras thereafter came in the form of so called Agrarian Reforms that were aimed at depriving the Dogras of their large land holdings. The Dogras took it sportingly in the larger interest of the State.
The people of Jammu region spoke Dogri language which had its own script called Takri while Kashmiri was popular with Kashmiris of the Valley and had Sharda as the script. Urdu was not the mother tongue of any ethnic group of the state. However, Sheikh decided to continue with Urdu as the official language of the State on the plea that even during the Dogra rule it was the official language. It surprised many because Sheikh was keen to demolish all symbols of the Dogra rule. The real intention of Sheikh, however, was different. He wanted to kill the Dogri language and Dogriyat. Urdu had a script which was the same as Arabic and Persian, with which the Muslims identified themselves with a view point of religion. Sheikh wanted to use Urdu as a symbol of Muslim identity and for furtherance of “ummah” ideology that had its roots in Aligarh Muslim University, alma mater of Sheikh. Gradually, Urdu emerged as the preferred language of the Muslims in the state and Hindus preferred Hindi. The Kashmiri leadership has succeeded in using religion as a binding force instead of language which usually binds people together in an ethno-diverse society as it exists in our state. The Dogras slowly began to lose in government jobs since they did not know Urdu language and neither Dogri nor Hindi, preferred languages of the Dogras, were recognised as official languages.
The palaces and forts built by the Dogra rulers all across the state were either occupied as government buildings or allowed to decay rather than being preserved as part of State's rich heritage. Had they been preserved, heritage tourism would have contributed handsomely towards the State's exchequer Another fraud was played with the Dogras in the form of Article 35A, that gave the powers to the State Assembly to define “Permanent Residents” and to give them special rights and privileges. Consequently, a large section of Dogri speaking Hindu population that had migrated to the state at the time of partition were denied the permanent citizenship of the state and they continue to suffer till date. Dogri language was not included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India due to the callous attitude of the Kashmiri leadership. The Dogras had to launch an agitation for inclusion of the same in Eighth Schedule.
The next assault on Dogriyat came in form of denial of Dogra Certificate, a certificate that allowed certain concessions to the Dogras while seeking enrolment in Indian Army and Central Armed Police Forces. The Kashmiri Muslim leaders did not want to give a common Dogra identity to the people of Jammu.
The final nail in the coffin has been struck with the announcement of creation of 49 posts in the 46 colleges of Jammu region for teaching Kashmiri language, an alien language to the people of this region. Having succeeded in using religion as a glue fanning both sides of the Pir Panjal, it has now resorted to language activism by trying to promote Kashmiri as a language of the state.
The anger amongst the people is genuine and they are going to oppose this act tooth and nail. Kashmiri is not even the official language of the State, then why is it being imposed on non-Kashmiri speaking region? In fact, Kashmiri is not even the language of the majority community. It is only patronised in Kashmir Valley. In the frontier districts of Kashmir Pahari, Punjabi, Gojri and Shina are the preferred languages. Punjabi/ Pothwari are the languages spoken in POK. In Jammu region 67% of the population patronises Dogri while others speak Pahari, Gojri and Punjabi (none of these languages have any affinity to Kashmiri.) Kashmiri is spoken only by a small minority in the Kishtwar district. There also in the GDC only one student is enrolled for Kashmiri. Therefore, decision to impose Kashmiri in Jammu region defies all logic. In contrast, there are only 19 posts for Dogri and that too nine of them as ad-hoc. It only indicates the mind-set of the Kashmiri leadership to impose their will on the Dogras and humiliate them not realising that Dogras are a proud race and they cannot be subjugated like this. As it is the people of Jammu region are seething with anger due to blatant discrimination against them in the matter of selection for various gazetted posts in the different departments of the government. In order to supress the Dogras, religion is being preferred over merit. Imposition of Kashmiri is part of a larger design and continuation of the politico-communal mind-set of Kashmiri Muslim leadership pioneered by Sheikh Abdullah. The authorities should not lose sight of history and forget that imposition of a particular language has been the cause of major public revolt in the past and even now in another part of the country Gurkhas of Darjeeling are fighting against imposition of Bengali. It is said that if you want to kill a nation the easiest way to do it is to kill its language. The Dogras will never accept this onslaught on their language, culture and identity. This needs to be understood clearly and unambiguously before the issue festers into a bigger problem.
(The author is a Jammu based political commentator, columnist, security and strategic analyst. He can be contacted at anil5457@gmail.com.)
