Baramulla : If languages could speak, I am sure we would hear the dreadful screeches of ‘Kaeshur,’ our mother tongue, every day and every second. And why wouldn’t we? Just like us Kashmiris, who are dying every day, our mother tongue is slowly experiencing a cultural death. Unfortunately, we are all responsible for this; we are all murderers of our language. We are the culprits, and we are the victims.
Amid the decline of our Kashmiri mother tongue, a Baramulla man is on a mission to promote the Kashmiri language on social media to keep this language alive.
Meet Asif Iqbal Bhat, a resident of Dardpora Khaitangan in north Kashmir’s Baramulla district, who is on a mission to protect and promote the Kashmiri language on social media.
In an interview, Asif said that the Kashmiri language was once widely spoken across Jammu and Kashmir, connecting generations through stories, songs, and poetry. However, today, the language is in decline. He noted that many young people prefer to speak Urdu, English, or Hindi, believing that these languages offer better career opportunities.
“I feel that the dying of our mother tongue is a serious problem,” he said. “To keep it alive and save it from further decline, I, as a Kashmiri, thought it was important to put in my efforts. Considering the social media craze, I am trying to encourage the youth to speak Kashmiri more and more.”
Asif is known on social media as Keashur Parun.
“I want to make Kashmiri fun and accessible,” he says. “If we can speak English fluently, why not Kashmiri? It is our own language.”
To keep the language alive, Asif suggests simple steps:
- Speak Kashmiri at home: Parents should communicate with their children in Kashmiri.
- Use Kashmiri on social media: Instead of writing only in English or Urdu, people should also post in Kashmiri.
- Read Kashmiri literature: More books should be written and published in Kashmiri to keep the language relevant.
- Teach Kashmiri in schools: Schools should include Kashmiri in their curriculum as an important subject.
“As long as we use Kashmiri in our daily lives, it will survive,” he further said.
(The full interview has been published in Kashmir’s daily, Rising Kashmir)
