Kashmiri language needs promotion and official patronage says Tarigami

By: Javaid Malik MK

Srinagar

On International Mother Tongue Day, CPI (M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami said that Kashmiri language needs official patronage so that it flourishes and its literature should be also published in a big way.

He said that Kashmiri language is being neglected and the language only survives and flourishes with official patronage and it is the duty of the government to promote Kashmiri language in a big way and also the literature in this language.

According to the GNS in its report about the utterances of Tarigami it has said on Monday as follows.

21 February is celebrated as the International Mother Language Day every year to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and to promote multilingualism. The purpose of celebrating this day is to promote, preserve and protect all languages used by people of the world. The different literary organizations celebrate this day as a reminder that the essence of our cultural identity lies in only one language and that is our mother tongue.

The apathy with the Kashmiri language is that it has remained resisted in literary circles, he said.

“The common masses, including most of the highly educated youth, cannot read anything in the Kashmiri language.”

This has badly affected the access of masses with the cultural tradition of Kashmir as embedded in its literature, he said.

“The purpose of celebrating this day is to rejuvenate interest in youth for cultural revival by organising poetry recitations and singing programmes in the Kashmiri language,” he said, as per a statement to GNS.

The idea that the cultural essence of a community lies in its languages is particularly evident in the untranslatable humour and cultural expressions in poetry as recited on this day.

With GNS inputs