Srinagar, December 08, 2018 (PPI-OT): In occupied Kashmir, scores of literary organizations have ridiculed Indian Ministry of Human Resource Development’s (MHRD) move to remove Kashmiri translations from its language-promoting portal – Bhasha Sangam – terming it as a direct attack on the Kashmiri identity. The Valley-based experts of Kashmiri language condemned and expressed displeasure over the move made on the basis of few objections from Kashmiri Pandit community.
Dr Sheikh Showkat Hussain, Head of Department of Law, Central University Kashmir, said that the move was aimed to thrust Hindutva ideology over Kashmir. He said Kashmiri Pandits in past were also writing the language in the same script as it was written by Kashmir Muslims.
Former Secretary of Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art Culture and Languages, Muhammad Yousuf Teng said that the objection which led to the withdrawal of the Kashmiri translations from its language-promoting portal was baseless. “There is nothing like Pandits and Muslims language. The Kashmiri language is the same for both the communities barring few words. It is just a communal thinking, which tends to divide Muslims and Pandits,” he added.
Prof Mashal Sultan Puri, a renowned poet, writer and Patron of Adbi Markaz Kamraz, said the Kashmiri language has been treasured in the same Kashmiri script since decades and there is nothing like Pandits and Muslims. Renowned Kashmiri poet, Fayaz Tilgami, said that an attack on the Kashmiri language was clearly an attack on the Kashmiri identity.
Majrooh Rashid, who is Head of the Kashmiri Department at the University of Kashmir, said that removing Kashmiri from language portal was not a welcome step. “Based on few objections, HRD ministry should not decline the language, he said.
Meanwhile, former member of the so-called Kashmir Assembly and the Chairman of Awami Ittehad Party, Engineer Abdul Rasheed, in a statement in Srinagar condemned the Indian HRD Ministry for withdrawing Kashmiri translations from its language promoting portal Bhasha Sangam and said the move is yet again evidence that Delhi doesn’t understand the sentiments and emotions of people of Kashmir.
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