Modi minister urges supremacy for Hindi

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Anger over BJP’s promotion of Hindi as India’s national language

Hindi should become India’s official language so the country can shake off the “slave mentality” of relying on English, according to a key lieutenant of Narendra Modi, the prime minister.

Amit Shah, the powerful home affairs minister, said that although each of India’s many languages — 22 of them official, 99 unofficial and thousands of dialects — were valued, the country needed a unified voice. “It is very important to have a language of the whole country, which should become the identity of India globally,” he wrote on Twitter, in Hindi. “Today if one language can do the work of uniting the country then it is the most spoken language, Hindi.”

His comments provoked howls from across the country, particularly from the south, where Hindi is not spoken, and from political opponents of the ruling BJP, who are Hindu nationalists.

Hindi was the mother tongue of 528 million Indians, out of a 1.21 billion population, according to the 2011 census. By comparison only 256,000 spoke English as their first language, making it the 44th most popular tongue. English is the second most widely spoken second language. India’s population is now 1.34 billion.

India has no national language, as declared by the constitution, and both Hindi and English are the designated languages of government. Mr Shah, a former BJP party chief who described Muslim refugees as “termites” before the general election earlier this year, said that only an Indian language could protect core values of Indian culture.

In a reference to the popular hybrid known as “Hinglish”, in which Hindi and English words are used together in the same sentence, Mr Shah said caustically: “If you ask a medium Hindi student to speak for 40 minutes in Hindi, he won’t be able to do so.” He added: “There is so much influence of English on us that we cannot talk in Hindi without its help. We shouldn’t surrender to slave mentality.”

Opponents of the BJP warned against pursuing Indian cultural nationalism. “This is part of the hypernationalism of the BJP. From one nation, one language and one culture, it will eventually culminate in one nation and one religion,” the political analyst Parsa Venkateshwar Rao Jr said.

This fear of an attempt to impose cultural uniformity on a diverse nation was echoed by the opposition Congress party. “We may have one nation, one tax; one nation, one election, but under no circumstances can we have one nation, one culture; one nation, one language,” Jairam Ramesh, the party leader, said.

Pinarayi Vijayan, chief minister of Kerala in the south, said Mr Shah’s remarks were a “war cry” against other languages.

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/...-hindi-as-india-s-national-language-lspxs6lmx

I have often criticised Pakistan for not teaching English widely in the country, yet here we have elected ministers in India criticising the widespread use of English as a language.

Isn't this precisely what gave India an advantage in the global trade arena?

 

[jaisan]

The Rightist parties pushed Hindi right from 1947. It's in their doctrine which also includes revival of Sanskrit language.

 

[Swashbuckler]

They will never be able to impose Hindi on South states (even Karnataka ), not in a million years. Good move as far as I am concerned because this has made BJP/RSS/Modi/Shah even more unpopular in my state. They are going to get smoked in the next assembly election . They will put special onus on Tamils now (in vain) because Tamil is the oldest surviving language in the world, Sanskrit which they hold so dear is a dead language for all practical purposes, pure jealousy. Hindi has got no status, no standing compared to many vernacular languages in South Asia, but when you mix inferiority complex of Hindi speaking people with brutal majoritarianism these kind of controversies prop up.

Captain you are right about the advantage of English, the lingua franca of the world, the language of science/tech, economics, media and popular entertainment. A pity the BJP idiots and cow belt based Hindi chauvinists lack foresight. In TN English is the second language, first being Tamil. If you are interested you can read about the anti-Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu which is a recurring theme in Dravidian politics. We respect all languages but will never allow any imposition, if we want to learn something it will be of our own free will. Tamil Nadu will be a separate country before it accepts Hindi supremacy. I am sure other South states will resist as will North East states, if Bengalis and Punjabis can join us in these difficult times it will do wonders for the health of this diverse democracy. BJP's designs need to be stopped at all costs lest our future generations ask us why we were quiet when tyranny was staring us in the face.

 

[JaDed]

He said it to take off the focus from the economy, BJP has to go, my grand mother was a Hindi teacher with most beautiful Hindi writing ever , I would absolutely not impose Hindi on anyone, worse is already the people of Chennai were learning Hindi on their own, so many shop keepers etc were learning so as to increase their business.

This is exactly same mistake BJP did with beef in Kerala, when the consumption was not that high and sped up.

Its time to give each state same amount of Lok Sabha seats that this issue will not occur, Tired of UP having so much say.

 

[JaDed]

They will never be able to impose Hindi on South states (even Karnataka ), not in a million years. Good move as far as I am concerned because this has made BJP/RSS/Modi/Shah even more unpopular in my state. They are going to get smoked in the next assembly election . They will put special onus on Tamils now (in vain) because Tamil is the oldest surviving language in the world, Sanskrit which they hold so dear is a dead language for all practical purposes, pure jealousy. Hindi has got no status, no standing compared to many vernacular languages in South Asia, but when you mix inferiority complex of Hindi speaking people with brutal majoritarianism these kind of controversies prop up.

Captain you are right about the advantage of English, the lingua franca of the world, the language of science/tech, economics, media and popular entertainment. A pity the BJP idiots and cow belt based Hindi chauvinists lack foresight. In TN English is the second language, first being Tamil. If you are interested you can read about the anti-Hindi agitation in Tamil Nadu which is a recurring theme in Dravidian politics. We respect all languages but will never allow any imposition, if we want to learn something it will be of our own free will. Tamil Nadu will be a separate country before it accepts Hindi supremacy. I am sure other South states will resist as will North East states, if Bengalis and Punjabis can join us in these difficult times it will do wonders for the health of this diverse democracy. BJP's designs need to be stopped at all costs lest our future generations ask us why we were quiet when tyranny was staring us in the face.

Capt is all about creating threads to make Indians argue, he knows about all this stuff , it has been discussed for a decade, don’t fall into that trap, its not like someone genuine trying to get a view.

 

[Swashbuckler]

All South Asian states saw British rule. We are lucky that it is English that is the lingua franca of the world and not Spanish, Dutch, French or Mandarin. We should take advantage of this, vernacular language is a must because scientific research shows that people learn best and most effectively in their mother tongue. English must be our second language and compulsory to boot, it should be taught well and not half-heartedly like it happens in many schools currently. It will also help prevent regional clashes, UP people can learn Hindi/English and Tamils can learn Tamil/English, no question of either of these 2 groups imposing their language on the other because they already have a common language now. Maybe if such an arrangement were made in Pakistan there wouldn't have been the friction between East and West with regards to Urdu imposition on Bengalis and the ensuing fallout might never have happened. Need to leave aside our ego, English is a wonderful gift of the British Empire and there should be no shame in co-opting it, we do have our own desi brand of English which is effective enough.

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Capt is all about creating threads to make Indians argue, he knows about all this stuff , it has been discussed for a decade, don’t fall into that trap, its not like someone genuine trying to get a view.

I'm on record here saying more than once that this something that India got right and Pakistan got wrong. There have been threads about why Arabic was given preference over English as a subject in Pakistan - something I can't really confirm personally - but I did say that English being the universal language needs to be given priority over any other.

I am just surprised that this fraud of a politician is able to spout such garbage in a country like India which was well ahead of it's time a couple of decades ago. Seems like they are going backwards with this small minded mentality.

 

[JaDed]

I'm on record here saying more than once that this something that India got right and Pakistan got wrong. There have been threads about why Arabic was given preference over English as a subject in Pakistan - something I can't really confirm personally - but I did say that English being the universal language needs to be given priority over any other.

I am just surprised that this fraud of a politician is able to spout such garbage in a country like India which was well ahead of it's time a couple of decades ago. Seems like they are going backwards with this small minded mentality.

Politicians who want to win UP do this every time, even when UP was ruled by regional parties like Mulayam Yadav, he said similar stuff about making UP education Hindi medium, eventhough obviously his own children were English medium educated, UP makes the call on most aspects wrt Hindi electoral politics.

UP is 80 seats highest and it always determines a lot.

English is not going anywhere now, even our news channels there is always English one and then a Hindi one, time to make Hindi compulsory is long gone.

 

[Swashbuckler]

He said it to take off the focus from the economy, BJP has to go, my grand mother was a Hindi teacher with most beautiful Hindi writing ever , I would absolutely not impose Hindi on anyone, worse is already the people of Chennai were learning Hindi on their own, so many shop keepers etc were learning so as to increase their business.

Respect to you man, glad that you empathize and hope more fellow citizens adopt this type of view.

People in Chennai learning Hindi on their own for business reasons, perfectly fine and should stay that way. Government shouldn't impose who should speak what language or what type of meat is stored in fridges of citizens. In a democracy individual freedom must be respected and encouraged, role model countries today are liberal in their outlook, they should be the benchmark. Our founding fathers were way more liberal than the set of politicians we have today.

Capt is all about creating threads to make Indians argue, he knows about all this stuff , it has been discussed for a decade, don’t fall into that trap, its not like someone genuine trying to get a view.

This topic is quite hot these days and as long as BJP is in power this won't be the last we hear of this. This is equally applicable to other countries including Pakistan, one of the main reasons why Pakistan split was because of language. The ongoing Catalan separation movement has language/identity as a central theme. Urdu vs Bengali, Hindi vs Tamil, Spanish vs Catalan, Sinhala vs Tamil, Afrikaans domination during Apartheid, Gaelic revival etc are some prominent examples of language politics being huge deal-makers/breakers. If you are from CBSE background do you remember the short story 'The Last Lesson' in 11th standard I think, explores this topic. Here's the link if you are interested http://ncert.nic.in/ncerts/l/lefl101.pdf

 

[Syed1]

This won't go down well with people in the South..... The Tamil uncle at my work is very proud of his language and does not speak any Hindi. He however oddly enough has a massive love for Urdu and often asks me for meaning of obscure Urdu words which sometimes even I have to Google what they mean.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

Unfortunately this issue is bigger than BJP/RSS and even the Congress and Urdu speaking Muslims would support this. I was against the idea of a national language but it's Time to make English the national language and the only language of the republic of India.Hope the southern states, Bengal and eastern India, Maharashtra all push for English as national language. . Hindi/Urdu should not have any status more than any of the other regional languages.

 

[Swashbuckler]

Politicians who want to win UP do this every time, even when UP was ruled by regional parties like Mulayam Yadav, he said similar stuff about making UP education Hindi medium, eventhough obviously his own children were English medium educated, UP makes the call on most aspects wrt Hindi electoral politics.

UP is 80 seats highest and it always determines a lot.

English is not going anywhere now, even our news channels there is always English one and then a Hindi one, time to make Hindi compulsory is long gone.

After the delimitation exercise due in late 2020s UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, basically the entire Hindi belt will have a huge increase in number of seats. South's political influence will further come down because we have controlled our population very well. Hindi belt states will be rewarded for popping out babies at a record level while South Indians, Punjabis, Kashmiris etc will be punished for maintaining low fertility rates.

You are spot on about regional parties in Hindi states being Hindi chauvinists, SP is notorious in this regard. BJP will have a long reign I guess, if there is an alternative there will still be a huge influence from UP/Bihar. Sooner or later push will come to shove and linguistic battles will take centre stage. That is why it is good to see many outfits protesting in the South, younger generation must be made aware of the language martyrs and threats from up North as far as cultural hegemony is concerned.

 

[ArendtFan]

The South and Bengal strongly oppose this. Tamil is considered the oldest living language. Almost 80% of Telugu is spoken Sanskrit. Malayalam script is closest to Sanskrit. There is tremendous pride in mother tongues among South Indians. A revival of conversational Sanskrit as a third language would have more buy-in. Eventually, Hindi would become quite common in the South too with the massive influx of Hindi-speaking Indians to Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad. That should happen organically than through imposition - as is evident with so many language / identity-based conflicts around the world.

 

[JaDed]

Respect to you man, glad that you empathize and hope more fellow citizens adopt this type of view.

People in Chennai learning Hindi on their own for business reasons, perfectly fine and should stay that way. Government shouldn't impose who should speak what language or what type of meat is stored in fridges of citizens. In a democracy individual freedom must be respected and encouraged, role model countries today are liberal in their outlook, they should be the benchmark. Our founding fathers were way more liberal than the set of politicians we have today.



This topic is quite hot these days and as long as BJP is in power this won't be the last we hear of this. This is equally applicable to other countries including Pakistan, one of the main reasons why Pakistan split was because of language. The ongoing Catalan separation movement has language/identity as a central theme. Urdu vs Bengali, Hindi vs Tamil, Spanish vs Catalan, Sinhala vs Tamil, Afrikaans domination during Apartheid, Gaelic revival etc are some prominent examples of language politics being huge deal-makers/breakers. If you are from CBSE background do you remember the short story 'The Last Lesson' in 11th standard I think, explores this topic. Here's the link if you are interested http://ncert.nic.in/ncerts/l/lefl101.pdf

I have read that, but i was actually Matriculation and 11-12 Tamil Nadu state board .

There was a time when Tamil science was imposed for one year lol 2002 , even my Tamil buddies had so much issue glad they dropped that DmK s experiment.

 

[JaDed]

After the delimitation exercise due in late 2020s UP, Bihar, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, basically the entire Hindi belt will have a huge increase in number of seats. South's political influence will further come down because we have controlled our population very well. Hindi belt states will be rewarded for popping out babies at a record level while South Indians, Punjabis, Kashmiris etc will be punished for maintaining low fertility rates.

You are spot on about regional parties in Hindi states being Hindi chauvinists, SP is notorious in this regard. BJP will have a long reign I guess, if there is an alternative there will still be a huge influence from UP/Bihar. Sooner or later push will come to shove and linguistic battles will take centre stage. That is why it is good to see many outfits protesting in the South, younger generation must be made aware of the language martyrs and threats from up North as far as cultural hegemony is concerned.

2020 is scary , in all honesty Biharis are discovering their love for Bhojpuri and Nitish Kymar as such wouldn't shove anything, wish we had more leaders like that.

There needs to consideration for land and literacy as well while making Lok Sabha seats, Im genuinely of belief that Rahul Gandhi would had been better than this now, and I absolutely despise the Gandhi clan.

But i hope sanity prevails and Maharashtra and Punjab join the movement to disallow any Hindi enforcement.

 

[JaDed]

I have read that, but i was actually Matriculation and 11-12 Tamil Nadu state board .

There was a time when Tamil science was imposed for one year lol 2002 , even my Tamil buddies had so much issue glad they dropped that DmK s experiment.

Year was 2001 i think..

 

[JaDed]

This won't go down well with people in the South..... The Tamil uncle at my work is very proud of his language and does not speak any Hindi. He however oddly enough has a massive love for Urdu and often asks me for meaning of obscure Urdu words which sometimes even I have to Google what they mean.

Tamil is the oldest Indian language that has survived because it evolved as well.

Tamil is not limited to India above that.

 

[Tiger96]

2020 is scary , in all honesty Biharis are discovering their love for Bhojpuri and Nitish Kymar as such wouldn't shove anything, wish we had more leaders like that.

There needs to consideration for land and literacy as well while making Lok Sabha seats, Im genuinely of belief that Rahul Gandhi would had been better than this now, and I absolutely despise the Gandhi clan.

But i hope sanity prevails and Maharashtra and Punjab join the movement to disallow any Hindi enforcement.

Yes people in Maharashtra and Punjab will suddenly stop speaking in Hindi )

Bahot sapne dekhta hai re tu toh.

 

[Swashbuckler]

Tamil is the oldest Indian language that has survived because it evolved as well.

Tamil is not limited to India above that.

Tamil is arguably the oldest surviving language in the world, not just surviving but flourishing !!!! Also has global reach, official language in India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, recognized in South Africa and Mauritius. It is our duty to preserve the language from New Delhi's diktats.

We have seen many a foreign origin ruler in Delhi from the Turkic Sultans to Afghan warlords to Mughals to British, before that many ancient predominant empires in the subcontinent, they never tried to supersede Tamil the way post 1947 Indian governments have tried to, a real shame. Not just Tamil, I support all regional languages in India. Even Pappu gets it.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="in" dir="ltr">&#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819;Oriya &#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819; Marathi<br>&#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819; Kannada &#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819;Hindi &#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819;Tamil<br>&#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819;English &#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819;Gujarati <br>&#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819;Bengali &#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819;Urdu &#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819;Punjabi &#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819; Konkani &#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819;Malayalam <br>&#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819;Telugu &#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819;Assamese <br>&#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819;Bodo &#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819;Dogri &#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819;Maithili &#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819;Nepali &#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819;Sanskrit <br>&#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819;Kashmiri &#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819;Sindhi <br>&#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819;Santhali &#55356;&#56814;&#55356;&#56819;Manipuri...<br><br>India’s many languages are not her weakness.</p>— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) <a href="https://twitter.com/RahulGandhi/status/1173586093830070277?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

 

[JaDed]

Yes people in Maharashtra and Punjab will suddenly stop speaking in Hindi )

Bahot sapne dekhta hai re tu toh.

? I hope you can comprehend this is against imposition of Hindi not speaking on their own.

Marathis will join if they see its being imposed coz UP, they are proud of their language.

 

[JaDed]

Tamil is arguably the oldest surviving language in the world, not just surviving but flourishing !!!! Also has global reach, official language in India, Sri Lanka, Singapore, Malaysia, recognized in South Africa and Mauritius. It is our duty to preserve the language from New Delhi's diktats.

We have seen many a foreign origin ruler in Delhi from the Turkic Sultans to Afghan warlords to Mughals to British, before that many ancient predominant empires in the subcontinent, they never tried to supersede Tamil the way post 1947 Indian governments have tried to, a real shame. Not just Tamil, I support all regional languages in India. Even Pappu gets it.

<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-lang="en"><p lang="in" dir="ltr">����Oriya ���� Marathi<br>���� Kannada ����Hindi ����Tamil<br>����English ����Gujarati <br>����Bengali ����Urdu ����Punjabi ���� Konkani ����Malayalam <br>����Telugu ����Assamese <br>����Bodo ����Dogri ����Maithili ����Nepali ����Sanskrit <br>����Kashmiri ����Sindhi <br>����Santhali ����Manipuri...<br><br>India’s many languages are not her weakness.</p>— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) <a href="https://twitter.com/RahulGandhi/status/1173586093830070277?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">September 16, 2019</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Hard times when He is speaking sense, my mother send me for learning Tamil for 3 months i was bored because culturally i’ not inclined but i needed it to read boards and areas on the bus which i can now, tbf tamil evolved IIRC it took a word from sanskrit as well and so much literature so it survived.

 

[imrankhannsu]

From what my Indian friends tell me, English is what gives an equal platform for the educated people to communicate in. Yes they all can speak Hindi to some extent.

 

[CanadianG00se]

2020 is scary , in all honesty Biharis are discovering their love for Bhojpuri and Nitish Kymar as such wouldn't shove anything, wish we had more leaders like that.

There needs to consideration for land and literacy as well while making Lok Sabha seats, Im genuinely of belief that Rahul Gandhi would had been better than this now, and I absolutely despise the Gandhi clan.

But i hope sanity prevails and Maharashtra and Punjab join the movement to disallow any Hindi enforcement.

What???

After Marathi, Hindi is second widely spoken language in state of Maharashtra. In Mumbai, you can survive not knowing Marathi but will be very challenging if you don’t speak Hindi.

 

[JaDed]

What???

After Marathi, Hindi is second widely spoken language in state of Maharashtra. In Mumbai, you can survive not knowing Marathi but will be very challenging if you don’t speak Hindi.

As a national language.

 

[CanadianG00se]

As a national language.

Tbh
We don’t even need a National Language.

 

[JaDed]

Tbh
We don’t even need a National Language.

Thats what i’m saying, there is a reason we don’t have it.. the concepts of unity in diversity is disappearing..

Indian languages are beautiful all of em not sure why to enforce a language plus the script is so diff compared to dravidian languages it becomes very hard for South Indians.

 

[RajBan]

What???

After Marathi, Hindi is second widely spoken language in state of Maharashtra. In Mumbai, you can survive not knowing Marathi but will be very challenging if you don’t speak Hindi.

There is more to Maharashtra than Mumbai. Marathis are very proud of their language and they treat Hindi as an operating medium, nothing more. The same is true for all states where Hindi is just a common medium for conversation.

 

[Slog]

Hindi should be national language of India. English is foreign

 

[JaDed]

Hindi should be national language of India. English is foreign

Lets call India’s English Inglish and that would make it Desi , we have our own accent anyway.

 

[Slog]

Lets call India’s English Inglish and that would make it Desi , we have our own accent anyway.

Hindi for Hindustan

 

[PakLFC]

I am waiting for the day when Modi sits on a throne and the rest of the Indian people on the ground with their hands folded. They must do everything that Saint Modi says!

 

[Varun]

BIMARU and above can do whatever they like. Just leave us out of it.

 

[CricketCartoons]

High time. Hindi must be introduced to all those who are left behind in culturally backward states so that they develop culture and a taste for bollywood quality cinema and high grade hindi literature like mustram and manohar kahaniyan.

 

[Abdullah719]

"Never Asked For Imposing Hindi Over Other Regional Languages": Amit Shah

NEW DELHI: Amid a huge backlash over his comments on Hindi as a "unifying language", Home Minister Amit Shah said today that he had never asked for the imposition of Hindi over regional languages and added, "If some people want to do politics, it is their choice."

Amit Shah's comment earlier this week on Hindi becoming a unifying language for all Indians was read by many as a precursor to the government's bid to impose Hindi on non-Hindi speaking states, reviving a decades-old debate.

"I never asked for imposing Hindi over other regional languages and had only requested for learning Hindi as the second language after one's mother tongue. I myself come from a non-Hindi state of Gujarat. If some people want to do politics, it's their choice," Amit Shah said today.

On Saturday, the Home Minister had tweeted:"India is a country of many different languages and each language has its own significance, but it is necessary to have a common language that becomes the mark of India's identity globally... Today, if there is one language that has the ability to string the nation together in unity, it is the Hindi language which is the most widely-spoken and understood language in India."

https://www.ndtv.com/india-news/onl...anguage-after-mother-tongue-amit-shah-2103169

 

[Cpt. Rishwat]

Amit Shah is a paper tiger. Like the rest of his 'hardline' party he likes to talk tough to impress gullible voters that he is a no nonsense straight talker, but under the slightest criticism, he wilts and starts backtracking claiming people are playing politics.

Stick to your guns man. I'm not sure why the public feel they need a strong man leader, but at least if you are going to present as one, follow it through.

 

[Nikhil_cric]

Hindi should be national language of India. English is foreign

Hindi is just as foreign to parts of India as English is. Besides, imposing of Hindi/Urdu will never work out well in the long run.

 

[Abdullah719]

Urdu’s 131-year reign in Kashmir ends

The Indian government on Wednesday announced that Kashmir will now have five official languages, ending Urdu’s 131-year reign as the only official language of the ethnically diverse and politically fraught region.

Last year in August, when India scrapped the semi-autonomous status of Jammu and Kashmir and divided it into two union territories, media reports suggested that days of Urdu as the only official language were numbered. Urdu in India is largely associated with Muslims and the Hindu rightwing has for long been pushing Hindi as a national language, a move resisted by several Indian states.

India’s Information Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters in New Delhi that introduction of Urdu, English, Hindi, Kashmiri and Dogri as official languages of the region was made “on public demand”.

Jitendra Singh, a minister in the Prime Minister’s Office who hails from Jammu and Kashmir, tweeted that the inclusion of Dogri, Hindi and Kashmiri as official languages was “not only fulfillment of a long pending public demand, but also in keeping with the spirit of equality ushered after Aug. 5, 2019”.

In the undivided Jammu and Kashmir state, various ethnicities spoke Kashmiri, Pahari, Gojri, Ladakhi, Dogri, Balti and Punjabi as their mother tongues. Urdu and Hindi had become a means for inter-community communication. In 1889, Maharaja Pratap Singh, the third ruler of the Hindu Dogra dynasty, replaced Persian with Urdu as the court language.

- Move consistent with Aug. 5 change

Renowned Kashmiri journalist Yusuf Jameel told Anadolu Agency that Urdu had already been “relegated to the corner” over the years.

“Not much was being done for its promotion anyway. Today’s decision will further undermine it,” he said.

According to Rafiq Dar, who teaches Urdu in a private school in Srinagar, the decision is “consistent with the constitutional changes made on Aug. 5 last year”.

“Those changes were aimed at dismantling everything that came to be associated with the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, like our separate flag and constitution. Urdu as the official language was one of those symbols,” he said.

- Disputed region

Kashmir, a Muslim-majority Himalayan region, is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed by both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.

Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars – in 1948, 1965 and 1971 – two of them over Kashmir.

Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence or for unification with neighboring Pakistan.

According to several human rights organizations, thousands of people have reportedly been killed in the conflict in the region since 1989.

https://www.aa.com.tr/en/asia-pacific/urdu-s-131-year-reign-in-kashmir-ends/1961019#