Kashmir’s Politicians Don’t Speak Kashmiri

It was a sunny morning in southern Kashmir, a type of heat that slows down everything. Under the wide shade of the Chinar tree, a group of young boys gathered, and their laughter gathered as they gathered on a mobile phone. An elderly man walked in the past his head and muttered, “Today’s generation, always laughing at themselves.” He still holds his stomach from laughter, one of the boys opened fire, “No, uncle, we laugh because the politicians who are trying to speak the Hashiri Farhan.”

In their laughter it was a quiet reminder that politics in Kashmir is no longer only about power or parties, but about the language that binds or divides. This laughter repeated wider concern; The heirs of Kashmir’s political strains often cannot speak in the language of the people.

This feeling is repeated in tea stores and village squares via Kashmir as well. “When our leaders cannot speak in our language properly, how can they understand our problems?” Ghulam Hassan asked a farmer in Poloama. “My children speak better than Al -Kashmiri than our Prime Minister, but they do not manage the government.”

This separation is the most obvious in Omar Abdullah, the current prime minister of the Federation in Jammu and Kashmir, who was elected last year in a second consecutive period. He is the son of the former Prime Minister of Jammu and Kashmir, Farouk Abdullah, and the grandson of Sheikh Abdullah, the founding leader of the conference of all Jamo and Kashmir Muslims (was later renamed Jumu and Kashmir National). In 2009, he became the youngest Prime Minister of Jamo and Kashmir at the age of 38.

Omar remains an embarrassing speaker and a frequency of Kashmiri. He rarely addressed public communities in the language, and on the few occasions in which he tried, its delivery and poor spread turned into a source of mockery instead of ringing.

Earlier this year, his two sons, Zahir and Zamir, traveled to Gandal, with him, with the party workers. Both brothers addressed the gathering in Urdu language fluently, but neither of them could speak for Kashmiri, the language of the people who were hoping to represent it.

During his campaign, when Abdullah asked the voters to vote in his favor and remove his skull cover as a sign of an enjoyable gesture, he handed over a line in Kashmiri:Mayon Top“My hat. Words were abused; the moment soon became a source of milestones and a viral gold, which confirms the extent of fragile political connections and performance in the language.

Aisha Kidway, a professor of linguistics at the center of linguistics in the jewels of Nehru (JNU), pointed out: “When errors in pronunciation or even not using the language become a great topic, it indicates that people contradict a great way. The same latiture line.”

Although he was unable to speak Kashmiri, Omar Abdullah increased twice to the position of Prime Minister. However, his father, Farouk Abdullah, built his collective attractiveness through the common sermons of Al -Kashmiri, and Sheikh Abdullah Yitz, the famous Urdu and Al -Kashmiri easily.

Linguists note that the past two generations of Kashmiris have largely spoke fluently, but rarely written or written. With Kashmiri now a part of the curriculum, a new voter appears not only speaks, but learn to write the language and read it.

This transformation poses a real political danger: candidates who cannot communicate linguistically themselves may find increasingly related to younger voters who see language fluency as a sign of authentic representation.

“Sliping cannot be forgotten by a political leader because a deep political reaction, not only linguistic. Themes and vitality resulting from young people, then, are not simply ridicule; they represent a form of democratic correspondence, and emphasize that language and error cannot be rejected.

Kashmiri gained official constitutional recognition as an official language in the region only in 2020, after decades of other regional languages, reflecting its long marginalization in the linguistic hierarchy of India.

This late recognition reflects a deeper historical style. The Kashmiri writer Zarif Ahmed Zarif announced that Kashmir has never ruled his people, from the Mongol era to this day.

When the rulers do not have a small share in the cultural spirit of the earth, they argued, they stand again and again on his identity. Zarif has suggested that the linguistic separation today between the political heirs continues to imitate leaders who cannot really represent the people who judge him.

Robert Philipson, a pride professor in the Department of Administration, Society and Communication at Copenhagen College of Business, in Denmark, has extensively on his basic work in linguistic imperialism and language policy, that marginalization of the mother tongues in governance and education can unite it instead of uniting it.

“If you want to produce a loyal society to the government, providing appropriate education that depends on the culture and language of the local population, should be established as a principle,” said Philipson. Foreign policy. “This is what UNESCO has long recommended, that bilateral or linguistic education based on the mother tongue gives more people a fair opportunity to succeed. It should not only have the Kashmiri, with its great demographic strength, a role in schools, but the region must also be managed.”

In Pulwama, Touqeer Ashraf Keashur Praw runs (sparkling light), which is the Instagram page where it depicts heritage sites, historical places, traditional foods, etc., and overlapping them in a fluent Kashmiri voice, an attempt to preserve the language alive and related to the new generation.

Ashraf argued that the silence of leaders in their mother tongue carries deeper consequences. “When the political actors choose Kashmir, who are seen as the face of our land and our culture, speaking in languages ​​other than the Kashmiri in Parliament or with the capital, Delhi, it silently pushes our mother tongue to the margins. The language is not just a tool for communication but the basis of identity and cultural continuation.”

However, not everyone sees the risks in the same way. Mudasir Nazar, an engineer through training with great interest in politics, highlights that the Kashmiri policy has always been working as a “customer system”, and it is believed that it will not change any time soon. “The political class runs Kashmir for Delhi in exchange for privileges and privileges. Therefore, that is, the language they use, in the literal sense of the word, will not care much.” As for cultural repercussions, he added, “Their vouchers and poor spread will definitely become part of the growing memes group constantly in Kashmir.”

Among contemporary leaders, Mehboba stands Mufti. She studied English literature and law before entering politics in the 1990s, and eventually helped find the Popular Democratic Party (PDP) with her father in 1999. As head of the Democratic People’s Party, she worked as the first woman Prime Minister Jammu and Kashmir (from 2016 to 2018), and the coalition government with the Baharat Jatata party before College.

Unlike many of its peers, she is a fierce fiancé in Kashmiri, who is able to deliver speeches that resonate through villages and towns, and seize rhythm and expressions in daily life. This fluency gives her a distinctive presence, especially when she is compared to Omar Abdullah, whose general image is related to English and Urdu. Where Abdullah appears global, the root mufti projects, and its words are weaving political with culture, and they speak directly to those who see their identity in the Kashmiri language.

However, the mastery of the Gap Gap is highlighted. Her daughter, Eteleta Movti, who lost the elections before marriage in the legislative elections of Kashmir, represents a new generation of political heirs who grew up speaking different languages ​​about their components. Where Mehboba built bridges through Kashmiri fluency, Iltija faces the challenge of communicating through a linguistic gap.

In one of the massive gatherings, I tried to mobilize supporters with the phrase.Zion Hao“In the sense of“ we have won, ”but its bad contemplation sparked a wave of mockery and ridicule. It was not supposed to highlight confidence instead of the depths of the perception that it was far from the linguistic and cultural pulse of people, that moment of mockery was more than just a Mimi course; it reflected the deepest anxiety of the leaders caused by the linguistic atoms of their people.

“Because of the strictness and political turmoil in the 1980s, my family moved to Delhi, which cut my linguistic relations to Kashmir,” said Eltiga Mufti. Foreign policy. “I understand Kashmiri, but I am not a speaker fluently, and I hope that I can also, as Mehbook Ji. However, if the language is really decisive, the great politicians who are good at them in Al -Kashmiri, will not be just depositing them in the place where he is somewhere, arranges somewhere, arranges somewhere, rises to some extent, rises to some extent, and rises to some extent, and rises to some extent, and rises to some extent It is somewhere, represented in the place where he takes over, is represented.

Like Elja, Abel Abdullah Al -Naqshir from fluency to intent. He said: “Many of the eloquent Kashmiri leaders speak flawed, yet they never spoke with Kashmir. Maybe we are still learning the language, but we promise to talk about the Kashmir issue.”

By moving the focus from language to intention, these young heirs reveal a greater problem: the Kashmiri identity is dealt with as a symbol more than a living political fact.

“On the individual level, the conditions of displacement and the family can explain the reason for not speaking to someone Al -Kashmiri. But if they have political aspirations, the language should be not negotiable. When it is normalized between political elites, their children grow up every language except Kashmiri, it indicates something deeper.”

Historically, the Kashmiri politicians rarely defended their language, and this silence leaked to how the political class itself is defined. Kidawi warned that the real danger is that when leaders Kashmiri treat as optional, he undermines the broader social commitment in the language.

Ashraf, the Creator, highlighted that the absence of Al -Kashmiri in political spaces does more than silence the tongue; It risks the boundary of the link between leaders and people who claim to represent.

“Through Kashmiri’s neglect of the most important spaces, we risk creating a cultural gap between people and their leaders, and we weaken the future importance of our language. If our voices are not conveyed to the front on the top platforms, future generations may see that they are less valuable, which can be survived in the end.”

Zarif said: “Earlier, politics was about serving people, and those who were at the head of statesmen. Male (Slavery). We do not think about what we lost, what we lose, or what to be recovered. “

Kashmir’s story is one of the retreat under the outer base, where it left the language and culture unpaid. He insisted that what the region needs today is the leaders who carry the pain of the earth inside it, because only then the course of history can begin to change.

Kidawi and other scholars warn that when the political class itself prevents the Kashmiris, it not only weakens the language, but also leads to erosion of trust and nourishes a feeling of exclusion.

“When the elite does not understand or use the local language determined by the majority, it creates a dangerous chapter. People feel isolated and unresolved by the state, and this was the case in Kashmir since 1947. To the national identity, but a way to deepen democracy and cultural continuity.”

Popular societies continue to preserve Al -Kashmiri alive – in homes ,meal and digital campaigns. But silence on top, as Zarif warned, normalized.