Write to PM, HM and LG J-K for declaring Pahari as official language.
Welcoming the recent decision of the Government of India to declare Kashmiri, Dogri and Hindi languages as official languages of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the Pahari community of J&K has demanded similar treatment for their mother tongue – Pahari.
“Under the now repealed Schedule VI of Jammu and Kashmir Constitution, Pahari was recognized as a language as back as 1957 along with other important regional languages like Kashmiri, Dogri, Punjabi, Balti, Ladakhi and Dardi.,” reads representation of Pahari Cultural Club Karnah addressed to the Prime Minister of India.
Demanding declaration of Pahari as an official language, the community representatives have relied on Schedule VI of the erstwhile Constitution of J&K under which Pahari was one of the only seven languages which comprised the original Schedule VI of the now repealed Constitution.
In its representation addressed to the Prime Minister of India, Kashmir’s oldest Pahari centric non-governmental organization – Pahari Cultural Club Karnah – has asserted that Pahari is the only language of the erstwhile State which is spoken across the length and breadth of Jammu and Kashmir.
Quoting census reports of 1961 the NGO has asserted that after Kashmiri and Dogri, Pahari was the only language which was widely spoken in Jammu and Kashmir with the forum pleading further that as per the census figures of 1961, Pahari ranked third among regional languages of Jammu and Kashmir in terms of number of speakers.
Highlighting superior claim of Pahari language, the Pahari Cultural Club Karnah has asserted before the higher echelons of power that as far as the undivided Jammu and Kashmir State as a whole was concerned, the Pahari language ranked second in terms of number of speakers and thus deserves to be declared as an official language at par with Kashmiri and Dogri.
( Zubair Qureshi Editor, Voice of Hills )
