There is an almost an outcry from Jammu and Ladakh regions to declare Hindi as the State language. There is some opposition, of course, from the valley and the reason is obvious but that is totally misplaced. Hindi is compulsorily taught in all schools across all three regions. The dialects that are spoken in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh are Dogri, Kashmiri and Ladakhi respectively. Ladakhi is considered to be close to Tibeti. Hindi is understood by every inhabitant of the state. Therefore, in all fairness, Hindi should have been declared as the state language even before the abrogation of Article 35A and 370 from the Constitution of India.
There is, therefore, no justification to have the land and other records of both union territories in Urdu. Large scale land frauds have also been reported because of the Urdu script that has been used in the official records. Urdu can be certainly be retained as the second language. After all, Urdu is the second language in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand and West Bengal, where it is not read or written by even 0.5 per cent population of these states. Needless to say that an overwhelming majority of the people in both Union territories are very well-at- ease with Hindi, written in Devanagari script. Forced imposition of Urdu on the people of the state is, thus, atrocious and like creating hindrance in the progress of the young generation, which is longing to amalgamate with the rest of the country.
Urdu may be an elegant language, but it is fit only for Sher-o- Sharie. No higher education can be imparted in this language while, on the other hand, Hindi because of the vast vocabulary, derived from Sanskrit, has emerged as the robust medium of higher education, be it Science, Technology, Literature, Philosophy, Agriculture, Entertainment, Astronomy, Medical Science, Physics, Chemistry or Classics. J&K and Ladakh have otherwise also strong umbilical cord relationship with Sanskrit.
Even the Constitution of India provides that the official language of the Union shall be Hindi in Devanagri script. (Article 343). Further Article 351 mandates that it shall be the duty of the Union to promote the spread of Hindi language by drawing wherever necessary or desirable, for its vocabulary, primarily on Sanskrit and secondarily on other languages.
The idea of the constitution framers was to strengthen Hindi with the help of other languages like Panjabi, Bengali, Assamese, Gujarati, Marathi, Odia, Kannad, Telugu, Tamil, Nepali and Malayalam etc.; and dialects like Bhojpuri, Maithili, Awadhi, Bundelkhandi, Rajasthani, Chhattisgarhi, Kumauni, Garhwali, Dogri, and Ladakhi etc., so that it can emerge as the lingua franca for the cohesion of the country sooner than later.
Any delay in declaring Hindi as the state official language of the J& K and Ladakh will amount to huge injustice to the people. Now when both Union territories are being governed from Delhi, it is expected that the Union government will take immediate steps in this regard to replacing Urdu with Hindi otherwise, communal and fissiparous forces with the support from outside will do everything to sabotage a people’s friendly cause.