Mother Tongue-A Pride

In the society we are living in, most of the people have chosen other languages like Urdu and English while the mother tongue, Kashmir language, is vanishing on the ground at a rapid pace. A western culture has been adopted by the people living within Kashmir and thus subsequently they are feeling proud to speak in languages other than Kashmiri, which is not less than an attack on the mother tongue. Notably, 21 February is celebrated as the International Mother Language Day every year to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and to promote multilingualism. On this day, the world celebrates its mother tongue while in Kashmir there is nothing to celebrate as the different dialect and culture adopted by the people even in the educational institutions is impacting the ground situation. In case such a situation continues, the time is not far when Kashmir would find hardly any person who would be able to speak Kashmiri language. Mother tongue in every piece of the land is being respected for many reasons, but here in Kashmir the common people, especially the highly qualified youth, would hardly be able to read anything in the Kashmiri language, which is a worrying trend. Therefore, celebrating this day in Kashmir should serve the cause to rejuvenate interest among the youth for cultural revival through the skits as well as the seminars in Kashmiri language. A mother tongue is always a pride for the people, but there is a need to promote the language among the youngsters so that this dialect exists for a longer period and our next generation would be able to speak this language without fumbles.