Mohammad Arfat Wani
In the valleys of Kashmir, where the river sings and the mountains bear silent witness to the passage of ages, an undercurrent runs through the life of the people, an ancient river that bears the river of history, culture, and identity, and the heartbeat of this river is an ancient language that is as old as the first songs of the shepherds and the verses of its mystic poet. The language that is thus aptly described is the ancient language of the people of this heaven on earth, the language known variously as “Koshur” or “Kashmiri,” an ancient language that is one of the oldest spoken languages of the world, belonging to the ancient “Dardic” language “group” that is known to belong to the “Indo-European stock” of languages.
For many centuries, the language had prospered, being the language of “Sufi poetic and philosophic expression,” with literary giants such as “Lal Ded” and “Sheikh Noor-ud-Din” inspiring the “audacious, whimsical, and rebellious” poetic expressions that dwelt on “love, logic, and mystic visions.” But this great language today finds itself in an “apathetic future” that “sways listlessly” somewhere “between the abyss of survival and the quicksand of oblivion,” with the “youth of today” “enthusiastically” urged to “speak Urdu or English, the two languages that hold the keys to progress and advancement.” The “words that once vibrated with the echo of wisdom, love, mirth, and history” today “resound only in memories that linger like mellow moonlight on the hills of the past” with UNESCO classifying the language “as an endangered language that is on the verge of becoming an ‘ex
Amidst this decline, a young poet and languages enthusiast, Touqeer Ashraf from Pulwama, is a ray of hope and refuses to treat Kashmiri as if it is something that exists only within the pages of ancient historical texts. Touqeer is conversant in Kashmiri, Urdu, and English and chose the digital medium not as a means to earn fame or make money but as a way to breathe life back into a dying language. Kaeshur Praw is the name of Touqeer’s digital venture that he created in the year 2021, which is essentially an ever-expanding classroom and cultural hub that disseminates words and phrases, linguistic and cultural lessons and historical anecdotes, pronunciation lessons, and poetry, all within short and catchy video formats on his social handles such as Instagram, YouTube, and Facebook. Through his innovative digital initiative, Touqeer is able to reach out to the younger generation who may be language ambidextrous by upbringing, and provides an opportunity for kids and adults alike to renew their connection and affiliation with Kashmiri and its language and culture that they had somewhere lost along the way, and also provides a window to Kashmiri language and culture that always found itself standing at the crossroads of various civilizations and cultures.
Secondly, and equally important, is the impact of Touqeer’s work, which is less about what happens in his poetry and more about how it remedies. Kaeshur Praw recognizes in language more than is sometimes thought, and it is not only this aspect of language Kaeshur Praw is trying to move away from, but it’s how such uncertainties impact what he does. A people’s reticence or apology about what amounts to their voice stunts a people’s culture, and Kaeshur Praw’s work is to start this movement of identification with and appreciation of Kashmiri speech in particular. Based in poetics inspired by spiritual and literary luminaries like Lal Ded, Sheikh Noor-ud-Din, Rasul Mir, and Wahab Khaar, Touqeer’s projects in digital media turn language into life itself, where understanding is less about abstract study and more about actual experience.
The initiative initiated by Touqeer is a reflection of the new trend emerging among the youth in Kashmir to reclaim their language. Seerat Hafiz, for example, created Yikvot, a virtual reading group that reads original and translation-based Kashmiri literature each week, making the stuff interesting for the new generation of learners in the gen Z population. The online communities Kaeshur Praw and Yikvot use trends, engagement activities, and social interactions to bring the focus to the Kashmiri language that cannot otherwise engage the population in the classroom or general media.
However, the following are some of the difficulties that Kashmiri faces: There is only a small presence of Kashmiri in mainstream publishing and media, and it is often excluded from the curriculums of schools except in the early classes, and because of financial considerations, the use of languages that would help in achieving success and mobility in life is preferred. There are also difficulties related to the use of these platforms in that YouTube and other platforms are restricted in recognizing the Kashmiri content on these platforms. The Perso-Arabic script has traditional design constraints when it comes to advanced technologies, and the Romanized Kashmiri scripts also lack standardized design. The importance of Kashmiri matters because language is not simply a list of words, but culture, tradition, and worldview too, which is lost with each passing song, proverb, and story when each language is lost in itself. Therefore, as reminded by the effort of Touqeer Ashraf, preserving is not only hard but is creative and social as well because with each and every utterance in the language, there is an affirmation of identity and continuity in whatever way and form it happens because when it comes to the long and rich past of Kashmir, languages have been protected in the sense of their being in houses, markets, and farms, and in today’s world, there is hope in cyberspace as well.
In conclusion, Touqeer Ashraf and efforts such as “Kaeshur Praw” are more than just online endeavors and symbolize a “cultural renaissance,” proving what a “Touqeer believes”—that Kashmiri is a language of the past and instead represents a “breath of life,” a “beating heart,” and a “pulse of identity,” and its “resurrection is in our hands,” requiring dedication and a shared “dream of giving a new life to a language through technology and innovation,” proving “passion and technology and tradition and languages and voices and culture and more can add up to a lot more than just a sum of parts of something!”
(The author is a social activist and nursing student. He hails from Kuchmulla Tral and can be reached at [email protected])
