Prof. Lalit Magotra
An important logical point that should be so obvious, is normally missed out – that our Dogra identity is because of our mother tongue Dogri.
Recently, Dogri Sanstha Jammu organized a programme to felicitate the top ten students who have obtained maximum marks in the subject of Dogri in class 12th examinations conducted by the J&K Board of School Education. During the programme, we had some interesting and significant revelations. Firstly, of the ten top students, seven are from Jourian, only three from Jammu and none from any other district; secondly, out of these ten students, nine are girls and only one is a boy. This result is indicative of our attitude towards the language, on the basis of which we derive our Dogra identity. The obvious conclusion is that the parents of urban children do not want their wards to study Dogri. Especially, they are averse to the idea of their male children studying Dogri, as, according to their perception, it will ruin their prospects of a successful career.
In the above mentioned programme, when the students were invited to speak, almost all of them expressed their keen desire to pursue Dogri as a subject at the College level. The lone male student, who, incidentally, belonged to a school of Jammu city, narrated an eye opening incident. During admission to class 11th, when he expressed his desire to take Dogri as a subject, some teachers of the School Admission Committee were incredulous, as to how a bright student like him can opt to study Dogri ! They, in their earnestness, tried to dissuade him from taking this ‘ foolish ‘ step. But the students, who had developed a kind of liking for Dogri, insisted that come-what-may he will study Dogri.
This episode, in nutshell, indicates the general attitude of our society. Surely, the parents of the students and teachers, do not act in this peculiar manner out of the hatred for Dogri but they are scared that studying Dogri will be detrimental to the intellectual growth of the child and his grooming into a polished person. They also have this misplaced notion that speaking and learning Dogri will hamper the child’s ability to be proficient in English and Hindi. Not only this, under this misconception the parents and teachers also discourage the children to speak in Dogri and hence they converse with her/him in English and Hindi. Some schools even go to the extent of punishing such students who are found speaking their mother tongue within the campus.
It would be pertinent to seriously ponder over a question – can a person develop self respect if he has a sense of inferiority about his mother tongue, a language which provides him his identity – in this case that of a Dogra ? We should try to understand that each language has evolved in a typical manner depending on the local historical developments, environments and circumstances. Therefore, each language has attained its peculiarities, character and beauty. None of the languages is inferior or superior to the other – at best they are different. Each of them carries the fragrance of the surrounding culture and strength of the accumulated wisdom of people to whom it belongs. It should be obvious, that in order to love one’s own mother language, one does not have to hate the other languages. On the contrary, this should prompt us to love and appreciate the beauty of all the languages of the world like we love all flowers.
There is another experience which is worth sharing. Dogri Sanstha frequently invites senior bureaucrats, prominent political and social figures as special guests in various programmes of Sanstha. When they are shown around the Sanstha to make them aware of its various activities and shown the well stacked library of Dogri books and photographs of eminent writers, many of them confide that they did not have the knowledge that there were so many books of Dogri. They also confess that they hardly know the names of Dogri writers. And, ironically, many of these dignitaries are responsible for decisions and policies related to languages, literature and culture of this region.
In contrast to the Dogras, the conditions are entirely different for other linguistic communities. Bengalis, Gujaratis, Marathis, Malayalis, Tamils etc. love their mother tongues and feel proud of the same. The books of prominent writers of their languages adorn their houses. Surely, we cannot say the same about Dogra households. Dogri books are conspicuously absent from our homes and we hardly have any knowledge of prominent writers of Dogri or their works. Further, since we do not speak Dogri to our children, Dogri folk songs, folk tales and Dogra customs are fast vanishing from our lives. Have we ever seriously thought what will it lead to.
In this context, it would also be worthwhile to remember that two of the most well known Nobel laureates of India, Rabindra Nath Tagore and Amritya Sen had their initial education in their mother tongue – Bangla. This is also true of most of the scientists, philosophers, thinkers and discoverers all over the world. All of them were educated in their mother tongues and they also wrote in their language. It is a scientific fact that original ideas are more likely to occur to you in your own language.
Let us presume a worst case scenario – if our sense of inferiority regarding Dogri language persists, and if we continue with our attitude of not letting our younger generation learn and speak Dogri then, as a natural consequence of these, Dogri is likely to vanish as a living language. In such a scenario will our future generations own their Dogra identity ? And will there be any justification in their calling themselves Dogra, if they would not be able to speak Dogri ? The above scenario does not appear to be completely improbable if we consider the grim facts that have been mentioned, but mercifully there are certain developments which provide some rays of hope.
Recently, the Government of India has come up with the new Education policy which lays special emphasis on regional languages. One of the important components of this policy is that the child should get her/his preliminary and primary education in her/his mother tongue. The process of creation of study material and required books has already started all over the country, including J&K. Books in Dogri and other regional languages are being prepared for primary and pre-primary level.
Having mentioned that, one must bear in mind that no amount of governmental support can promote and popularize Dogri unless we truly and earnestly own and love our language. In this context another noticeable development has taken place recently. There is a sudden spurt of numerous groups of young people on Whats-app, Face book and other social network platforms which are earnestly and vigorously trying to promote the local culture and heritage. This augers well for Dogra culture and Dogri language and all of us should encourage this positive trend.
The most pragmatic course of action, in the present scenario, is that we must encourage our children to learn English and Hindi. But, more than that, stress should be laid that each child first learns his own mother tongue – be it Dogri, Gojri, Punjabi or Kashmiri. Their knowledge must be rooted in their own language and culture. Borrowed languages are likely to give you only borrowed knowledge.
At the end of the write-up I am reminded of the cheerful and enthusiastic faces of the children who were honoured by the Sanstha. The society and system must ensure that the desire of such children to pursue Dogri in future is encouraged and is not hampered in any manner.
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