Call it historic decision of the Central Government or fulfilment of a much needed demand from cross sections of the society across the UT of Jammu and Kashmir to bring about a basket of prevalent spoken languages with intent to impart to them their due recognition in addition to Urdu alone, in Jammu and Kashmir as official languages. Union Cabinet, headed by the Prime Minister giving approval to a bill for introduction in the monsoon session of Parliament scheduled to begin from September 14, to have Dogri, Kashmiri, Hindi and English also as official languages in Jammu and Kashmir in addition to the one – Urdu in vogue , is highly welcome. This major move by the Centre is in context of the fact that Dogri and Hindi languages are spoken by a sizeable population of the UT who had been genuinely feeling that much was not being done in respect of bringing out a statute backing to promote Dogri, a major regional language spoken throughout the entire Jammu region. Hindi being the ‘Raj’ or official language, has its own national importance though again spoken by many people needed promotion and more propagation in the UT in consonance with it being the national official language. Likewise, Kashmiri language too is on the anvil of being given a statutory backing by an Act of Parliament like Dogri which will definitely prove in the long run, the regional languages prospering, their literature getting more and more popularised and research and innovative works carried on in these languages.
So far as English is concerned , we feel it is being used extensively in offices, courts, commercial institutions, educational institutions etc and in drafting of documents, leases, agreements, official orders and communiqués as compared to Urdu which has been the official language of Jammu and Kashmir . Now, instead of one, there will be as many as five languages recognised officially in Jammu and Kashmir and in this connection, if Section 47 of the J&K Reorganisation Act was read properly , enough indications lay therein about the provision of empowerment of the (new) Legislative Assembly of the UT to adopt any one or more of the languages in use in Jammu and Kashmir as official languages. It is also noteworthy that the above decision of the Union Government to draft legislation to make four languages of Dogri, Kashmiri, Hindi and English in addition to the existing one Urdu as official languages of Jammu and Kashmir, could be possible to take place as a result of doing away with the special provisions under Article 370 of the constitution and due to the Reorganisation of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories.
Other things remaining equal, it can safely be assumed, looking to the comfortable majority of the BJP led NDA in both the Houses of the Parliament, that the bill is likely to be passed thus paving the way for inclusion of Dogri, Kashmiri and Hindi as official languages including Urdu and English which had the status of an official language and a quasi official but more in usage language respectively so far. Till 1889, Persian was the official language of the erstwhile state which was replaced by Urdu by Maharaja Pratap Singh , the third Dogra Ruler. Needless to add, the Prime Minister in the context of announcement of the new innovative Education Policy recently had said that the new policy would result into languages of India progressing and developing which would promote knowledge and learning in the country. The inclusion of Dogri, Kashmiri and Hindi (including English) in the official languages of the UT of Jammu and Kashmir could also be seen in that context.
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