Suman K. Sharma
Language typifies its speakers. There was a time when behind their backs the Dogri-speaking men were called ‘pandi’ (men who carry loads on their heads) and ‘mundu’ (menials). Dogri Sanstha was established seventy years ago to rub off this slur.
One does not have to delve too deep into history of these proud people to know how such pejoratives got attached to them. The Dogras faced the problems of a submountain topography – arduous terrain, lack of water and harsh climate. And then their homeland was perpetually on the boil. The overzealous feudal lords fought each other at the drop of a turban. The Sikh Empire brought the region under its subjection and held it till its own fall in 1846, when the British Governor General declared Gulab Singh – a Dogra general under the defunct Lahore Durbar – the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir under the Treaty of Amritsar. The policy of extension and consolidation of the territories continued under his successor, Maharaja Ranbir Singh.
The perennially war-like situation in the land made it necessary for its men either to wield arms in the battle field or till the soil back home. Brawn, and not the brain, was considered the first requirement of a Dogra in the feudal times. Education of the masses was put on the back-burner. Matters came to such a pass that the administration had to import Punjabi civil servants to run their affairs. But not for long. Across the lofty mountains, the educated Kashmiri Pandits agitated against the lack of employment opportunities in their own homeland, compelling the ruler, Maharaja Pratap Singh, to issue a decree in 1927 defining four types of ‘state-subjects’ and grant them exclusive rights of citizenship, including that of employment.
The Dogras too were not far behind to know their self worth. Late Col Shivanath in his History of Dogri Literature (Sahitya Academy: 1976) recounts the scene. ‘In 1940, Jammu was a centre of education and thinking,’ he says. There were literary meets in which teachers and students alike participated. The capital city boasted of 2-3 dailies and also a few periodicals. The Prince of Wales College (that is, our own GGM Science College) brought out its own magazine, The Tawi. The snag was that the deliberations of the literary meets were published not in Dogri, but in English, Hindi or Urdu. The publications too were in languages other than Dogri. The College had The English Readers’ Forum, a Hindi Parishad and an Urdu Bazm, but nothing that propagated Dogri.
Then the spring of Dogri language blossomed forth. Fittingly, the day was Basant Panchami, 1944, and the venue, the parikrama of Dawana da Mandar. Prof Ramnath Shastri, Dinu Bhai Pant, Dharamchand Prashant, Bhagwat Prasad Sathe and a few other like-minded Dogras sat together, as they had periodically to appraise each other’s literary efforts in Hindi and Urdu. The difference was in their resolve to work henceforth strenuously for restoration of Dogra pride. Dinubhai Pant recited a Dogri poem Utth Mereya Desa/Hun Lo Hoi Gai (Rise, My Country/It Is Already Dawn). Bhagwat Prasad Sathe read a Dogri short story of his. That was the day the Dogri Sanstha came into being (pp 70-73).
The Sanstha gave itself a four-fold manifesto: to develop Dogri language, build up Dogri literature embodying all aspects of Dogra life, conduct and publish research work into the history of Dogra community and most important of all, forge links among the disparate sections of Dogra community and secure for them a place of respect among other Indian communities.
They were a dedicated band of people, those founders of Dogri Sanstha and they knew how to charge their compatriots with fervour for their language, art and culture. The slim compilation of Dinu Bhai Pant’s poems, Guttlun (Tickling), established that Dogri had the capacity to convey in verse the most sublime and intricate of emotions. Pant’s humourous poem Shahr Pahlo Pehl Ge (The First Time We Went to the Town) had had the audiences in splits. Bhagwat Prasad Sathe’s collection of short stories Pehla Phull (The First Blossom) demonstrated to the readers that Dogri could be a powerful medium for prose as well.
Despite little pin-pricks from Hindi zealots, Dogri Sanstha was going strong. By 1950, it was able to bring out its first publication, Jago Duggar (Wake up, the Duggar Land) – a poetry collection. The Sanstha followed this successful venture by embarking upon a journal, Nami Chetna (New Awakening). Started from Delhi in 1953 in collaboration with the Dogra Mandal, the literary quarterly did have its share of teething troubles; albeit, it began to be published regularly from Jammu from 1967. It was Nami Chetna that published Dr Siddheshwar Verma’s seminal article, The Place of Dogri in the Languages of India, arguing that Dogri is a distinct language in its own right and not a Punjabi dialect as was mistakenly believed. The results were quick to follow. The Sahitya Academy accorded Dogri its literary status: a happy prelude to Dogri’s inclusion in Schedule VIII of the Constitution of India, at par with Hindi or any other of the 21 national languages of India.
The next logical step for the Dogri Sanstha was to convince the academia to introduce the language as a course of study. In 1964, the erstwhile J&K University started conducting exams for awarding ‘Tilak’, ‘Praveen’ and ‘Shiromani’ certificates and degrees in Dogri, eventually leading in good time to the setting up of a full-fledged department of Dogri in the University of Jammu, which conducts post-graduate classes and doctoral research in the field. For school children also, Dogri Sanstha has played a major role in convincing the State government to frame a policy for teaching Dogri in the primary classes. Dogri is now one of the optional subjects of the Civil Services Exam (CSE).
The beauty of Dogri Sanstha’s enterprise lay in its multi-pronged efforts to promote Dogra culture. Theatre, exhibitions of classic Dogra paintings, Dogra folk music, Dogra couture and men’s wear, Dogra craftsmanship – the Sanstha strove to showcase the best the Duggar had to offer. Dogra Art Gallery is a lasting testimony to the efforts of the Sanstha’s members, Mr Sansar Chand Baru, Mr Vidya Rattan Khajuria and others – who diligently collected, restored and displayed old paintings, sculptures and manuscripts for public viewing. Prof Lalit Magotra, the current president of Dogri Sanstha, recalls how Mr Baru, Mr Khajuria and Prof Shastri saved priceless paintings and door panels of the Poonchh House – Raja Moti Singh’s palace – from oblivion. Salvaging the irreplaceable pieces of art from the palace, they installed them in the Dogra Art Gallery for permanent display.
Indeed, Dogri Sanstha has much more to be proud of than mere longevity, which by itself is no mean achievement. In the past seventy years, it has, as it were, given a shine to the Dogra image, and for this the credit goes to Sanstha’s stalwarts. One name is Prof Ram Nath Shastri. You cannot think of Dogri Sanstha without thinking of the doyen of the Dogra resurgence. Prof Shastri was at the helm of the Sanstha’s affairs for forty-five fruitful years, from the day of its inception, till the year 1989, when he decided to give himself respite from active participation. A Sanskrit teacher at the ‘PoW’ College (the funny contraction will stick to the venerable institution till it casts off its colonial tag), he wrote and translated 14 plays in Dogri, assumed complete responsibility of editing and publication of seventy-five numbers of Nami Chetna right up to 1989, organized seminars on folk heroes, brought out a much researched book, Duggar De Loknayak (The Folk Heroes of the Duggar) and published collection of articles on folk art, architect and sculpture of Duggar written by acclaimed authors, Vidya Rattan Khajuria and Kedar Nath Shastri. At times when he could not do it himself because of other preoccupations, the good professor coaxed and cajoled other competent hands to advance the cause of Dogras – and they all did it well – Rattan Sharma, Kavi Rattan,Vidya Rattan Khajuria, Surinder Gandalgal and Prof. Nilamber Dev Sharma. Attempts to standardise spellings, recording of folk songs from remote places, and compiling a dictionary were some of the acts during Prof Shastri’s long innings which brought forward Dogri to the modern era.
But what really gave this language fillip to race with other languages of North India was the masterful decision to choose for it the Devanagari script over the exotic Takri. In one stroke, Dogri was placed within the easy reach of Hindi knowing readers.
And if Dogri Sanstha has maintained its pristine zest and vigour over the years today, it is thanks to the unstinted efforts of Prof Lalit Magotra, the president and his committed band of office bearers. A scientist by training, a teacher by profession (he retired as Dean, Science Faculty of Jammu University), an acclaimed author, an organizer par excellence and – what may come as a surprise to many of his admirers – a poet at heart, Prof Magotra is a man of many parts. The Sanstha has taken long strides under his stewardship. Through Lok Melas, soirees of folk music and poetry recitation, Dogri has been taken to the masses. Arrangements have been made for guidance of CSE aspirants who opt for Dogri. More importantly, the Sanstha publishes works of Dogra authors, facilitates translations to and from Dogri, organizes seminars, symposia and workshops on various aspects of Dogri literature. Its endeavours are not lost on the State or the Union government authorities with which it keeps raising issues concerning development and propagation of Dogri. Recently, thanks to the encouragement and financial assistance provided by the State Governor, Mr NN Vohra, the Sanstha has embarked upon an ambitious programme of bringing out Dogri comics and translation of representative Dogri literary works into English and other languages. The first volumes of the series were released in Jammu by the Governor on 11 December, last year. Dogri Sanstha’s latest project is to host a website in collaboration with the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University to provide information on everything concerning the Dogras and the Duggar region.
Besides Dogri Sanstha will now have a new three storey building. The building will have state-of-the art facilities for conducting various programmes.
I asked Prof Magotra how he is able to devote so much time and energy to Dogri Sanstha. Does not he find the work too demanding? Prof Magotra responded with a few lines of a Dogri poem of his own, which translate as follows:
I hate to recede
Silently into the dark,
Cold fold of eternal night.
I would rather plunge
Into the ocean
Like fiery sun,
Creating sky-high waves
With my unspent fervor.
It is men like Prof Ram Nath Shastri and Prof Lalit Magotra who with fire in their hearts and a cool resolve in their heads give a movement like Dogri Sanstha its momentum.
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