An attempt has been made to demolish the accepted belief that Pehla Phull ( First Flower ) is the first short story of Dogri language, published by Bhagwat Prasad Sathe, in 1947 ( or maybe by ending 1946 ).
Senior writer, poet and scholar, Om Goswami has published a book in Dogri where he traces the history of the Dogri short stories to sometime in 1885, during the reign of Maharaja Pratap Singh.
The claim has been made by him in his book titled Dogri Kavita Di Sunnakhrei ( Goldmine of Dogri Poetry ), which has been published by Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi. This book was formally released on 21 September, at the University of Jammu, by N Suresh Babu, deputy secretary of the Sahitya Akademi.
Om Goswami has authored over 80 books, both in Hindi and Dogri, done serious research, and edited some 60 literary books. Besides, his own writings have been translated into 10 national and international languages. Any literary claims made by him based on his research, therefore, deserve proper due consideration.
It is pertinent to recall that this very writer wrote in the Hindi monthly Sarika, sometime in 1970, proclaiming Pehla Phull as the first Dogri short story. Nothing wrong if clinching evidence has come his way now to change his own earlier stand. I call it intellectual integrity.
After a long time I treated myself to some interesting and stimulating discourse in a seminar at Jammu. The occasion was a two-day long seminar on the history of Dogri language and literature, held on 21st and 22nd September.
A few really well articulated papers were read during the seminar that was sponsored by Sahitya Akademi , New Delhi, in collaboration with the Dogri department of the University of Jammu.
Mohan Singh, convenor Dogri board of Sahitya Akademi, enjoys a special comfort level with the Dogri literary personalities who attended the seminar. Furthermore, N Suresh Babu is almost on one- to -one basis with many of the literary folks of Dogri. This ensured that the entire proceedings of the seminar were conducted in an informal, but graceful manner.
Some very interesting revelations were made by the research scholars who read papers at the seminar. For example, one may be surprised to learn that less than .1 ( I repeat, point one ) percent of people speak Dogri in Poonch ! Rajouri fares a little better at around less than 2 percent. The figures relate to the last census figures.
Tarsem Raina, who read a research paper at the seminar, claims that Kashmiri language is spoken by 53 percent of the population whereas there is a decline in the number of people who claim Dogri as their first language. These figures, many times, are coloured by political aspirations and some other dimensions. Nevertheless, the data is officially relied upon for making policy decisions.
Prof Shiv Dutt Nirmohi made a very interesting observation, that primarily Dogri is the language spoken and widely understood in different parts of Jammu region. This strengthens my writing in this very column, on 27th August, under the heading ‘ Can Dogri bind people of Jammu region ?’ I have argued that Dogri can be a strong linguistic and emotional bond for all the districts of the region.
Very interestingly, Nirmohi explained how he could speak Dogri and effectively communicate even in those parts of Jammu region where Gojri and Pahari are majorly used in day to day life. The trick, as explained by him, is just to manipulate the possessive cases using almost the same vocabulary of Dogri ! For example, from Ga-Gi-Ge to Na-Ni-Ne to Ma-Mi-Me.
We all have heard the proverb : if the mountain won’t come to Muhammed, Muhammed must go to the mountain. Let us transpose it to the scenario where Jammu & Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages ( Academy ) finds it difficult to attract young minds to their programmes.
I have very clearly and emphatically suggested that the Academy must reach out to the schools, colleges and the universities and attract the students ( Jammu Jottings, 3rd September: Recipe for a successful literary festival ).
Let us move a step further. The Academy should consider holding their programmes in the homes of the target audience, which is, the colleges and the universities. Why wait for the youth to come to your cultural complex ? Why not to reach the youth by holding the events in their premises ? I am confident this approach will belie the rant that youth are not interested in attending literary or cultural events.
The Dogri seminar was held in an auditorium of the computer sciences department. I can safely say it was well attended by the targeted students’ audience who must have benefitted from such participation.
It is of utmost importance that such events are held more often in a city where there is palpable paucity of literary and intellectual interactions.
Sahitya Akademi is an autonomous body working under the ministry of culture, government of India. It has its own rules, regulations and working culture. But, still, I hope, it will easily stretch itself to accommodate a few harmless suggestions, in furtherance of its own cherished goals.
I think the proceedings should be broadcast live on Facebook. It will reach those who are interested in literature but are not witness to the proceedings physically. This way, they shall be able to attend such events through virtual mode.
The audio facility in such events must be top class. In the instant case, the audio was not very good. Either the speaker was poor in articulation or else the sound system failed us. One of the speakers, an octogenarian, had weak voice control owing to his age. We could not hear him at all. In such an event, the paper can always be read by some other person. The basic idea is that the thoughts of the scholar presenting the paper, the author, should reach the ears of the audience, if not their hearts.
For a city like Jammu, and a language like Dogri, Sahitya Akademi should seriously consider holding an exhibition-cum-sale of the books published by the Akademi, in and about Dogri over the years. It will give the serious readers and lovers of the language an opportunity to select and buy the books that fancy their taste in Dogri literature.
It is a digital world we live in today. The Akademi may consider distributing, to the interested audience, digitised text of the papers being presented in the seminar a short time before the seminar. It helps better appreciation and assimilation in case of poor audio facilities in the auditorium, which we suffered during this seminar.
Ours is a divided society of Dogras. The left hand does not like, or appreciate, the work of the right hand. Our field of literature is properly segmented. One segment does not tolerate the other. Members and followers of one literary body do not attend the programmes of the other literary organisations. So, we have the interest of Dogri literature duly fragmented amongst various bodies, each one claiming to be the real well wisher of the language.
The Jammuites know well how much fragmented is the Dogra society, especially the small world of Dogri language and literature. The amazing thing is that this fact is well known to the deputy secretary of Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi, N Suresh Babu, who is from Telangana and looks after the interests of four regional languages including Dogri.
It was amazing to learn that he knows, while sitting in Delhi, that Dogri literary bodies and persons don’t see eye to eye. He knows it well that Dogri writers and poets live in the islands they have built around themselves. He also knows that there is a strange kind of animosity amongst the practitioners of the Dogri literary world. He even said so in his closing remarks, calling all Dogras to forget their differences, come together and work for the promotion and preservation of Dogri language.
Ancestors of Allama Iqbal hailed from the valley of Kashmir. I wonder if Iqbal too was aware how unconcerned the Dogras are about their own rich heritage of culture and valour, when he wrote :
Kahan Say Tune Aay Iqbal Seekhi Hai Yeh Darwaishi
Ke Charcha Badshaahoon Mein Hai Teri Be-Niazi Ka
( Where did you learn from O Iqbal, this mendicancy?
Even the kings speak of your nonchalance ! )
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