Literature in Devanagari-Kashmiri Script
By Maharaj Krishen Raina
Post-exodus, much Kashmiri literature has
been produced by both well-known and
not-so-well-known Kashmiri authors from
various parts of the country. This literature on various
subjects and topics, including creative works in prose
and poetry, has been written in Devnagari-Kashmiri
Script because the majority of the community
especially the women and youngsters are not familiar
with Urdu and hence Nastaliq, the Urdu-based
script of Kashmiri. Without Devnagari this body of
literature being produced would be inaccessible to
them. Indeed, after losing homes, our younger
generations face the spectacle of losing the mother
tongue itself unless suitable measures like making
books in the Devanagari script available are taken.
Recently evolved Standardized Devnagari-Kashmiri
Script has provided a sound means to writers to
write in Devnagari without any problem on account
of the peculiar Kashmiri sounds
Since the Standardised Devnagari-Kashmiri Script
is yet to find favour with the present governments,
both State and Central, for its recognition as an
additional script for Kashmiri language, the literature
produced in this script generally remains in an
orphaned state for the want of aid and recognition
from the literary circles. This leaves a wide gap
between the material written and the material
published and often the material remains
unpublished and hence confined to the custody of
an author’s desk. This is not to say that no suchbooks are presently published. A good number of
books of new as well as renowned authors are
being published from Jammu, Delhi and other
places, of course with funds mostly managed by
authors themselves. Knowing that there are not
sufficient returns on such books by way of sale, the
author only gets discouraged from attempting it a
second or a third time.
In view of the apathy of the government towards
Devnagari-Kashmiri script and writers’ inability toget their material printed and published for mass
readership because of heavy financial implications,
it is necessary to pool our resources and raise some
sort of fund for the purpose, so that a good work
does not remain under wraps. For this purpose, in
the first instance, we need to form a Central
Organization to take up the mantle of an overseeing
body, which would have the authority to
scrutinize the material fit for publication and have
enough funds to finance its printing and publishing,
partly or wholly. We also need to encourage writers
who adopt the Devnagari-Kashmiri Script, with
Awards/Mementos in recognition of their work,
primarily to encourage quality literature and to give
the deserving writers due recognition pending
encouragement by the Government or Government
agencies, which in present circumstances is a far
cry. Besides no good literature can be produced
without the best literature in the language being
available to the writers. Here unfamiliarity with
Urdu/Nastaliq has practically closed the classical
and other literary treasure to the general readers as
well as many writers. We need to take up projects
so that the huge body of Kashmiri literature is made
available in Devnagari script.
There are a number of organizations in the
country which have some thing to do with the
literature. Prominent among them, as far as we can
visualize, is the SAMPRATI of Jammu. This
organization has, in addition to the normal work it
is doing, the publication of the PRIMER and the
READER in Standardised Devanagari-Kashmiri to
its credit. Though the Project Zaan of Mumbai is
also doing some work on Kashmiri literature, Kashmiri
Language and the Kashmiri Culture, having also
published the ‘Basic Reader for Kashmiri Language’and a series of Information Digests, it will not be ina position to assume a central status being far away
from Delhi and Jammu, where the bulk of literature
is being produced. SAMPRATI in this regard can
be one such organisation to handle the issue.
However, consideration of an alternative
organisation in Jammu or Delhi can not be ruled
out. This is where we need to put our heads together
and arrive at a unanimous choice of a sound platform
for our literary works. It is hoped that the intelgentsia
among us willingly gives this suggestion a serious
thought.
Source: Milchar
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