Edited
by: P. N. Pushp and K. Warikoo
Himalayan Research
and Cultural Foundation
Har-Anand Publications |
Preface
Identifying identity may prove an arduous task;
yet, the attempt reveals that language has emerged as a significant marker of
cultural identity. Or, should we say, a basic identity within the country's
over-all identity comprising a number of sub-identities?
To facilitate comprehension of such a fascinating mosaic of cross-cultural
interaction in the Jammu and Kashmir State, an authentic account of the
contributory facts and factors has been a longfelt need. It was in this verv
context that the Himalayan Research and Cultural Foundation organized a Seminar
on "Cultural Heritage of the Western Himalayas and its Future" on
March 23-24, 1994 at India International Centre, New Delhi, which among other
things deliberated on the linguistic heritage of the State. The deliberations
highlighted the need to go into the cultural moorings of various mother tongues
of the State.
Such a need is sought to be fulfilled by the present volume of papers by a
group of specialists who are known to have devoted considerable time and thought
to their respective. branch of study. Covering all the mother tongues, besides
the link languages of Urdu and Hindi, the papers present a significant
cross-section of the linguistic predicament of the three regions of the State.
The editors have consciously abstained from any sort of regimentation of
matter or manner. They
have, in fact, pinned down the editorial processing to the irreducible minimum.
Nevertheless, they
are aware of shortcomings, here and there. They have had to put up with some
cases of over-elaboration, which they have however, had to accommodate as
informative appendage.
Discerning readers are expected to work out common multiples as well as
factors of objective thinking in the context of the linguistic predicament
awaiting timely attention. Objective thinking, of course, is the crying need of
the hour, in view of the establishment's chronic aversion to the long-denied
claims of the mother tongue. Pedagogy in the State seems to have remained
blissfully ignorant of these claims, while the bureaucratic bosses of the
Education Department have all along succumbed to chauvinistic pressures of
political expediency.
The right of the child to find its mother tongue at the doorstep of schooling
has got to be conceded; sooner, the better. Suitable strategies of teaching
scripts and linguistic structures have got to be thoughtfully devised and
imaginatively adopted. These alone will clear the mess made in the name of
administrative feasibility, and generate a cultural climate of mutual
understanding. In such a climate alone can the link language gracefully
integrate the Mother Tongues and the Mother Tongues could gratefully get their
due.
Editors
| 
Table
of Contents
