Dogri is an Indo-Aryan language spoken by about five million people in India and Pakistan, chiefly in the Jammu region of Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh, but also in northern Punjab, other parts of Jammu and Kashmir. Dogri speakers are called Dogras, and the Dogri-speaking region is called Duggar. Historical references suggest that the Greek astrologer Pulomi, accompanying Alexander in his 323 B.C. campaign into the Indian subcontinent, referred to some inhabitants of Duggar as "a brave Dogra family living in the mountain ranges of Shivalik." In the year 1317, Amir Khusro, the famous Hindi and Persian poet, referred to Duger (Dogri) while describing the languages and dialects of India. Intellectuals in the Court of Maharaja Ranbir Singh of Jammu and Kashmir, described 'Duggar' as a distorted form of the word 'Dwigart,' which means "two thoughs," Another proposal stems from the presence of the word 'Durger' in the Bhuri Singh Museum (in Chamba, Himachal Pradesh). Dogri is a member of the Western Pahari Group of languages.
The state of Jammu and Kashmir is a multilingual State with Kashmiri, Dogri, and Ladakhi, three dominant regional languages. Kashmiri was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India from its very inception. Dogri has several varieties, all with greater than 80% lexical similarity (within Jammu and Kashmir). Dogri was included in the year 2003, whereas Ladakhi is non-scheduled language. When we refer 'Dogri', we come across that official recognition of the language has been gradual, but progressive. On 2nd August 1969, based on the unanimous recommendation of a panel of linguists, the General Council of The Sahitya Academy, Delhi recognized Dogri as an "independent modern literary language" of India, and approved for Sahitya literary awards and publishing books in this language.
Earlier Dogri was taught in Ragunath Ji Temple 'Pathshalla' during the reign of Maharaya Ranbir Singh (1856-1885), but after his death the practice did not remain in vogue. Then after a gap of more than sixty years in 1948, Dogri was introduced as a subject in primary classes. The teaching of Dogri was discontinued in 1953. The Jammu and Kashmir University introduced the teaching of Dogri as a subject under the title OC and MIL (Proficiency namely Tilak, high Proficiency namely Praveen and Honors namely Shriomani) in 1964, 1967 and 1969 respectively. At school level it was started in the year 1983 in 9th and 10th classes as an additional optional subject in schools of Jammu region. It is taught as a subject at the undergraduate levels in the colleges of Jammu region since 1987, as a subject at the MA level at the University of Jammu since 1983 and research studies are also being carried out for M.Phil and Ph.D Degrees in Dogri. After a gap of about nineteen years, Dogri is included in the primary level as a third language in school curriculum up to the 8th grade in school education in the Jammu region of the State of J&K since 2002. It is not taught in classes 6th to 8th in the absence of clear orders. The rules are not implemented properly. Dogri language teachers have not been appointed for teaching it. There is continuous demand for teaching Dogri as a compulsory subject at all levels in the school education in the Jammu region of the state of J&K. In 2005, a collection of over 100 works of prose and poetry in Dogri published over the last 50 years was made accessible online at the Central Institute of Indian Languages (CIIL), Mysore. The Department of Information Technology, Govt. of India has prepared localized software programmes and Dogri-English-Dogri Dictionaries, which were released on the 21st February, 2009 in New Delhi.
On 22nd December 2003, in a major milestone, Dogri was recognized as an official language of India by including it in the 8th schedule of Indian Constitution. Originally 14 languages were included in the schedule, 'Sindhi' was included by 21st amendment in 1967, 'Konkani, Manipuri, and Nepali' were included by 71st amendment in 1992 and Bodo, Dogri, Santhali and Maithali' included by 92nd Amendment. The Constitution (Ninety-second Amendment) Act, 2003, introduced in the Lok Sabha on 18th August 2003 for amendment in Eighth Schedule and inclusion of Bodo language. The Bill was debated and passed by the Lok Sabha on 22nd December 2003, with a formal amendment to include three other languages, namely, Santhali, Maithili and Dogri in the Eighth Schedule. The Bill, as passed by the Lok Sabha, was considered and passed by the Rajya Sabha on 23rd December 2003. Per Articles 344(1) and 351 of the Indian Constitution, the Eighth Schedule includes the recognition of the following 22 languages; 1 Assamese 2 Bengali 3 Bodo 4 Dogri 5 Guajarati 6 Hindi 7 Kannada 8 Kashmiri 9 Konkani 10 Maithili 11 Malayalam 12 Manipuri 13 Marathi 14 Nepali 15 Oriya 16 Punjabi 17 Sanskrit 18 Santhali 19 Sindhi 20 Tamil 21 Telugu and 22 Urdu. These 22 languages referred to as scheduled languages and given recognition, status and official encouragement. The Government of India is under an obligation to take measures for the development of these languages, such that "they grow rapidly in richness and become effective means of communicating modern knowledge." In addition, a candidate appearing in an examination conducted for public service is entitled to use any of these languages as the medium in which he or she answers the paper. Dogri has an established tradition of poetry, fiction and dramatic works. Shiraza Dogri is a Dogri literary periodical issued by the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, which is a notable publisher of modern Dogri literary work, another being the Dogri Sanstha.
We feel discrimination with Dogri as it does not have a dedicated state television channel yet, unlike Kashmiri (which has the Doordarshan Koshur channel, available on cable and satellite television throughout India). Even we find that out of 22 languages referred as scheduled languages only 17 languages find mention on our currency notes. The front side of the banknote contains only two languages. The denomination is written in both official languages English (not a scheduled language) and Hindi. In back side, there is a language panel on left side of the banknotes. There are 15 scheduled Indian languages written inside the panel, arranged in alphabetical order, excluding Hindi and English. The languages are: Assamese, Bengali, Gujarati, Kannada, Kashmiri, Konkani, Malayalam, Marathi, Nepali, Odia, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tamil, Telugu and Urdu. The left over six scheduled languages are; Bodo, Dogri, Maithili, Manipuri, Santhali and Sindhi finding no mention on Indian currency notes. Whereas Kashmiri finds place on the Indian Currency Note and missing of Dogri is discrimination with Jammu region where the Dogri language is spoken in the State. Let us take 22nd December as 'Dogri Inclusion Day', the day Dogri language was included in the Eighth Schedule of The Constitution of India and at the same time let us take pledge to struggle for its proper teaching in the schools and press for its printing on Indian Currency Notes, a real concern.
Concluding with the words of Nelson Mandela - "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head, if you talk to him in his own language that goes to his heart". Absolutely nothing is as important for a nation's culture as its language. Language is the road map of a culture. It tells you where its people come from and where they are going. In will not be fair to depart without tribute to Dogri writers' recipient of the Sahitya Akademy Awards for their marvelous work in the field of Dogri language and I recognize them as 'Pearls of Dogra Rosary'. |
