Kashmir and Kashmiri – the fate of the country and of the language

Abstract

The paper shortly describes the main periods of the history of Kashmir starting from the times of antiquity and till the beginning of the 21st century. In parallel with this changes in sociolinguistic status of the Kashmiri language are analyzed. The latter was in the past and nowadays still remains the main means of oral communication for the majority of the population of the state, but the field of its functions has turned to be considerably reduced. Urdu declared as the only official language of Jammu and Kashmir, has ousted Kashmiri from practically all the spheres of writing, printing and electronic communication, including administrative activity, management, education and mass media. Thus Kashmiri, being historically the major language of the country, characterized by ancient and rather well developed literary tradition, by now has got transformed into a language of minority which may be qualified as an “endangered” one. In case the contemporary state of things remains preserved also in future, Kashmiri may simply disappear from the linguistic map of Hindustan.