Students across the Ladakh region who are studying Urdu are angry over a recent move of the Union Territory (UT) government in which it made a key amendment to recruitment rules, something which has also come as a shock to the civil society groups who are demanding its removal.
On 7 January, the government amended the Ladakh Revenue (Subordinate) Service Recruitment Rule, 2021, omitting the criterion of ‘knowledge of Urdu language’ for Naib-Tehsildar and Patwari posts in the Revenue Department. This move has triggered outrage.
Muhammad Hassan Handurmani, who completed his MA in Urdu from University of Kashmir four years back, said the decision has been taken without people's participation.
“It is a one-sided decision. It is injustice with the people of Ladakh region. There are more than six spoken languages and Urdu is a bridge language,” said Handurmani, who hails from Kargil town.
Angry over the move, he said the government’s decision of removing a particular language in a region, where the language is read as well as spoken, will have serious repercussions in the future.
“The students are studying the Urdu language in order to get jobs in the government sector and the move will push us back and hard. It is an undue move, which is unacceptable,” he said.
'Pre-planned Attack on a Community'
Handurmani said that last year the government distributed study material, which was just in English and not in Urdu. This, he said, shows it was a pre-planned exercise.
“It is injustice with the language and people. They want to target Urdu and the people who speak Urdu and this is also an attack on a particular community,” he added.
Students, especially those studying outside the Ladakh region, voiced their concerns over the move, with some saying that Urdu was being taught and used in the region since 200 years.
Muhammad Aliyas, who is perusing his PhD in Urdu in Delhi University, said that 70 percent of people in the region read and understood Urdu.
"In the Ladakh region, people speak different languages like Shina, Balti, Purgi, and Bodi. There are other languages also. Urdu is a bridge language for all the people."Muhammad Aliyas, PhD student
Urdu students said that jobs in the Revenue Department were the lone opportunity available to them, and now even that has been denied. They added that this would push them into unemployment.
Aliyas said in both districts of the Ladakh region, there are nearly 800 students, who have studied Urdu in their bachelors, masters, and even in PhD, and all of them are worried over the move.
“There government move is aimed to gain vote bank and divert people from real issues they are facing. Otherwise, all official records are in Urdu language and this amendment makes no sense. It is just a political move,” he said.
Sajjad Kargil, a prominent Kargil-based activist and writer said that the move is a very unfortunate step and shows a biased approach of the UT administration against Urdu.
“Such steps will discourage students, especially those who are acquiring knowledge in Urdu,” said Sajjad who contested the 2019 Lok Sabha elections.
“In India, there are so many institutions working for the promotion of Urdu. But in Ladakh, our MP is showing a sort of enormity with Urdu by terming it an alien language, which is condemnable,” he said.
In Ladakh, social, religious, and political organisations have, in a joint statement, condemned the move and written a letter to Union Home Minister Amit Shah to withdraw the said order.
Urdu: A Bridge Language
These organisations stated that the administration has shown a different approach towards Urdu, calling the move biased and an undemocratic step towards the majority of people in the region.
“Since 1889, Urdu has remained the main communicative language of our entire region including Gilgit Baltistan. The people speak various tribal languages and imposing one specific language on others is injustice,” the letter said.
The organisations demand that Urdu remain the main communicative language and not be identified on religious grounds but rather as a regional language.
“Sadly, the UT administration is openly attacking Urdu with different means and is trying to deprive our unemployed youth from employment (sic),” it said.
Recruitment & Revenue Department's Records To Be Affected
They have said that this 'anti-Urdu step' will affect the direct recruitment of Naib Tehsildar and also the recruitment quota of Patwaris in the Union Territory and will also adversely affect the working of the Revenue Department wherein all the revenue records are in Urdu.
“Since Ladakh is a Muslim majority UT, we appeal the Union Government to kindly intervene into this matter and address the issue on a priority basis (sic),” the letter said.
When the order was issued, Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, the member of Parliament from Ladakh, expressed happiness and said that this was one of the important changes in Ladakh’s administrative system post the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution.
"Now, Urdu is no more compulsory language for the recruitment in Ladakh Revenue Department. True freedom from psychological colonialism of Article 370 as well as liberation from the imposed Urdu language by Kashmiri rulers over Ladakh."Jamyang Tsering Namgyal, Member Parliament from Ladakh, tweeted
The MP’s statement that “Urdu is alien language for the people of Ladakh and was brutally imposed on the people of Ladakh” has added to the anger of those in the border region.
In January last year, the MP had written to Union Home Minister Amit Shah for the removal of Urdu as the mandatory language for government jobs in the Union Territory.
People in the region accused the government for not taking into account the stakeholders before taking any decision post the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019 – that split the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two Union Territories, Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
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