Lines of language

In Jammu and Kashmir, politicians have learnt to do one thing very quickly over the last few years: dip into the languages of other regions in the state.

In Jammu and Kashmir, politicians have learnt to do one thing very quickly over the last few years: dip into the languages of other regions in the state.

Generally legislators from the Kashmir province speak in Urdu, while Jammu-based legislators stick to Hindi. A few MLAs from the Rajouri-Poonch-Doda areas, which have a Muslim majority, also speak Urdu and occasionally sprinkle their pronouncements with a few Pahari words. But with the passage of time something very interesting is happening in terms of language.

I have been covering the legislative assembly sessions in a strife-torn state for the last six years. I have discovered that of late MLAs from Kashmir have begun to use many words of Hindi when they speak in the House. As if on cue, the Hindi-speaking MLAs from Jammu are now increasingly using Urdu words.

This may be a small change, but one with tremendous significance since this is a state that has been sharply polarised along ethnic and religious lines. It also shows how languages have taken each other8217;s hue in this great melting pot of cultures.

Many of the legislators from Kashmir, who earlier used the term 8216;House8217; or 8216;assembly8217; for the state legislature, now use 8216;sadan8217;. 8216;Thanks8217; is another word which Jammu MLAs use for 8216;shukriya8217;, while many Kashmir MLAs say 8216;dhanyavad8217;. Jammu-based NC MLA, Ajay Sadhotra, is fond of using 8216;Jenab-e-sadar8217; for the Speaker. National Conference8217;s firebrand MLA, Ali Mohammad Sagar, uses the Hindi word 8216;spashtikaran8217; for clarification, while the Panthers Party MLA, Harsh Dev Singh, who is from the Dogri- and Hindi-speaking belt, uses 8216;guzarish8217; for request.

And the list goes one and on. However, it is also true that Kashmiri and Dogri, which are spoken by a huge population in Jammu and Kashmir, are also spoken by the legislators.

When I first started covering the assembly sessions at Jammu in 2001, the regional divides were underlined by the language used in the House. Today, that is no longer the case. Perhaps this linguistic shift is a harbinger of more unified times in one of the most troubled regions of the country.