Erasing Urdu or removing an unfair barrier? J&K’s revenue recruitment row explained

Compulsory knowledge of Urdu

Since the Dogra time, Urdu has been the official language of Jammu and Kashmir, with the first official land settlement, known as ‘Bandobast Qanooni’, recorded in Urdu. Initiated in 1887, these records were completed by 1894.

Similarly, the pre-partition land revenue records kept at Srinagar’s Muhafiz Khana are also in Urdu. The Muhafiz Khana has the original and official pre-partition land records of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as well.

Since the first land settlement and subsequent records were registered in Urdu, knowledge of the language was made compulsory for revenue posts like Naib Tehsildar, Girdawar (revenue inspector) and Patwari (land record keepers). For recruitment to these posts, a candidate must have had a bachelor’s degree with knowledge of Urdu.

BJP’s opposition

For over a century, the move to make working knowledge of Urdu mandatory went unquestioned. That changed in 2025, when the Jammu and Kashmir Service Selection Board (JKSSB) — one of two government recruitment agencies — issued a notification for 75 posts of Naib Tehsildar in the revenue department. As always, the JKSSB specified that the second paper of the written test would check the candidate’s “working knowledge of Urdu”.

This drew protests from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which demanded that the requirement be dropped for Naib Tehsildar posts. Senior BJP leader Sunil Sharma, the J&K Leader of Opposition, also met Lt Governor Manoj Sinha, seeking his intervention to register the party’s opposition. Sharma contended that making one of the five official languages an eligibility criterion “violates constitutional principles and administrative impartiality and creates an unfair barrier”. He also argued that making Urdu a criterion puts candidates from Jammu at a disadvantage.

Five official languages

Before the abrogation of J&K’s special status, Urdu was the official language. However, in September 2020 — a year after the abrogation — Parliament passed the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill, 2020. The Bill added four more languages — Kashmiri, Dogri, Hindi and English — to Urdu as official languages, stating that these would be “used for all official purposes” in the Union Territory.

The CAT intervention

The mandatory working knowledge of Urdu was also challenged by some aspirants before the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) Jammu Bench. In July last year, agreeing with the BJP, the CAT (Jammu Bench) stayed the provision of the J&K Revenue (Subordinate) Service Recruitment Rules, 2009, which made knowledge of Urdu mandatory. It instead directed the Service Selection Board to accept candidates proficient in any of the five official languages — Hindi, Kashmiri, English, Dogri, or Urdu.

Opposition in the Valley

The latest move by the J&K revenue department has drawn protests from Kashmiri parties, which view it as linguistic hegemony of the BJP and an attempt to undermine Urdu — a language that has come to be associated with Muslims post-2014.

Opposing the draft rules, the PDP has sought its immediate withdrawal. “This move represents a deliberate attempt to sideline and erase Urdu from the administrative framework of the region, despite its historic and institutional significance. Urdu has for generations been the backbone of revenue records, land documentation, and official communication in Jammu and Kashmir,” the PDP said in a statement on X.

It added: “The PDP views this decision as part of a broader pattern of undermining the linguistic and cultural identity of Jammu and Kashmir. Such steps disregard the region’s history and the deep connection people have with the language.”

But it isn’t the only one. The ruling National Conference too has, in the past, opposed the move, calling it an attempt to “erase” Jammu & Kashmir’s cultural legacy. Soon after the Urdu row first broke out in July last year, NC chief spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq castigated the BJP’s stance.

“Urdu is not associated with any class, region, or religion, but is a historical and administrative language used in Jammu and Kashmir for over 130 years. During the reign of the Maharaja, all administrative work was conducted in Persian but later Urdu was adopted as a unifying language,” NC chief spokesperson Tanvir Sadiq said.

He added: “It is wrong to view every issue through a religious lens. The shajras (or ancestral land records) have long been written in Urdu and it is not possible to change all those documents now. There is a need to acknowledge Urdu’s historical role in administration, including the judiciary and revenue.”