Aziz Hajini in defending frontiers of Kashmiri language
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Aziz Hajini in defending frontiers of Kashmiri language

Dr Hajini, an adoring Teacher at different positions, a popular newsreader and broadcaster, a sought-after anchor, an organiser to its true anatomy, an adept translater and an administrator to the best acumen, was walking with a package of all these virtues to influence everywhere

Post by on Friday, September 24, 2021

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Inspired by the late sagacious literal giant, Prof Mohidin Hajini, mentor Mohammad Ahsan Ahsan and other linguist and cultural icons of the time, Dr Aziz Hajini had a bulk of love for his mother tongue, Kashmiri. He seemed to have been born for it so was his pain for it, throughout. He left early but had lifted it high through the collaborated activism with his selfless co-activists around. 
The cause of his concern undergirded in the mission was the very reality that our mother tongue was facing a serious threat of imperilment as it was kept off the school curriculum, the death warrant for it. It had been often suppressed in its use. A big chunk of people has abandoned it and didn't pass it to offsprings or preferred to shift to other languages ruthlessly considering them more prestigious and modern.  This made him restless but not hopeless so he continued to walk through ebbs and surges and propagated upfront that if shifting is important so is important the origin we shift from.
Dr Hajini, an adoring Teacher at different positions, a popular newsreader and broadcaster, a sought-after anchor, an organiser to its true anatomy, an adept translater and an administrator to the best acumen, was walking with a package of all these virtues to influence everywhere. As a pre-eminent poet, strong critic and prolific writer, his stature was differently high to catch the attention at distance. His selfless and impeccable contribution over the canvas of culture, education, theatre, language and literature is beyond my capacity to portray in this cursory write up. However, his struggle, being a dynamic activist or patron of Adbee Markaz Kamraz and other literal and cultural forums and institutions, to reintroduce Kashmiri as a subject in school education requires to be acknowledged and adumbrated. 
At certain tough times, Hajini's struggleism with alacrity for Kashmiri language seemed to be vain and immaterial to realize, because of hard factors around. But, he never lowered down his voice nor was he bogged down to ask for despite odds and ordeals using his cogent potential and influence. His dream, finally, turned to him itself in a reality because of his die hard determination and matured organizational skills and strategies. 
 
Now, for both teacher and taught, Kashmiri is necessary to be learnt. Even those Teachers, who had otherwise forgotten Kashmiri, are now learning the language because they are supposed to teach Kashmiri in paucity of Kashmiri knowing Teachers. This has made them curious to know more about the cultural ethos of Kashmir and motivates them to learn Kashmiri. This is equally true to the children belonging to the families who had in fact divorced Kashmiri as their mother tongue. Because, this is now compulsory to qualify it like mathematics and science. And its scoring is equally counted to determine the grade. And for a lot, grade means esteem, status and everything. At times, when collective identity marks are distorted, under threat or simply abstruse, social engineering takes a route to strike the heads for establishing equilibrium in society. Groomed in robust literateur surroundings, Aziz Hajini, taking his colleagues with, spearheaded the movement for Kashmiri language and was able to protect the language from denigration by getting an official decree.
Kashmiri has been more than a means of communication for; it is the very condition of our humanity. Our values, our beliefs, traditions and our identity are embedded within it as being our mother tongue. It is through mother language we comfortably transmit our experiences and our knowledge. The diverse dimensions reflect the incontestable wealth of our culture, history, imaginations, wit and ways of life we are known to the world. 
Dr Aziz Haijini had comprehended well that language goes beyond the idea of a medium of interaction. It is not simply a tool with which we communicate both orally and in written form. Rather, it is a cultural entity or construct - the constellation of beliefs and traditions held by the individual speaker. From the language ecology perspective, Hajini seemed to be super sensitive to gauge how the unbridled use of English and other dominating languages were potentially disrupting the ecology of Kashmiri language. The rapid spread of English in almost all life domains seems to be natural, because this language serves not only as a lingua franca but also as a lingua cultura and a lingua academica across the globe. So without being abnegating other facts, Dr Aziz aggrandised and jazzed up the obsession of Kashmiri language. Not an easy task to do, indeed. 
We see in the midst of social forces like demographics, widening markets, nuclearisation of families and massive migrations from rural to the urban societies, the linguistic map is rapidly changing. For some, this change is the inevitable destiny of certain languages in a new world viz a viz English which has already seeped easily into local cultural products and all educational spheres. May be, not the brunt of globalization too much, but the idea of language protection had made Aziz Hajini restless, for sure, to check this disruption without indulging in any direct dust up with English or other languages. And, the best protection was to make it a part of school curriculum. That was finally done, an outstanding contribution. This is sure to defend the frontiers of Kashmiri language and ethos in all times to come, if the legacy is pledged to be taken forward with soulful commitment the way late Hajini, a cultural luminary did. 
 
 (Author is Regular Contributor to RK and can be reached at: reyazmir58@gmail.com)
 

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