Peoples Conference President and MLA Handwara Sajad Lone on Wednesday voiced deep concern over the exclusion of Urdu as a qualifying requirement for the post of Naib Tehsildar in Jammu and Kashmir, calling it part of a “systematic marginalisation” of the Kashmiri-speaking majority and a dangerous step toward the “linguicide” of Urdu.
Reacting sharply to the development, Lone said, “So now Urdu is no longer needed to qualify for the post of Naib Tehsildar. The majority Kashmiri-speaking population has been almost relegated to a footnote in the recruitment lists. Their presence in the recruitment lists is inversely proportional to their numbers. That is of course due to reservations.”
He noted that Urdu had historically given Kashmiri aspirants a reasonable edge in such posts because of the language’s relevance in administrative affairs. “They may have had a slight advantage in the NT exams and justifiably so as all revenue records are in Urdu. Now that has been withdrawn too,” he said, calling it a calculated move to erase regional linguistic roots.
Taking aim at the National Conference, Lone questioned the intentions of the ruling regime, “The onus of giving a good legal representation is on the incumbent elected government. Hope it is not yet another fixed match in a series of fixed matches that we are seeing lately.”
But beyond governance, Lone’s statement struck an emotional chord, underscoring the deeper cultural loss at stake. “This is also about gradually exiting Urdu,” he said. “I have not studied Urdu. And that has been a regret all my life. Urdu is a literary delight and some of the greatest poets in the world have expressed themselves in this great language. And to think of enabling linguicide of this great language.”
He cautioned that the emotional and historical link between Urdu and Kashmiris cannot be severed so easily. “This language has an emotional and a historical connect with Kashmiris and that will never go away,” Lone asserted.
The move, he implied, is not just a policy change, but an identity shift, one that he described as risks severing a people from their linguistic and cultural heritage.
