Are we teaching our children to forget Kashmiri?

There is a language problem growing quietly in Kashmir.

We may not notice it every day, but it is happening around us. Many children today are becoming more comfortable speaking English or Urdu than Kashmiri. In some families, children can understand Kashmiri but prefer to reply in another language. In some schools, students are discouraged from speaking Kashmiri.

This should concern us.

This does not mean English or Urdu are bad languages. They are important. English is useful for education, jobs, technology and communication with the wider world. Urdu is an important language of our literature and culture.

The problem starts when learning these languages means losing Kashmiri.

Our children should be able to learn English and Urdu without giving up the language they hear at home.

Parents have a role

We have to be honest about one thing: parents are also part of this problem.

Many parents speak English with their children because they believe it will help them in life. Some parents feel that speaking English makes their children look more educated. Others prefer Urdu because they think it is more suitable for educated families.

We can understand why parents think this way.

They want their children to succeed.

But there is a cost when children stop speaking Kashmiri at home.

A language survives when children learn it from their parents and use it in their daily lives. If parents stop speaking Kashmiri with their children, the language can slowly become weaker from one generation to the next.

Research on the Kashmiri-speaking community has found that younger people are increasingly comfortable with Urdu, while some parents encourage their children to use Urdu and English. Research has also reported cases where children were discouraged from speaking Kashmiri in schools.

This does not mean every Kashmiri family is doing this.

But it is a trend worth taking seriously.

Schools also have a responsibility

Parents are not the only ones responsible.

Schools have a very important role in deciding how children see different languages.

If a child is told that English is the language of education and Kashmiri is only for the home, the child may slowly begin to think that Kashmiri is less important.

Some research on education in Kashmir has raised this concern. Studies have pointed towards a growing preference for Urdu and English among younger people and have reported that some private schools do not allow students to speak Kashmiri.

This is where the government needs to act.

Schools should not make children feel ashamed of speaking their mother tongue.

A child should be able to speak Kashmiri with friends without feeling that they are speaking an inferior language.

This is not an argument against English

We should be very clear about this.

Nobody is saying that Kashmiri children should not learn English.

They absolutely should.

English can open doors to higher education, jobs, science, technology and the wider world.

The answer is not to replace English with Kashmiri.

The answer is to learn English without losing Kashmiri.

The same applies to Urdu.

A child can know all three languages.

In fact, that should be the goal.

Kashmiri + Urdu + English.

Not Kashmiri or Urdu or English.

What does research say?

There is growing evidence that children learn better when they understand the language being used in the classroom.

UNESCO’s work on multilingual education supports the idea that children should be able to learn through their mother tongue while also learning other languages.

UNESCO’s 2025 report on education in India also says that using children’s home languages can improve understanding, participation and learning. It recommends better teacher training and more learning material in Indian languages.

India’s National Education Policy 2020 also recommends that, wherever possible, the home language, mother tongue, local language or regional language should be used as the medium of instruction at least until Grade 5, and preferably beyond Grade 8.

So protecting the mother tongue is not an outdated idea.

It is part of modern thinking about multilingual education.

Kashmiri should not exist only as a school subject

There is another problem.

We cannot save Kashmiri simply by putting it into the school timetable.

A child may study Kashmiri for an examination and still feel uncomfortable speaking it.

That is not real language preservation.

A living language has to be used.

Children should hear Kashmiri at home.

They should be able to speak it in school.

They should find Kashmiri stories in libraries.

They should watch cartoons and programmes in Kashmiri.

They should find good Kashmiri content online.

They should be able to read modern books, comics and stories in their own language.

If Kashmiri is only present in an old textbook, children will naturally feel that it belongs to the past.

The Govt has a bigger responsibility

It is easy to tell parents, “Speak Kashmiri at home.”

But the government also has to create the right environment.

India’s education policy already recognises the importance of mother-tongue education. The Constitution also directs states to provide facilities for instruction in the mother tongue at the primary stage for children belonging to linguistic minority groups.

The government therefore needs to move beyond speeches about protecting Kashmiri.

Schools need practical support.

Teachers need training in multilingual classrooms.

Children need better Kashmiri books.

Schools need modern Kashmiri teaching material.

Private schools should also be encouraged to allow children to use Kashmiri.

And parents need to be told something very simple:

Teaching your child Kashmiri will not stop your child from learning English.

A child can learn both.

We should not make children choose

Perhaps this is the most important point.

A Kashmiri child should not have to choose between their future and their mother tongue.

They should not have to choose between English and Kashmiri.

They should not have to choose between Urdu and Kashmiri.

They can learn all of them.

A child who speaks good Kashmiri and good English is not less educated.

A child who can read Urdu and speak Kashmiri is not less modern.

Knowing several languages is a strength.

The real goal should be to give children more languages, not fewer.

A language can disappear quietly

Languages do not always disappear suddenly.

Sometimes the change happens very slowly.

A grandmother speaks Kashmiri.

Her daughter understands Kashmiri but speaks more Urdu.

Her granddaughter understands some Kashmiri but mostly speaks English or Urdu.

Then the next generation understands only a few Kashmiri words.

No one decided to kill the language.

It simply stopped being passed from one generation to another.

That is how languages become weak.

This is why the question is not only whether Kashmiri is taught in schools.

The bigger question is:

Will our children want to speak Kashmiri?

Parents have a role.

Schools have a role.

The government has a role.

And society has a role.

We do not need to take English away from our children.

We do not need to stop teaching Urdu.

We simply need to make sure that learning these languages does not come at the cost of Kashmiri.

Our children should be able to say:

I speak Kashmiri. I speak Urdu. I speak English.

There is no contradiction in that.

That is what being multilingual should mean.

And perhaps the simplest way to protect Kashmiri is also the most important:

Keep speaking it to our children.

References: UNESCO’s State of the Education Report for India 2025: Bhasha Matters on mother-tongue and multilingual education, the Government of India’s National Education Policy 2020, and the Government of India’s constitutional provisions on Article 350A and mother-tongue education.