Tracing the aagurs

Conflicts inherently affect, even reshape, the social fabric of any society in ways both positive and negative. Apart from changing livelihoods and behavioural patterns, prolonged conflicts also affect the lexicon and language of a particular society. As certain institutions become increasingly active in conflict situations, this dynamic in turn enriches and irrevocably changes the local language.

Kashmir has now been witness to a bloody dispute for over two decades. Over that period, Indian military forces and Kashmiri militants have in turn employed new weapons and strategies, which were initially new and strange to the local Kashmiri-speaking populace. The overall effect of the conflict has been that the local news media, and the Kashmiri language itself, has undergone a process of high-speed modernisation, in order to be able to fully communicate and disseminate information to the public masses about the fast-shifting scenario. According to the 2001 census, there are roughly 5.5 million Kashmiri speakers in Jammu & Kashmir. (Another estimated 105,000 live in Azad Kashmir.)

It has, of course, long been accepted that language cannot be treated as static. It exists in a constant state of flux, under the diverse pulls and pressures of a host of cultural, political and economic factors. The Kashmiri language itself has a long history of resilience, adaptability and sustainability. For a significant part of its existence, the language was subjected to a biased, prejudiced approach by most rulers of the region, who long forced it to play second fiddle to Urdu (see Himal October 2008, "End of a tongue"). Although it is the mother tongue of the majority of the populace of the Kashmir Valley, the language has – with the exception of the 15th-century rule of Sultan Zain ul-Abidin, a patron of letters and the fine arts – been denied its rightful status.

Today, Kashmiri and Urdu are both considered official languages in J & K. But although the former figures in the list of 22 officially scheduled languages in India, in Kashmir it remains confined to the spoken, unofficial mode only – though it is true that lately local-government initiatives have successfully introduced it into primary-level schools. One would therefore not be surprised to note the dismal status of the Kashmiri-language media. Currently, only one Kashmiri-language newspaper, the Haftaroza Sangarmaal, is published in Srinagar, and that too only as a weekly. The electronic media, however, offers a bit wider spectrum. Radio Kashmir, Doordarshan and, of late, a handful of local cable-television channels broadcast daily news bulletins and programmes in Kashmiri. It is here that one can observe the effects of conflict on the development of the Kashmiri lexicon.

Borrowing and hybridising
Even within language-specific media, journalists need to disseminate messages to large and heterogeneous audiences. News editors thus have a wide range of lexical stock at their disposal, from which to shape particular news items. In the process, news outlets regularly refurbish their resources, adopting and modernising to fulfil new communication needs as they arise. This trend has certainly been witnessed in the Kashmiri media, which has both borrowed and hybridised.

The ongoing conflict threw up many new situations and words in Kashmir, to which the Kashmiri-language media responded first by borrowing. Although the Kashmiri language has a Dardic base (a subgroup of languages that includes Pashto, Persian, Gujar and Kyrgyz), throughout its history the language has borrowed heavily from various other sources (or aagur in Kashmiri), assimilating words as required. Since the conflict in Kashmir began, one of the main such sources has been the English language. Given its international status and its prevalence in the Subcontinent, it was perhaps inevitable that English would play an active role in the lexical development of the Kashmiri media.

Today the Kashmiri-language media is replete with English words in a way that has never previously been seen. Terms such as grenade, AK-47, security forces, crackdown, encounter, operation, blast, firing, crossfire, and even gun, pistol and arrest are now very much in use in both the Kashmir-language print and electronic media. However, some words are used with slight modifications – crackdown is modified as krekdown, grenade as gernede, crossfire as kras-fire – in order to suit the phonological needs of the Kashmiri speakers and listeners. In addition to single words, two-to-three-word English constructions can also be seen today in Kashmiri-language news items, highlighting new terms linked to security and governance. Some of these constructions include private member, asambali seshan, pulis, pulis hedkuarter, bulak president (block president), divizan bench, speshal apreshan group or assogi (Special Operations Group or SOG), inteligans agansi, etc.

Such adaptations have precedent. In the domains of science and technology – which, like the conflict, present wholly new subjects that need to be communicated – Kashmiri editors invariably turn to English sources. Such adoptions include kamputer, internet, mobile phone, SMS, telefone, cable, laptop, etc. These borrowed words and expressions also undergo modification, in which the borrowed expressions are simplified by applying the native phonological process. The word militants, for instance, is changed to militant-av, meaning by the militants, and security forces likewise to security forc-av.

English has not been the only important aagur, however. Many words have also been borrowed, going further back, from Sanskrit, such as darshan, puja, mandir and swami. Although their Persian-Arabic equivalents are also available to news editors, Sanskrit words such as these are often used instead when covering the religious and cultural practices of the local Hindu community. It is interesting to note that, on the other hand, Persian-Arabic words have long been preferred by Kashmiri-language editors when dealing with Muslim religious affairs. An important example in this regard is yatri (Sanskrit) versus zayrin (Persian). While the former word is used by news editors to refer to pilgrims visiting the Amarnath Cave shrine, the latter is preferred in references to pilgrims thronging the Hazratbal shrine or other Muslim darghas in Kashmir. This is likewise the case when militants have attacked Amarnath pilgrims: journalists continue to use yatri instead of zayrin. Such examples reinforce a basic tenet. Clearly every word has a proper context and, in conflict situations, the context is of paramount importance – something that news editors in such situations can hardly afford to ignore.

Of course, in reporting the conflict situation, the local Kashmiri news, has also borrowed from Persian-Arabic. Indeed, due to a spectrum of cultural, religious and political factors, Persian-Arabic today continues to serve as the primary source for import. Words such as giraftar (arrest), nazarband (confined), isteqbal (reception), azim (great), ladai (battle), halaat (situation), qabristan (graveyard), mehmaan (guest), rahnuma (guide) and mukhbir (informer) are all drawn from the Persian-Arabic, and are all used heavily by the local media. In addition, Kashmiri-language news is also full of Persian-Arabic particles such as basharteki (provided), halanki (however), chunki (although/however), further underlining the centrality of the Persian-Arabic influence.

Besides borrowing, the Kashmiri media has also engaged in a technique of hybridisation during the two decades of conflict. Hybridisation is the process by which a compound word is formed by combining two base forms originating from different languages. This includes expressions such as drogi farosh, meaning a person selling goods at exorbitant prices (Kashmiri + Persian-Arabic); drojar alawans, meaning a dearness allowance (Kashmiri + English); sekurity jawan, meaning security-force personnel (English + Persian-Arabic); khat-e-intezaam, used to refer to the Line of Control (Arabic + Persian); tarbiyati kamp, meaning training camp (Persian-Arabic + English); and migrant pandit, meaning Kashmiri Pandits who left the Kashmir Valley (English + Sanskrit).

In addition to borrowing and hybridisation, the two decades of conflict have also forced Kashmiri speakers to coin new words. Naabud, for instance, was created to refer to government-sponsored counterinsurgents, while aparyum refers to Pakistani militants operating in Kashmir. Likewise, soyyut was coined to reference above-ground workers aligned with militants, while bandook bardaar is a negative allusion to gun-wielding militants.

Adaptation
The conflict has changed and added to the language of communication. How will the media's usage of this host of new terms affect the larger Kashmiri society? "It is safe to presume that many of the words and expressions utilised by the Kashmiri news media will get assimilated into the lexicon of the Kashmiri language and form a complete part of it in the near future," says Aejaz Mohammad Sheikh, senior professor at the Linguistics Department at the University of Kashmir.

Rehman Rahi, a prominent Kashmiri poet, is of the opinion that the conflict has served to enrich the Kashmiri language. "Yes, the conflict situation has added many new words and phrases to our language," he says. "During these turbulent years, we have experienced new situations, and to explain these new situations and experiences, hundreds of new words have been added to the Kashmiri vocabulary, such as gun culture." Rahi calls this trend not only healthy but vital to the functionality and relevance of Kashmiri. "I call this fortunate," he continues. "The greatest strength of Kashmiri is that it is very flexible. Whenever the need arises, the language is able to borrow from various sources, whether Persian-Arabic or Sanskrit via Hindi." When he finds it difficult to express a new thought, Rahi says, he too turns to the primary aagurs of Kashmiri, Persian-Arabic and Sanskrit. As for the English imports, he says "These new English words are now so popular among the Kashmiri-speaking masses that hardly anybody realises that these were actually not part of the Kashmiri language."

The well-known Kashmiri playwright Mohammed Amin Bhat does recognise the contributions of the conflict towards developing Kashmiri, but is tentative as to how exactly this should be weighed. "The conflict has enriched our language, but the unfortunate part is that the conflict and modernity arrived at the same time in Kashmir," he says. "When we look back during the post-conflict situation, we will realise that our society has taken many quantum leaps just to keep pace with the conflict and modernity. In fact, Kashmiri society has missed many of its own important things in the meantime, which includes the loss of cultural and social values."

Bhat nonetheless points to two areas that have particularly impacted upon the Kashmiri language. First, the level of consciousness vis-à-vis the preservation and propagation of the language within the local population has increased tremendously, the net result of which has been that a significant amount of Kashmiri-language literature has been produced – which, in turn, has reflected the varying realities of the Kashmir conflict. Second, the three-decade-long struggle by Kashmiri civil society finally bore fruit last year, when the state government officially began to introduce Kashmiri in the primary-level school curriculum as an optional subject up to the eighth standard. "The future of the Kashmiri language lies in accepting modernity," Bhat says. "And the Kashmiri language and society has responded very well."

~ Ishfaq Tantry has served as the news editor of the Srinagar-based Etalaat.