Kashmir has a history of incorporating a foreign language such as English into people’s lives even from the 1840s, i.e. far earlier than it was made familiar in other parts of Asia. This was due to Kashmir situating in a great trade route. The Hindu Maharaja Gulab Singh purchased a state from the British under Amritsar Treaty, joined it with his and unified them into Jammu & Kashmir and his successor Maharaja Ranbir Singh permitted Christian missionaries to emigrate in large scale and found missionary schools in his kingdom. We know what language they would have given importance to. The Pundits of Kashmir, the home clan of Jawaharlal Nehru, promoted this language and the Maharajas backed it. This was all happening before 1890. Even before 1916, the first English college and the Sharp Commission for Promoting English Education had come into functioning in Kashmir, all made possible by the visionary Maharaja Pratap Singh, the very hero in Sir. Henry Newbolt’s famous poem, A Ballad of Sir Pertab Singh. The next Maharaja, Hari Singh, was stricter in enforcing English education and to move state machinery towards forcing Muslims to compulsory English education, he formed the Glancy Commission in 1931. All this is history, happened before Jammu & Kashmir gained independence from the British in 1947 and was assimilated into the Indian Union which was their choice. Strategically situated among ages-old trade routes and cultural highways, Kashmir has always stood at the cross roads of civilization. When they opted to join Indian Union, they were allowed to enjoy a special centre-state arrangement and status in the Indian Union which was to integrate the state fully into the Union and to preserve its unique cultural heritage. Even then, the Right to Education which is a fundamental right under Article 21-A of the Constitution of India is not fully applicable there still, due to want of state enactment and legislation. The government and the people have nothing to loose by extending this fundamental right to Jammu & Kashmir people, but the opposing extremists and terrorists funded, trained and armed by China and Pakistan factions have many things to loose by allowing this right to be fully implemented- they will get no more recruitees once the state becomes a highly educated one. That is the logic behind opposing the spread of education in general and English education in special in Jammu & Kashmir. Government’s moves to enact the Right to Education in Kashmir is only now in gears but picking up. There indeed are walls of resistance to effectively spreading English there. Kashmir need a window to the world and English is that window; people know it but terrorists deny it. [In reply to Linked In discussion: What is the function of teaching English Literature in a Conflict Zone like Kashmir? Started by Peerzada Bilal]
Posted on: Mon, 01 Sep 2014 07:49:19 +0000
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