Kashmiri scholars and writers from the Hindu community have demanded the official recognition of Devanagari script for writing Kashmiri language, arguing that this would make the language more accessible to Kashmiri Pandit youths. This is being opposed by Kashmiris settled in the valley, as they have been using the Nastaliq script—a calligraphic script used to write Arabic, Persian and Urdu languages—to write Kashmiri for centuries. Currently, Nastaliq is the only official script for Kashmiri language.
A group of Pandits met the former HRD minister Smriti Irani last year with the proposal to allow the use of Devanagari to write Kashmiri officially.
Toshkani has tried to prove that Kashmiri has descended from Sanskrit, and not from the Central Asian Dardic family.
Scholars from the Valley, however, do not see any politics in either Urdu being the official language or the Nastaliq script, which they say has been used for centuries.
- Advertisement -