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How websites help preserve Kashmiri languages

Kashmiri linguist Asiya Zahoor's website Bol Bosh is the latest in a growing body of online platforms that aim to preserve the region's various narratives. Amrita Madhukalya reports

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You can either break under conflict or struggle to put together broken fragments. Kashmiri linguist Asiya Zahoor chose to do the latter. Armed with a Master's degree from Oxford University, the Baramullah-based professor recently launched Bol Bosh, a website that curates the diverse languages, literature and folklore of conflict-ridden Jammu & Kashmir.

Documenting languages and cultures that can easily disappear from our collective memory – like Pashtu, Gojri, Pahari, Dogri, Kohistani, Sheikhagal, Poguli, Shina, Bhaderwahi, Ladhki and Burushaski – the website aims to primarily teach youngsters and those interested the various cultures of the region.

The website has idioms, dictionaries, pronunciations, folk songs, short stories to interviews. "In addition to Kashmiri, we have collected research works on several other languages spoken in Kashmir. We plan to have a routine online publication where users will be allowed to post and curate material," says Zahoor. Her team includes her sister Maheen Shah, her student Ubaid Aziz and few other students from Baramulla Degree College and the University of Kashmir's linguistics department. The group has been guided by Professor Adil Amin Kak, Zahoor's teacher throughout the project.

"My students, sister Maheen and I often travelled to villages during holidays or interviewed people after class. We would shoot with our camera and sometimes even with a mobile phone. By exploring and curating these oral histories, we endeavour to give visibility to these lesser-known histories and literatures," said Zahoor. For a region that has endured decades of conflict, the cultural exchange of languages within the state remain limited. "We have a rich culture and that is hardly spoken about now. We didn't even have our own mother tongue, Kashmiri, in schools," says Fahad Shah, editor of The KashmirWalla, a news website focussed on Kashmir. Shah says that in the absence of a concrete space for news from the region, he started the website to serve as a platform of critical engagement. "I think websites will help in reviving culture," he says.

Ather Zia, who runs KashmirLit, feels that the lack of policy level engagement of Kashmir's culture is a serious consequence of conflict in the region. "The neglect, of curating folk arts, regional languages and literature, all of which form the crux of Kashmir region's identity, has become a motif of cultural violence for a population dealing with direct violence," says Zia. KashmirLit, a cultural exchange platform for Kashmiri literature enthusiasts, finds a lot of engagement from diaspora writers.

Zahoor is of the opinion that, "if we sense a threat to our identity in any way, it leads to a stronger espousal to our tradition, culture and everything we collectively stand for". Rajesh Prothi of The Cherry Tree, for whom a history of generational violence found its expression on the website, says: "I belong to the small community of Kashmiri Punjabis, and wanted to document the culture of the region irrespective of religion or caste." His website has everything from recipes and poems to lyrics of Kashmiri folk songs.

Eminent journalist Iftikhar Gilani, who was part of a discussion on Kashmiri languages at the Delhi launch of Zahoor's site, stamps the final word: "Kashmir has an ancient culture that needs to be preserved. The online medium will prove to be critical in this endeavour," he said.

Other community websites in India

e-pao (www.e-pao.net) is a go-to website about the folk traditions, cultures and languages of Manipur. It also carries news, announcements, radio shows, weather, TV news and travel information. A section of the website is written in the Meitei Mayek script

www.assam.org provides information about the geography, languages, culture and travel tips for Assam. You can also find information about Assamese idioms, folk stories and traditional recipes

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