bjp Protest and seek revocation of a government order that made Urdu a compulsory subject in J&K naib tehsildar recruitment examination.
plasma display panel The BJP termed it as a deliberate attempt to marginalize and eliminate Urdu from the administrative framework of the region, even as the BJP termed it a “course correction” and insisted that any of the five official languages of J&K should be used as a criterion for eligibility for revenue services.
PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti said Urdu has been the mainstay of federal revenue records, land documents and official communications for generations. “Downplaying its role is not only culturally insensitive but also administratively unsound. Removing Urdu from revenue services will create practical challenges in processing existing records and weaken the continuity of governance,” she said, adding that the PDP viewed the decision as part of a wider pattern of undermining the linguistic and cultural identity of J&K.
“Urdu has not been removed. It has been removed as the only mandatory language for eligibility,” said BJP general secretary Ashok Koul, adding that since there are five official languages in J&K, candidates should know any of them to qualify and land records should be available in all official languages.
The row started after the tax department released a draft on April 10.
jammu and kashmir Inland Revenue Department non-gazetted recruitment rules, objections must be raised within 15 days of notification. According to the draft, the minimum qualification for direct employment will remain as “university graduate”. Earlier, along with graduation, knowledge of Urdu was also a necessary criterion for recruitment.
The national conference has yet to comment on the issue.
Urdu has a long-standing relationship with Johnson & Johnson. In 1889, Maharaja Pratap Singh, the third ruler of the Dogra dynasty, replaced Persian with Urdu as the court language of the region. After 1947, the Jammu and Kashmir Constituent Assembly recognized Urdu as the associate language of the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir, including Ladakh, and retained it as the official language.
Over time, English gradually replaced Urdu in official communications, especially after central services were expanded to the region in 1962. With IAS and IPS officers taking up posts in J&K, English is gradually becoming the preferred administrative language.
This arrangement lasted until September 2, 2020, when the Union Cabinet approved the Jammu and Kashmir Official Languages Bill, 2020, declaring Urdu, Hindi, Kashmiri, Dogri and English as the official languages of the region. The bill was later passed by voice vote in the Union House, effectively ending Urdu’s 131-year-old status as the sole official language of J&K. Experts say apart from J&K, no other part of the country has five official languages.
