Ladakh drops official status of Urdu

New Delhi: The Administration of Union territory of Ladakh has dropped the official status of Urdu language and also removed it from the eligibility criteria for the aspirants of jobs in the Revenue department there.
Hailing the decision, local MP Jamyang Tsering Namgyal has tweeted: “Now Urdu is no more a compulsory language for the recruitment in Ladakh Revenue Department. True freedom from psychological colonialism of #Art370 as well as liberation from the imposed Urdu language by Kashmiri rulers over Ladakh.”
People hold the view that Urdu is not the native language of people of Ladakh or Kargil and it was a sign of slavery and the hegemony of Kashmir over them. The Ladakh Buddhist Association and the local BJP unit have now demanded that even in the police jobs, the option of Hindi and English language, instead of Urdu, should be given to the aspiring candidates.
In the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir, Urdu was the official language of the State, which included Ladakh then, and for the recruitments in Revenue department, Urdu language was a must to get the jobs especially for Patwaris.
According to the fresh notification, the Administration of UT of Ladakh has made “Bachelor’s degree from any recognised university” the mandatory requirement, instead of “Knowledge of Urdu along with Bachelor’s degree”, for the appointments in its Revenue department.
However, some Kargil leaders have expressed their reservations over the move. They fear that it will block the chances for many of their youth to get jobs in the Revenue department. Some leaders have even gone to the extent of giving it a political and communal colour and weaving conspiracy theories.
The main face of Opposition in Kargil, Asgar Ali Karbali, who is co-chairman of Kargil Democratic Alliance, told the media that this is a “BJP conspiracy to create rift between the Buddhists and Muslims” as they are ‘rattled’ by the recent show of unity among them.
In a letter to the Prime Minister seeking his intervention in the issue and appealing for the rollback of the order, some politicians of Kargil have said, “Under the Dogra regime, the First Settlement Operation was conducted in Ladakh, Baltistan and Gilgit Wazarat. Urdu was made the medium of teaching in schools by Maharaja Hari Singh and Urdu is the medium among the ethnicities in the region and lingua-franca among locals and outside traders.”
“Since Ladakh is a Muslim majority UT and there are approximately 75% Urdu speaking population while as there are 100% Urdu speaking population in Pakistan-occupied Ladakh (Gilgit-Baltistan). So, this would be a disastrous step to ignore Urdu in the Union territory,” they have argued.
(With inputs from Noor-ul-Qamrain in Srinagar)