Challenges in promoting Dogri as a second language in Jammu

Dogri is a mother tongue of Jammu people but it is a matter of concern that people have learned it through experience and not as a second language from school or other institutions, because the way Dogras are centered on Hindi and English to their children, Dogri will soon be dying out. Seeing the tendency of people towards their language, Dogra writers started writing literature that would make people understand that how significant it is to give importance to their language.

Ram Nath Shastri in 1953, wrote a pamphlet "Arguments in favour of Dogri as the medium of instruction." He urges people to spread the mother-tongue and regional languages in other parts of India. There was no question of rivalry between Hindi and Dogri. Hindi being the national language of India and Dogri is spoken by the majority of Jammu, should be adopted as the medium of instruction in the primary stages in Jammu poet. In 1954, a committee was formed to look into this matter which submitted its report to the government.

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Later on, Dogri was accepted as a compulsory subject in the primary stage. Deeno Pant tried to recover the controversy between Hindi and Dogri by writing a poem "Daddi te maan" (Grand-mother and mother) here he says that Hindi was like our Grand-mother and Dogri is our mother so both should be given equal respect and love. The people should learn both the language. Cultural organization encouraged cultural movement in Jammu province that made people fully aware of their cultural heritage and people were contributing their moral support to this movement.

The Sadar-i-Riyasat Dr. Karan Singh made a tremendous contribution in fortifying Dogra culture by setting up an academy of Art, Culture and Language in 1958, to promote the growth and development of regional language and also to bring about the coordination between the academies carrying out in the field of music, art and literature. He has written and composed the songs in Dogri and has also translated some twenty-five Dogri folk-songs, in his book "Sunlight and the Shadow". The academy under the solicitude of Dr. Karan Singh has published a set of five books in Dogri- Dogri kahavat Kosh, Ikki Khaniyan, Ekotrashti, Gitanjali, and Sara Sahitya.

Deeno Pant a renowned writer has written his first book Guttlun, a collection of seven poems that appeared on the occasion of Dussera. Another book was Veer Gulab. This book was divided into nine cantos in forty-four pages. Each canto describes the battle between the Sikhs and the Dogras below the Gumat Gate of Jammu city and the military genius of sixteen years old Gulab Singh. The work is brilliantly portrayed that the atmosphere of battle comes alive before the eyes of the reader. Here he portrayed the river Tawi in the form of goddess kali who would come to the help of Dogras. Dogras are eminently brave; their history is full of examples where men have laid down their lives for honor and freedom. One such example forms the narrative of Deenoo pant's poem. He presented the old tradition of Dogra Bars in a new way. In 1948 he wrote a poem on the murder of Mahatma Gandhi, "Sara Bapu", it does not attain much attention as it carries poor sentiments and weak literary art.