Mandatory Urdu test for Naib Tehsildars sparks conspiracy allegations
On June 9, 2025, the NC-led government hatched a conspiracy against the Jammu youths belonging to the minority communities, including Hindus, internally displaced Kashmiri Hindus, and Sikhs. That day, the Jammu and Kashmir Service Selection Board (JKSSB), one of the two government recruitment agencies in the Union Territory of J&K, issued a notification for a written exam for 75 posts of Naib Tehsildar in the Revenue Department. The discriminatory notification specified that the second paper of the written exam for the posts will test the candidate’s “working knowledge of Urdu” – a language which over 90% Hindu and Sikh boys and girls do not know and a language the Kashmiri Muslim ruling elite used between 1947 and 2018 as a tool to make the Revenue Department the sole preserve of the majority community, Muslim. The nature and magnitude of the evil impact of the official policy could be seen from the fact that the Kashmiri ruling class exported many Urdu knowing persons from Kashmir to Jammu so that they could also occupy in this region such vital positions as Patwaris, Girdawars, Naib Tehsildars and so on, and that Jammu witnessed several protests after 1996 against the imposition of Urdu, but with no result.
Protests in Jammu
The June 9 notification also created a sort of furore across Jammu province. In fact, ever since then, Jammu province has been witnessing strong protests against the Omar Abdullah-led government. The BJP and its youth wing, BJYM, and the RSS’s students wing, ABVP, have held several demonstrations at different places in Jammu province, including Jammu city, RS Pura, Miran Sahib, Hiranagar, Sunderbani, Rajouri, Udhampur, and Ramban. The ABVP and other student organizations have held a massive demonstration in the Jammu University as well. The Jammu Chamber of Commerce and Industry (JCC), a couple of Jammu-based Congress leaders, including Namrata Sharma, Yuva Rajput Sabha, Shiv Sena UBT, MJR-47, an organization of PoJK refugees, and many Kashmiri Hindu organizations, including All India Migrant Camps Coordination Committee (AIMCCC), too have opposed tooth and nail the NC government’s notification through press conferences, statements and protests and through memorandum to the Divisional Commissioner, Jammu Province. Some of the protesters have gone to the extent of burning the effigies of CM Omar Abdullah and his government. Not just this, the J&K BJP president, Sat Sharma, and Leader of Opposition in the J&K Legislative Assembly, Sunil Sharma, have met Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha, and urged him to ask the NC government to withdraw forthwith the biased notification. Sunil Sharma has also written a letter of protest to the LG against the notification. Two former Heads of Jammu University’s Hindi Department, Raj Kumar and Permeshwari Sharma, too, have expressed their solidarity with the protesting people of Jammu province and asked the J&K Government to either withdraw the notification or declare the Hindi-knowing educated youth of the Jammu province eligible for the post of Naib Tehsildar. This writer has also written three open letters to Home Minister Amit Shah – letters which urged him to intervene to protect the genuine interests of the Jammu youth.
Objections against Urdu
What are the fundamental objections of the critics of the NC government’s decision to make a qualifying Urdu test mandatory for the post of Naib Tehsildar? Their fundamental objections are four. One, the JKSSB’s notification violates the J&K Official Languages Act, 2020, which recognizes Hindi, English, Kashmiri, Dogri, and Urdu as official languages. In this regard, Leader of Opposition, Sunil Sharma, has said, “the notification violates the constitutional principles of equal opportunity and administrative impartiality, and it creates an unfair barrier, particularly disadvantaging aspirants from the Jammu Division”. Two, imposition of Urdu is as irrational as it is disturbing and unjustifiable. The argument of the critics is that only “13,351 people (0.16%),” according to the 2011 census, “in J&K reported Urdu as their mother tongue” and “making Urdu compulsory subject for eligibility for any post is not only discriminatory and unjustified but it also amounts to imposing it on others.” “Imposing Urdu is undemocratic and anti-Jammu also as it excludes majority of youngsters belonging to Jammu region and minority community of Kashmir from competition,” the critics have further said. Three, “the imposition of Urdu is a conspiracy against Jammu and an attempt by dubious elements to disturb peace in Jammu province.” This is the view of the JCCI. Its president, Arun Gupta, has even warned that “the JCCI will launch a movement against the government in case it failed to withdraw the notification,” claiming, and very rightly, that “all the revenue records have been digitalized and by imposing Urdu, the State Government has conspired against the Jammu youth.” And, four, the notification “is arbitrary and discriminatory as it doesn’t provide a level playing field for all candidates, irrespective of their regional and linguistic backgrounds.”
The sad part of the whole situation is that the protests in Jammu have neither moved the PMO and HMO, nor the LG office. It’s very unfortunate.
Senseless opposition in Kashmir
On the contrary, the protests in Jammu against Urdu have upset and provoked both the ruling NC and the out-of-power and comprehensively defeated PDP of Mehbooba Mufti. The NC MLA and chief spokesperson, Tanvir Sadiq, has “condemned” the BJP leader’s demand, emphasizing that “the place of Urdu in J&K’s revenue, judicial and administrative system is ‘rooted in history’, not in any political or sectarian agenda”. “Urdu,” he has said, “became the official administrative language of J&K over 130 years ago during the Maharaja’s reign, evolving naturally as a unifying and functional language for all regions and communities”. As for the PDP, its youth wing president and on-the-bail Pulwama MLA, Waheed Para, has warned the government not to remove the language requirement, saying that the demand in Jammu “risks erasing J&K’s rich archive and cultural legacy”. “Urdu is more than a language, it’s a key part of the region’s heritage. Undermining it divides communities and rewrites memory,” he has said.
Paradoxically, a Jammu-based Kashmiri Hindu and former District and Sessions Judge, BL Saraf, has also jumped onto the NC/ PDP’s bandwagon and went to the extent of saying that the removal of Urdu language requirement from the notification will only weaken CM Omar Abdullah and his NC. Reacting to the protests in Jammu against Urdu, he has, among other things, said, “We can’t guess how the given situation will pan out in coming weeks. However if, on the intervention of opposing political forces (in Jammu), the requirement of knowledge of Urdu is removed from the NT (Naib Tehsildar) recruitment notification it may be a test in which CM Omar Abdullah will be seen failing. And, most surely, it will come at a heavy political cost for him and the NC…”
Preferential treatment for Urdu
Earlier in November 2024, the School Education Department (SED) had referred to the Jammu and Kashmir Public Service Commission (JKPSC) 575 posts of lecturers to be filled in by direct recruitment. Out of 575 posts to be filled in, 473 were for the main subjects and 102 posts for languages. It referred to the JKPSC Zero post for Hindi, one post for Punjabi, two posts for Arabic, three posts each for Dogri and Kashmiri, four posts for Persian, 36 for Urdu, and 53 posts for English.
What was the number of Kashmiri, Dogri, Hindi, Punjabi, Urdu, Pushto/ Afghani, and Arabic-speaking people in Jammu and Kashmir? As per the 2011 census report, the number of Kashmiri-speaking people was 66,80,837; Dogri-speaking people 25,13,712; Hindi-speaking people 26,12,631; Punjabi-speaking people 19,193; Urdu-speaking people 19,956; Pushto/ Afghani-speaking people 17,942; and Arabic-speaking people 181 (mostly senior citizens).
The figures speak for themselves.
Contempt for Hindi
What the JKSSB did, the NC and DP said, and what the SED did in November 2024, immediately after the formation of the Omar Abdullah government on October 16, should not surprise anyone. Their love for Urdu and contempt for Hindi needs to be viewed in the context of what the All India Muslim Kashmir Conference (AIMKC) had done 107 years ago on April 27 and 28, 1918.
Believe it or call it preposterous, but it’s a fact that on April 27 and 28, 1918, the AIMKC at its eighth session, held at Rawalpindi, had adopted several resolutions against the J&K Government, which had been under the complete control of the British Resident since 1889. One of the resolutions of the Muslim Kashmir Conference strongly and unequivocally disapproved of the introduction in the state schools and “offices” of Hindi on the ground that “this measure will tend to create a split among the Hindus and Mohammedans of the State.” They opposed it despite the fact that Hindi was not the official language and that it was taught only as an optional subject to “maintain religious neutrality” (J&K Old English Records File No: 229/P-102 of 1918, State Archives Repository Jammu).
Jammu state: The only way out
One thing is absolutely clear: The plight of the people of Jammu province and their political status vis-à-vis Kashmir will remain unchanged as long as they remain tagged with Kashmir. They suffered huge socio-economic and political losses when the disparate Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh regions were maintained as a single political unit, and their night of despair and discontent has not ended even after the conversion of J&K into a UT. In fact, the situation has worsened. The Narendra Modi government has to act and free Jammu province from the cruel clutches of the radical Kashmiri Muslim leadership. As for the local BJP leadership, it has not come up to the expectations of the people of Jammu province, who have been giving a massive mandate to the party since the 2014 General Elections. In fact, it has been letting them down at regular intervals since then.
Tailpiece
Urdu was declared the official language by the British Resident in 1889, when London deposed the Maharaja of J&K, Pratap Singh, on the grounds that he, in collaboration with the Maharaja of Patiala, had conspired against the British government and written “23 letters” against it. The British government had turned against Pratap Singh because he didn’t endorse London’s demand seeking the construction of military roads leading to Ladakh so that it could defeat the Russian’s design to establish its foothold in Afghanistan via Ladakh. The other main reason that had infuriated the canny/ imperialist Britons was the refusal on the part of the Maharaja to allow them to control the state’s finances and interfere in revenue and other crucial departments.
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1. Text in Blue points to additional data on the topic.
2. The views expressed here are those of the author and do not necessarily represent or reflect the views of PGurus.
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This family has to be retired from politics by any means. They are a threat to India.