The tribal Gujjar community of Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday demanded that Gojri be recognised as an official language and included in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
Dr Javed Rahi, secretary of tribal research and cultural foundation, a frontal organisation of the Gujjars, appealed to the union home minister “to amend the list of official languages of India by including Gojri - the oldest tribal language - into it, during the forthcoming session of Parliament.” Rahi said that the recommendation has already been made to the Center.
J&K government — during the governor’s rule in 1990s — had made recommendation of an official status to Gojri.
He added, “Gojri has a strong literary tradition and has been recognised as a tribal language of India by the Sahitya Academy. Noted saint, scholar and Hindi-Persian poet of 13th century Hazrat Amir Khusroo had called Gojri as one of the eighteen major Indian languages of his time,” he added.
Rahi attributes contemporary researchers and historians to call Gojri as the mother of Rajasthani, Gujrati, Urdu and Haryanvi languages.
There are 22 languages in the eighth Schedule of which three namely Urdu, Kashmiri and Dogri are from Kashmir.