Dr. Roop Krishen Bhat, renowned Author, Linguist, Translator and Media Freelancer speaks about the importance of preserving mother tongue and passing it on to new generation

Jammu, June 27, 2022: Dr. Roop Krishen Bhat, renowned Author, Linguist, Translator and Media Freelancer speaks about the importance of preserving mother tongue and passing it on to new generation.

In our series of  ThePagahConversation Dr. Roop Krishen Bhat talks to Bharti Kaul on preservation and propagation of “Mother tongue” Kashmiri language for future generations.

Dr. Roop Krishen Bhat is a polyglot who has done Masters and Doctorate in linguistics and is an expert in Hindi, Urdu, Kashmiri, Punjabi, English and Russian languages and has worked in the field of language, literature, culture, mass media and education and is editor of “Waakh”, the only literary  journal for Kashmiri language in Devnagri and is also convener of expert committee for Devnagri in Kashmiri language.

Dr. Roop Krishen Bhat who belongs to village Bugam in Kulgam district has done graduation in science but later took linguistics as specialised subject in higher education and worked at various teaching and administrative posts in Government of India particularly ministry of HRD and finally retired as professor Central Institute of Indian Languages and has specifically worked a lot on Kashmiri Language, literature and culture.

On mother tongue Dr. Roop Krishen Bhat says that it is the language that a child learns while growing up within the family and later on with neighbours and friends but adds that after the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits the language began to lose its importance in our daily life and our children began taking up other languages for which our older generation is also to be blamed who thought that after exodus Kashmiri language was not important which dealt a death blow to the Kashmiri language which is our mother tongue.

Dr. Bhat while highlighting the importance of mother tongue says that one who has perfected his mother tongue feels it very easy to learn other languages and has an advantage to learn cognitive skills besides mother tongue brings you closer to your culture and once mother tongue is lost your relationship with culture and heritage is also lost.

He says it is a false propaganda that one who learns other languages instead of mother tongue can learn other languages faster adding in fact it is other way round. He also says that since India is a multi-language nation if our children have perfected their mother tongue, they have an edge over learning other languages.

Dr. Bhat says that such people don’t have mastery over any language as they think in one language and try to translate into other language like English and thus have limited competence in every language.

He says mother tongue is a link of the child with his family and culture and if he has not perfected it or has not learnt it well, he loses his connect with his culture besides he says that emotions and other expression find easy outlet in our mother tongue rather than other language.

To watch the full interview of Dr. Roop Krishen Bhat please click the video link above.