Purpose:

The purpose of this paper is to inform all concern about the Pahari Language, its journey through the history, survival under ever changing political and religious conditions and recent revival including UK.

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The Background Context and Alphabet By Shams Rehman

Introduction and Personal Reflections

Pahari is one of the ancient most languages of South Asia. It is one of over two dozen languages spoken in the State of Jammu Kashmir (See Adalat Ali’s contribution in this pack). With almost all of the migration to Britain taking place from Pahari speaking areas of Kashmir, Pahari has also become one of the largest South Asian languages in Britain. Out of over half a million British Kashmiris only two hundred families originate from the Kashmir Valley with Kashiri or Koshar as their mother tongue. My interest in mother tongue that subsequently led me to be part of the fascinating process of alphabet development goes back to 1989 when I came to live in Britain. A brief recollection of personal reflections seems appropriate here to understand the context in which the alphabet for Pahari and related linguistic groups has taken place.

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As I think all here recognize, any discussion of language involves a high degree of complexity and subtlety which, all too often, is confined to academe and is filtered down in uncoordinated ways to those working at the points of contact with fellow citizens for whom English may be their third language, let alone their second. We owe a debt of gratitude to Ali Daalat and his colleagues who have been, and continue to be, active in raising our awareness of Pahari.

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Pahari speakers and service delivery

Kirklees Community Languages Service

Public service providers and particularly the local authorities have over the years made good progress in providing an interpretation service for those communities, which are unable to communicate in English.

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The purpose of this report is to provide some background to the presence of Pahari language in Birmingham and its implications for service provision to its speakers

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Acknowledgements

Thanks go to the sponsors of the conference-Awards for All, Kashmir Charitable Trust (UK) and the Kashmiri Elders Association held at the Woodsley Road Multicultural Centre. The conference was hosted by the Aalami Pahari Adabi Sangat which was formed in Leeds in 2000 but is currently working in Azad Kashmir (Pakistani occupied area) and Indian occupied Kashmir to promote the Pahari language and help to support and encourage writers and artists in this language. The organisation came about through a series of meetings between (but not exclusively) members of the UK Kashmiri community. A big thank you to members of the Aalami Pahari Sangat, particularly Daalat Ali and Sajaad Raja (Chair of Aalami Pahari Adabi Sangat, Leeds) for their efforts in organising this conference a special thanks to all the presenters and conference participants for their contributions and to the chairs Dr Sewah Singh Kalsi and Mohsin Zulfiqar for the smooth running of each session. Last but not least thanks to Abid Hussain for his comments on an earlier version of this document.

*This report was written by Dr Nasreen Ali ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ) and supported by Daalat Ali ( This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it ). Papers from the conference can be obtained from Daalat Ali at the above email address

Foreword

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