With a love for their mother tongue—Sarazi—a teacher led morning assembly prayers with students using Sarazi poetry by Nehri Sadeeq Sarazi. The poet is affiliated with The Chenab Times’ multilingual headlines programme also.
A video of the morning assembly prayer in the Sarazi language, performed by a teacher, Aehraz Latief Sabir, at Govt Higher Secondary School Mohalla in Doda district, is being shared on social media. The poetry recited there is written in the Sarazi language by Nehri Sadeeq Sarazi.
Talking exclusively to The Chenab Times, Nehri Sadeeq Sarazi said, “This is the first time in the history of school education that a Sarazi prayer was recited in a school.”
“I am feeling very proud that our mother tongue is being promoted by these teachers and students as everyone has an attachment towards their mother tongue,” he added.
It is pertinent to mention that the Sarazi language is the first language of more than 46000 while there are more than 1,20,000 speakers of Sarazi language. The language is the native language of Saraz region in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir.
Languages are the world’s library, containing all of humanity’s accumulated information, stories, and views, according to Saidullah Butt, a native resident of the Saraz region.
He further said, “Nevertheless, this diversity is vanishing at an alarming rate. Languages die when people quit speaking them as a result of social pressures, demographic changes, and external factors. The legacy of colonisation and the globalised capitalism it gave rise to may be the biggest mass killer of languages in human history, and it is still very much in force today.”
The Sarazi poet Nehri Sadeeq Sarazi also expressed his desire for the preservation of his cherished mother tongue, the Sarazi language, and its official status in order to ensure that future generations can learn about their culture.
Anzer Ayoob is the Founder and Chief Editor to The Chenab Times