Srinagar, June 14 -- Tousif Raza

Urdu, without doubt, is a language of exquisite poetic capacity. Its lyrical beauty has carved a space for itself in the literary and emotional landscape of the subcontinent. Yet, when we speak of Kashmir, Urdu's rise carries a much deeper, more troubling political history. In our region, Urdu is not just a language of literature-it is a tool of historical imposition. It did not arrive in Kashmir as a natural extension of cultural evolution but as a colonial construct, deliberately designed to serve the administrative and ideological interests of foreign rulers.

Even in the broader context of undivided Hindustan, Urdu-or Hindustani as it was often called-was not the language of the elite or the intellect...