Srinagar, May 29 -- In a sleepy village tucked deep in the Chenab Valley, 64-year-old Naseem Begum used to sing lullabies in Sarazi to put her grandchildren to sleep. She still hums the tunes, but these days, the children don't know the words.

"I ask them to repeat after me," she said, her voice trailing off. "They giggle and switch to Hindi."

It's not just a family shift. It's a slow, steady unraveling of a region's cultural fabric.

In Jammu and Kashmir, mother tongues like Sarazi, Bhaderwahi, and Kishtwari are vanishing from daily life. What used to be spoken freely in markets, kitchens, and schoolyards is now slipping into silence.

At the center of this crisis is a difficult question: What happens to a people when they stop speakin...