Srinagar, June 27 -- When people think about Kashmir, they mostly think about politics. But what's slipping away silently, with barely any attention, is the Kashmiri language itself.

The language is thinning out from homes, schools, and streets. It is not just the loss of a way to speak. It is the loss of a way to remember, to think, to exist.

The Kashmiri language once carried the songs of the fields, the rhythms of villages, the sharp wit of grandmothers, the poetry of Habba Khatoon. It was the language of long fireside talks, of folk tales that travelled across mountains.

Now, it's mostly reduced to a murmur in rural homes and brief exchanges between older people. It rarely enters classrooms. It is absent from the daily life of citi...