After one week of flak, HRD Ministry withdraws Kashmiri translations under 'Bhasha Sangam'

The HRD Ministry has withdrawn the Kashmiri translations of certain sentences under its "Bhasha Sangam" initiative following a row. Last week, the ministry's Department of School Education and Literacy had initiated the "Bhasha Sangam", a celebration of linguistic diversity, with an aim to familiarise every child with simple dialogues in all the 22 languages under Schedule 8 of the Constitution.

The row erupted over the wrong translations of sentences from English to Kashmiri, from Kashmiri to Roman and from Kashmiri to Devanagari. "Sentence translations in Kashmiri under Bhasha Sangam were prepared by NCERT in association with language experts from Dept of Education, J&K & University of Kashmir. @HRDMinistry is sensitive to the comments raised & has therefore decided to withdraw them," the ministry said in a tweet.

Sentences/translations in Kashmiri under Bhasha Sangam were prepared by NCERT in association with language experts from Deptt of Education, J&K & University of Kashmir. @HRDMinistry is sensitive to the comments raised & has therefore decided to withdraw them.@PrakashJavdekar

— Ministry of HRD (@HRDMinistry) December 3, 2018

Under the initiative, the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) had issued a circular asking the schools to dedicate one day to each language for 22 days.