For resurrection of Mother Tongue

“Dogri Culture is at the verge of vanishing”- these words have fallen in our ears at least once. Haven’t they? Have you ever wondered How? How can a language fade away, like it never existed? Think of Sanskrit. Why do you think it became obsolete? Because it literally went out of use. You think Dogri has a chance to survive or will it meet its evitable end and will only exist in textbooks. Sanskrit still prevails because it has some usage, though limited. But how will Dogri exist, because it hardly has such usage. Sure we are getting educated; and as the literacy rate is increasing, number of Dogri speaking people are decreasing. “Hindi and English are more sophisticated languages”. Isn’t it? Dogri for many sections of society is becoming rustic. During time, in which the number of Dogri Speaking kids is decreasing with every passing decade and this trend has started since late eighties and nineties; there is this nineties’ girl who is setting an example for the new ways to embrace our culture and art along with getting hold on modernism.
A girl wearing a cream frill shirt and grey cardigan, flaunting tanned curly hair and semicircle kohl eyes; looking modern and pretty and as she started talking in pure Dogri, it did not seem odd at all. And when I asked a question in Hindi, she reciprocated in fluent Hindi. And in almost an hour’s conversation I found that this girl can perfectly talk in English too. The girl I am referring here is Sars Bharti. She is, what I believe, we all ought to be. A perfect example how we can help our native language, Dogri, which we love to call as our mother tongue, survive along with prepping ourselves to stand at national and international level, by adapting Hindi and English.
Sars Bharti was born to Ramalo Ram and Kanta Devi, in a village known as Amroh, in tehsil Ramnagar of district Udhampur. Born in early nineties, Sars still does not talk anywhere like a girl in her early twenties; her idea about our culture, her vision and her attempts to rekindle the growth and preservation of Dogra art and culture, reveals how seasoned her perception is. Do not go by her looks, she is not just another pretty face; she is a well groomed versatile artist who is working for uplifting the vanishing art forms of Dogra community.
Sars was born in family of artists, with the legacy of ‘Pakha’ (a folk vocal music form, without any instrumental music). She is a grand-daughter to Bain Ram and Taro Devi, the renowned ‘Pakha’ artists of their time and hence, was marinated in art, right from the childhood. Sars reminisces the first experience of participating in her first ever event when she was in third standard,” The first time I participated in ‘Basakhi Jammu Mela’, I was fascinated to dance on stage and I have enjoyed being on stage since then, be it dance or singing or drama’.
The first public performance and the appreciation it earned her opened a sea of opportunities for her. Sars never hesitated from participating in any event in school after that and her efforts were recognized for the first time when she was in sixth standard when her one performance by appreciated widely by the audience, and she was even honored by then Tehsildar Ramnagar.
Despite being born and brought up in such supportive environment, it was far from the path of roses for Sars as she has always challenged herself to do more than she did and more than she could. Her father, a school headmaster, in order to integrate the promotion of Dogri music, started working with her to uplift another folk music form known as ‘Gitdu’, which now has been performed on international platform too.
Sars tells us more about the music form, “Gitdu is a form of art, comprising of both singing and dancing. It involves one main singer and few others with music instruments. In this form the main singer dances along with singing and those playing instruments can join in dance, in between”.
After completing her schooling in science stream from Government Higher Secondary School Ramnagar, Sars graduated in Arts along with music and then Mastered in music, from Government College for Women, Gandhinagar. When Sars started her college life, she wanted to explore her options to work for the preservation of culture which led her to convince few other girls to form a team, to perform and promote this integrated music and dance form, ‘Gitdu’. The most interesting thing here is that conventionally, ‘Gitdu’ is performed by male artists only. Presently, Sars is leading a ‘Gitdu’ team which performs on various national platforms. This team has got selected to perform in a show “Jano Apna Desh” by Rama Pandey, which is telecasted on DD National and stood first in that competition, twice in a row.
Sars's list of achievements grows larger and larger as she speaks, the major among them being awarded best folk dancer award, being given to her by GCW Gandhinagar. She has left her audience in awe, almost in every state of the country, having worked with the greatest names of the field and having performed in front of many prominent personalities. She is a regular part of almost every event related to art and culture, to take place in state.
Sars, although more dedicated and committed to the cause, is not the only one in the family to do so. All her siblings, two sisters and a brother, help her father in his mission to promote ‘Gitdu’ in one way or another, despite having their own individual professional committments. She is now studying along with participating in Dramas to qualify for PhD, so she could pursue her doctorate and deeply research about art and help uplifting it. She also wants to keep working for cultural music and bring forth unrecognized artists who have immensely contributed in enriching Dogri culture and art.
Sars believes that it is not impossible to teach children all three major languages, at once. She is also of the strong opinion that women can play major role in the course of Dogri’s existence. “It depends upon mothers what language they teach their kids. There is a reason why we call native language our ‘Mother Tongue’; it is because a child grasp the language his or her mother talks to him in early age. Talking to your children in Dogri is not outdated. You can teach your child any language afterwards, so start with Dogri,” says Sars. To youngsters of her age, she advises that one should not be shy to be in touch with the roots and talk in Dogri, in their friend circle and family.



Updated On 12/19/2016 4:28:40 PM