J&K MUFTI WHO TRANSLATED QURAN TO GOJRI DIES

J&K MUFTI WHO TRANSLATED QURAN TO GOJRI DIES

Subject : Culture

Context :  Mufti Faiz-ul-Waheed, a renowned Islamic scholar who was the first to translate the Quran into the Gojri language and helped hundreds of tribal students pursue medical and engineering education across Jammu and Kashmir, died of post-Covid.

Concept :

• Spoken by the Gujjars and Bakerwals of J&K, Gojri, which is not taught at school, continues to be marginal even though its speakers are the third largest ethnic group in the state after the Kashmiris and the Dogras.
• Gujjars and Bakerwals are the third largest ethnic group after the Kashmiris and the Dogras.
• About 20 percent of the total population of 1.25 crore speak Gojri, which, along with 38 languages in India, clamours for inclusion into the 8th Schedule of the Constitution.
• The government of India is obliged to develop an 8th Schedule language so that “it grows rapidly in richness and becomes effective means of communicating modern knowledge”.

Gujjars

• Gujjar Tribe is found in India, Pakistan, and Afghanistan.
• Although traditionally they have been involved in agriculture (most famously, dairy and livestock farming).
• Gurjars are a large heterogeneous group that is internally differentiated in terms of culture, religion, occupation, and socio-economic status.
• They variously follow Hinduism, Islam, and Sikhism.
• Gurjars are linguistically and religiously diverse.
• Although they are able to speak the language of the region and country where they live, Gurjars have their own language, known as Gujari.
• The communities have also developed fluency in other languages such as Punjabi, Urdu, Hindi, Pastho, Pahari languages like Kangri and Dogri.
• The Gujjar are an endogamous community but observe exogamy at the clan and, often, village levels.

Bakarwal

• The Bakarwal (also Bakharwal, Bakrawallah and Bakerwal) are a mostly Muslim nomadic tribe based in the PirPanjal and Himalayan mountains of South Asia.
• They are traditionally, and still mainly, goatherds and shepherds.
• They reside in the entire Kashmir region between India and Pakistan, and in the Nuristan province of Afghanistan.