Shri Mata Vaishno Devi University organized a one day confrence on Dogri under the aegis Azadi ka Amrit. The confrence was titled ” Contribution of Dogri Writers to Dogri literature. “
Narsingh Dev Jamwal noted Dogri Poet, writer and Padamshree awardee was the chief guest on the occasion. Narsingh Dev Jamwal hailed the contribution of Dogri Writers like Dinu Bhai Pant and Ramnath Shastri in the Dogri literature. He emphasized the need for promoting Dogri language and literature among young generation through institutions of Higher education. He eulogized the role of those unknown speakers and writers who kept the Dogri language alive from the times of Prakrit and Sanskrit. He also donated his Dogri poems translated into English by a Canadian translator to the SMVDU library.
Mohan Singh a Sahitya Academy winner in Dogri and President Duggar Manch passionately recalled the contribution of the Dogri Poets from medieval times to the contemporary period. “Poets like Gambhir Rai Dattu, Ram Dhan, Ganga Ram’s contributions cannot be forgotten in the development of Dogri” he said.
He highlighted the wealth of writings on class struggle and social issues like exploitation and untouchability. He extolled the selfless contributions of Late Padma Sachdev and Ved Rahi in nurturing, promoting and introducing Dogri beyond the boundaries of Jammu and Kashmir.
Prof Lalit Magotra mapped the growth of the Dogri literature from 1940 onwards and contribution of Dogri Sanstha towards Dogri literature. ” Dinubhai pant, Vedpal Deep, KS Madhukar , Narinder Khajuria, Nilamber Dev Sharma played an important role in the Dogri literature” he noted.
Prof Lalit Gupta a noted Art Historian and heritage expert traced the decline of Dogri to the introduction of Persian and Urdu in the official work of the government in the pre Dogra rule. ” Regional languages like Dogri have been on the backfoot. ” He emphasized the need for opening the Dogri Deptt in the SMVDU followed by study of ethnography, folklore, culture and performing arts.
Surinder Sagar noted Journalist of Dogri recalled the History of Dogri Journalism from the times of Maharaja Ranbir Singh to the present times. He informed the audience about the first Dogri magazine Martand during Dogra rule. He remembered his journey from editor of Jammu Prabhat a Dogri daily to Social media platforms like YouTube.
R K Sinha Padamshree Vice Chancellor SMVDU stressed the need for communicating in our mother tongue. ” Unless and until we don’t respect our languages we won’t be able to respect our culture and civilisation and nation ” he said.
He stressed the need to promote Dogri at primary and secondary level followed by creation of Deptt of Dogri in Universities. He emphasized that Dogri needs to be made employment oriented in fields like teaching, Journalism, Archives, Archeology, lingustics and translations. He suggested the need for establishing Academy of Dogri.
The Workshop was managed by School of Languages and Literature under the leadership of Isha Malhotra HoD SOLL and was attended by Registrar, Dean’s, HoDs, faculty members, scholars and students of SMVDU.