Do you exactly remember, when Mohammad Hussain became Maa’sain, Mohammad Shah became Masha, Fatima became Fati, Sonam Dolma became Sontoma, Tsering Dorjay became Tsengdor and Mussa Ali became Musali? With the passage of time, the accent and pronunciation of many names were modified without any deliberate emphasis to change. A similar change that we see but did not remember its exact period of change is the word “Bhoti” to the Ladakhi language. Obviously, this change is not a slip in accent due to time. This, what I would call “deliberate change” seems religiously and politically motivated as in the case of changes in names of cities like Allahabad and Gurgoan; that is different from the above modifications in names. However, this change has developed a new concern among the linguists and secular-minded people of Ladakh.

In old works of literature and books, there is no mention of the word Bhoti for the Ladakhi language. The use of the word Bhoti intensified in the recent past years that was accompanied by the demand to include the language in the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution. It has not recognised yet with its new ascribed name. However, the newly formed UT administration has made the use of “Bhoti” in official documents and communique that seems to have used without any proper understanding of its context and background.

In the erstwhile State of J&K, the Ladakhi and Balti language were recognised as “Ladakhi” and “Balti”. Prominent local linguist Issa Sabiri believes that, in J&K itself, in a politically motivated decision the name of the Ladakhi language was changed to “Bod-yig”. Later, with the aim to bring the language to the Eighth Schedule of the Indian Constitution some thinkers in Leh realised that they need a large chunk of population for this cause. Thus, the name was again changed to “Bhoti” so that all the Buddhists in the Himalayan range could include as speakers of this language.

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For this cause, “some scholars attempted to portray that the Language in Leh, Lahul-Spiti, Arunachal, and Sikkim are same. But this is not true, they don’t understand each other at all”, says Issa Sabiri. The script might have some resemblance. “For such a major decision Kargil was never consulted or taken into confidence”, added Sabiri.

The use of the word “Bhoti” fomented disagreement when the Office of the LG Ladakh in one of their tweets described the language as “Bhoti”. Recently, the language with the name “Bhoti” was included in the task list of the New Educational Policy while neglecting the Purgi language that is spoken by around one-half of Ladakh’s population. In response, the Purigi Writers Committee, Chief Executive Councillor Kargil, and all socio-religious organisations expressed their disagreement and demanded the inclusion of Purigi language also in the task list as well as a medium of instruction in schools of Ladakh. The NEP itself keeps the provision to teach the school syllabus in the mother tongue of the learner. But the imposition of Bhoti categorically in the whole Ladakh is itself a sharp contrast to the NEP.

Sabiri believes that Purigi is the largest spoken language in Ladakh with 1.25 lac speakers. Besides Shina language has more than 10,000 speakers and Balti has around 9000 speakers. However, according to Census 2011, there are 93,500 Purigi speakers, which seems not an exact figure. Because as per scholars, the language of some areas in Leh, from Kargil border to Snemo-Basgo, Sham also comes under Purigi language because of their grammatical and syntactical similarity with Purigi. On the other side, the Buddhists in Kargil during the census seem to have opted “Bhoti” as their language; however, all Buddhists in Kargil except Darchiks-Garkone and Zanskar speak Purgi. Thus, the demography of different languages also needs proper deliberation.

What happened in History?

According to scholars, the spoken languages of Purigi, Ladakhi, Balti, and Tibetan are dialects of the Old Tibetan language that comes from the Tibeto-Burman family that belongs to the Sino-Tibetan superfamily. All scholars believe that Purgi, Ladakhi, and Balti are offspring of the old Tibetan language. The three dialects are considerably different from each other. Balti and Purgi are close while Ladakhi dialect is considerably different. In earlier times, all the three languages were written in the same script called ‘Yi-Ge” or “Egay”. There is a misconception among people that the Tibetan script is considered a synonym to the language which is not true.

A book titled “A Cultural History of Ladakh” authored by Nawang Tsering Shakpo has included a brief note on the script where he remembered the script by its original name “yi-ge” and the language as “Ladakhi”. According to prominent historians, the “Yi-Ge” script came into being during the era of king Srong-btsan-sgampo. The King delegated the task to develop a script to one of his Ministers Thonmi Sambhota who devised the structure and grammar of the Tibetan writing during his stay at Kashmir and plains of India.

The Buddhist religious peers used this “Yi-Ge” script for many centuries that became the medium for communication, writing history, and especially to permeate Buddhism. Historians believe that, with the advent of Islam, the Muslim population abandoned the script considering it a part of Buddhism. Islam brought Arabic script to the region. Mohammad Issa Sabiri supposes that with the progress of Islam in the region people needed a script to pen down local language and religious supplications like Qasidas and Marsiyas. Similarly, other writing materials also needed a script. Thus, the Muslims who already knew Arabic tried the Nastaliq script for the local language.

Now, the young generation in Kargil is taking interest in reviving and learning the “Yi-Ge” script that their forefathers had abandoned.

Current Scenario

As far as the language itself is concerned, linguists believe that the dialect in Purik especially in Suru-Karchay area is in its purest form in comparison to Leh and Baltistan. Nawang Shakpo, without making a difference between Balti and Purigi, maintains, “It is clear that Balti is close to Tibetan, and many prefixes which are ‘silent’ in contemporary spoken Tibetan are still pronounced in Balti”.

Sabiri believes that even the three dialects in Ladakh, Purigi, Balti, and Ladakhi have different grammatical and syntactical identities. Thus, they fall into the category of different Languages and not mere dialects.

Being different languages, the Purigi, Balti, and Shina language also needed to be included as a medium of instruction in schools to ensure proper implementation of the NEP 2020. The youth in Kargil who are reviving the “Egay” script should expediate and expand their process of learning and teaching to include a large population in this exercise. So that it will help in the proper implementation of Purigi as a medium of instruction in schools with Egay script. On the other side, the Ladakhi speakers would thwart any change of their language name on the basis of any particular religion like that of cities. This is necessary to preserve the secular nature and coexistence of different communities and ideologies in Ladakh.