Two-day state-level Gojri cultural meet concludes

Tribune News Service

Jammu, March 18

The two-day state-level Gojri literary and cultural meet organised, by the J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, concluded here this evening.

Minister of State for Transport Abdul Ghani Kohli was the chief guest.

Addressing the meet, Kohli called upon writers and intellectuals of Gojri language to actively work for its promotion. He assured full support of the government in this regard and also assured it would push for inclusion of Gojri in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India.

The minister appreciated the efforts of the academy to promote different languages of the state, including Gojri.

Welcoming the participants, secretary of the academy Haroon Rashid Ahmad gave an overview of the academy’s initiatives for the development of Gojri and specifically referred to its massive publication programme in the language.

Javaid Rahi, Chief Editor, JKAACL, spelt out the publication programme of Gojri and said 80 books in Gojri, comprising of about 24000 pages, were published in the last three years. He said from this year the academy was starting promotion of Gojri by uploading the treasure of Gojri books on the internet.

Prominent Gojri writers presented their papers followed by discussion and question-answer session. A paper on “Nomadic folk of Gujjars” was presented by KD Chopra, while Abdul Ghani Araf, Jahangeer Asghar and Munshi Khan presented papers on different aspects of the Gujjar heritage.

Naseem Poonch and Sarwar Choyan spoke about the development made by the Gojri literature in Jammu & Kashmir.

In the state-level music event, Bashir Mastana, Noor-un-Nissa, Razia Begum, Ayaz Saif, Sadaqat Bajran, AK Music Group, Rukhsana Kouser performed with their troupes.