Kashmiri language, commonly known as ‘Koshur’, belongs to the Dardic subgroup of Indo-Aryan languages. The language is primarily spoken in Jammu and Kashmir and some neighbouring regions. It is spoken by more than 70 lakh people.
In this digital era, where most of the information is stored online, Kashmiri language lags behind in creating an online presence. The Kashmiri language lacks adequate representation in the world wide web, thus creating a learning gap for youth who are more inclined to learn from online resources.
Even though the Kashmiri language has vast literature in the form of books, songs, and poetry, there is a need to digitise the Kashmiri language so that it can adapt to the current times and benefit from it. Not all people have access to books but most people now use the internet. This fact compels the need to create online content in Kashmiri langue.
Volunteers from Kashmir are now bridging this gap by contributing to the online ‘Kashmiri Wikipedia’, which is a project of Wikipedia. Kashmiri Wikipedia is an online encyclopedia which is created by volunteers across the world. They create pages on different topics from biographies of notable people to science and technology. Located at https://ks.wikipedia.org it has currently more than 1000 articles in the Kashmiri language.
In present times Wikipedia is an important source of information. It covers every aspect of life. Making the Kashmiri language a part of it can help both the language and people who want to learn it. People writing in Kashmiri for platforms like Wikipedia is important to pass information and knowledge to our coming generation. These initiatives should be encouraged so that the language will adapt to present times.

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Peerzada Iflaq