2 days ago
Yikvot Builds a Digital Bridge for Kashmiri Language
Yikvot is a project that helps young people learn and use the Kashmiri language.
Seerat Hafiz started it because many young Kashmiris could not easily find their own literature.
Some children understand Kashmiri but mainly speak Urdu or English.
Yikvot holds reading sessions, shares writing, and records stories told by elders.
It also looks for old Kashmiri translations of famous books.
A new app will help people type, read, write, and speak Kashmiri.
The internet helps Yikvot connect people, including those living far away.
Hafiz says online groups can disappear, so she wants activities to lead to meetings in the real world.
Her long-term dream is a permanent place where young and older Kashmiris can learn from one another.
Seerat Hafiz founded Yikvot in 2023 to preserve Kashmiri language and culture.
The platform connects young people with Kashmiri literature through reading sessions, digital content, and community activities.
Yikvot is recovering overlooked Kashmiri translations, including works by Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky.
Its planned app will include a Kashmiri keyboard, literacy tools, and a library of Kashmiri literature.
Hafiz hopes online engagement will eventually lead to a permanent physical space called the “Yikvot Village.”
- Who
- Seerat Hafiz and Yikvot, along with Kashmiri writers, scholars, young contributors, and elders.
- What
- A language and culture preservation platform is making Kashmiri literature and learning more accessible to young people.
- Where
- The initiative operates digitally and through in-person activities connected to Kashmir and its diaspora.
- When
- Yikvot was conceived in 2021 and founded in 2023; its app is expected to launch soon.
- Why
- Hafiz says Kashmiri literature has been difficult for young people to access, while children in many urban homes increasingly use Urdu and English instead of speaking Kashmiri.
Digital-First Access
Physical Community Building
Best way to reach learners
Digital-First Access
Online communities help young Kashmiris and diaspora members find one another, sustain regular engagement, and access literacy resources across distance and other disruptions.
Physical Community Building
Online spaces are vulnerable to algorithms, platform changes, and administrator burnout, so learning should ultimately lead to in-person meetings, storytelling, and lectures.
How to understand Kashmiri’s condition
Digital-First Access
Kashmiri has millions of speakers and remains widely used in homes, suggesting that its numerical speaker base is substantial.
Physical Community Building
Hafiz argues that speaker numbers alone are insufficient because many children understand Kashmiri but no longer speak it, weakening transmission between generations.
Key facts
- Founder
- Seerat Hafiz
- Founded
- 2023
- Meaning of Yikvot
- “Together” in Kashmiri
- Planned app features
- The “Rasm-e-Khat” Kashmiri keyboard, “Alif Bey” literacy tools, and “Kutub Kha’na’e” literature library
- Literary discovery
- Kashmiri translations include Leo Tolstoy and Fyodor Dostoevsky; Hafiz specifically cited Shamshad Kralwari’s translation of Crime and Punishment.
- Oral tradition project
- “Chillaikalaan Sessions” revives winter storytelling involving elders and younger participants.
- Long-term goal
- A permanent offline space called the “Yikvot Village.”
Quotes
Seerat Hafiz
Founder of Yikvot and advocate for Kashmiri language and cultural preservation
“My belief has always been that Kashmiri, as a language, need not stay just in homes, but must find a place for itself in public interactions, debates, writing, discourse, and even in memes and friendly banter.”
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“Online communities are rented land. An algorithm changes, a platform deprioritises a language it doesn’t even recognise as a regional language, a group admin burns out, and years of work evaporate.”
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Sources
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