Today is the 21st of February and this day is observed as International Mother Language Day to recognize and promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.

The day has been observed since 1999, and its observance was initiated by Bangladesh. This year's International Mother Language Day theme is, "Multilingual Education is a pillar of intergenerational learning."

As the theme implies, the Mother tongue plays a vital role in the educating and learning process of the younger generation of any diverse community naturally and any community needs to speak in its Mother Tongue, to sustain its unique cultural heritage and keep its younger generation abreast with their traditional values and beliefs.

No community can sustain its unique culture and traditions if it is deprived of its Mother language, as the Mother Tongue is the language that enriches our lives while educating us naturally, and the learning process can be difficult for anyone if it is not our natural Mother language. Kashmiri Pandits are today at a crossroads as far as survival of our Mother Tongue is concerned. We have been waiting these long years for our rehabilitation in one place and have been shown green pastures by different dispensations of time that our community will get justice and we will be settled in one place, but it seems an unending exile.

The issues faced by the community are very serious and these are more social and cultural issues that our community people are recently feeling. We as a community have to ponder on this aspect of securing our identity and culture by saving our Mother Tongue and Kashmiri language, for any culture to survive, it has to enrich its Mother language and speak in Mother tongue.

Our community is survived by our last warriors of the Kashmiri language, and after that, our younger generations will not be speaking in their Mother Tongue to their younger ones. And this will end our journey as a unique and ethnic community. Our numbers will deplete as we will be gone in oblivion and our Kashmiri culture will be a history.