Standing in the middle of his sprawling saffron farm, a few weeks ago, a farmer was using a hand-crank blower to direct pepper smoke into a saffron bed to scare away a rat that was damaging his saffron corms.

It is a common practice among farmers to use pepper smoke to contain rodents from making tunnels or burrows. However, as he turned the handle of the blower, the farmer remarked that he had “laid a siege” around the bed and that the “terrorist” (referring to the rodent) would soon be trapped.

With each turn of the handle, he said , “The operation has begun and is in progress. A few minutes later, his son showed up in the field, and the farmer told this reporter, “Look, enforcement has also rushed in.” 

Terms like “siege,” “operation,” and “enforcement” are commonly used during the anti-insurgency operations in Kashmir. However, their usage in everyday discourse reflect the militarisation of language in the region.

Militancy, military and language 

A long-drawn-out conflict in Kashmir and frequent attempts of infiltration from across the Line of Control (LoC), necessitated heavy military presence in the region.

The stationing of legions of security personnel brought new military terms into the Kashmiri lexicon.

Terms like CASO (cordon and search operation), crackdown and pallets are some of the words often used by civilian population in non-military contexts. There are myriad examples in which the civilian population uses such terminology in their everyday language.

The young population born post-1990 uses such terminology more frequently than the older generation. For instance, if a young man wants to joke about a friend’s ripped jeans, he might say it looks like it was hit by pellets. 

“It is a conflict vocabulary that has evolved over the last few decades in the Valley”, said a Kashmir based linguist. He said that both security forces and militants introduced new words and terms into Kashmiri lexicon.

Experts believe that the protracted conflict in Kashmir has brought two languages in contact–the military and the local language– and it is invariably the language backed by political power that exerts influence on the other. 

According to them, the metaphorisation of the military or militant language has also taken place over the last few decades. 

“For instance, people usually use the word “bullet” to describe sharpness of mind or “tank” for referring to a competent or a powerful individual”, said the linguist. 

Nativisation of language

The military terms borrowed by the local population have been nativitised. The most natvitised terms are the names of the explosive ordnance and firearms. For instance “Grenade” becomes “garnate” in the demotic and “Kalashnikov” is “ Kalashankoff”.

“The military terminology is usually prevalent in conflict zones and the countries with large militaries”, said the experts. 

They said that the military jargons are commonly used in countries like the US and China , which have large militaries.