Kashmiri literati try bridging cultural estrangement

The group organised a function to felicitate noted Kashmiri journalist, P N Jalali, now a migrant in Delhi, besides releasing a book written by another noted Kashmiri writer, Moti Lal Saqi. Saqi, also a migrant, died in Jammu recently. And today there was a two-day All India Conference of Kashmiri Writers, Poets and Intellectuals.

“I feel overwhelmed. It is great to be with friends and colleagues after years,” said leading dramatist and broadcaster, Pran Kishore, who flew from Mumbai to attend this conference. “A bridge is important. Milap zaroori hai (re-union is essential). Diloun ka milap zaroori hai (reunion of hearts is needed),” he said, adding, “It is not possible, politically. We have strong cultural bonds and only culture, language and tradition can cement it.” He said that he had reason to believe that the wall between the two communities will vanish one day. “If the Berlin wall can fall, why not this barrier between us (Kashmiri Muslims and Pandits)?” he said.

A migrant Kashmir Pandit scholar, Pearay Hatal expressed his happiness in speaking in Kashmiri. “We don’t get an opportunity to talk in Kashmiri often,” he said. “I want to talk today. Bhe luterave ha panun bous kasher path (I want to give vent to my pent up feelings in my mother tongue)”

Though the scholars read academic papers about the problems faced by theKashmiri language and relevance of Sufi saints like Lal Ded and Shiekh Noordin, the focal point seemed the reunion of long-lost friends, colleagues and neighbours. Prof. Shafi Shouq, head of the Kashmiri department at Kashmir University blamed the 700-year long repression to be the main reason for the decline of Kashmiri language. “The issue of language in Kashmir is purely a political issue. Unless you accept Kashmiris as a nation, the language can never be promoted,” he said.

A migrant broadcaster, Brij Nath Betab also came from Delhi. He too felt that language can work as a binding force. “It is a matter of life and death for me. Lifestyle, geography and language make the identity of a nation. I am away from all of it,” he said. “Nobody speaks my language at the place where I live now. I feel isolated. I feel I am cut off from my roots.”

People from both the communities were nostalgic about being together afteryears. And when a famous local singer Gulzar started singing folk Chakri’,many in the audience started dancing to it. “This folk song is not just entertainment but a prayer as well. It is a prayer that suspicions end and wounds heal,” said Mushtaq Ahmad Mushtaq, the general secretary of the Foundation. Many in the audience had listened to a folk singer live after years.

Another Kashmiri poet, Arjun Dev Majboor had come down from Jammu. He toolives there as a migrant. “I want to talk,” he said. “I have to talk a lot. I feel as if I haven’t spoken at all for the past 11 years.” Responding to a paper read on Lal Ded by Prof M H Zaffar, he stressed upon the need to revive the message of this famous Kashmiri woman saint. “Lala is very relevant in these times of despair,’ he said.