The story of Kashmir through a study of its literature

Most observers of Kashmir history hold the date of 1586 as the loss of its independent political control. What if individual Mughal, Afghan or Dogra rulers or their governors were sympathetic and considerate towards Kashmir and its people; but the overall political control of a province which was prized for its beauty and its resources by all the successive rulers of Kashmir after 1586 robbed it of its pride and prosperity.

The prosperity dwindled owing to control of resources over the valley by those who had little to nothing emotional attachment to the place. The pride dwindled as the native Kashmiri people could not find themselves in a state of power and influence for generations so as to try and change its destiny the way they desired.

   

The martial spirit of people was lost as no foreign political power in Kashmir after 1586 made an effort to take Kashmiri masses into their armies. Kashmir as a whole began to be treated as a place where people were ease-loving and not fit for war and conquest.

But modern ideas of freedom, liberation and dignity of human life began to enter Kashmir in the first half of twentieth century; though Dogras were instrumental in putting it off as later as 1930s much later than such movements appeared in the rest of the world.

From 1930s Kashmir witnessed an awakening in political participation of masses, developments in journalism and, a new renaissance in literature. Nationalist and progressive literature developed significantly in two and a half decades after the political turmoil summer of 1931.

Progressive literature developed as a significant movement from the time of Kashmir’s accession to India in 1947, as Progressive Literary Movement. In mid-1950s though, mainly as a result of Sheikh Abdullah’s arrest and removal from power, the movement dwindled and literature too suffered significant reverses as government repression again came to fruition.

The period from 1931 to 1953 is therefore considered as a golden period of renaissance of Kashmiri literature in twentieth century. Poets like, Mahjoor, Azad, Nadim, Arif and Zinda Koul epitomized the new spirit of changing political discourse in the aftermath of 1931 uprising against the Dogra apathy towards Kashmiris.

Mahjoor and Azad particularly were instrumental in giving voice to the patriotic fervour of the day by calling on the youth repeatedly to rise against the oppression of masses, subjugation of a peaceful vale by outsiders and against the general tyranny of Dogra rulers and its administration.

Their role in the freedom struggle of Kashmir is no less than the political stalwarts like Sheikh Abdullah who liberally borrowed Mahjoor’s poems in his political orations. But once the power passed from the Dogras to the Kashmiris, winds of change began to appear in different forms.

In the poem ‘O Golden Oriole’, written after Kashmir came after centuries under Sheikh Abdullah, a true native mass leader, Mahjoor still gives us a concerning and reflective note about the possibility of native rulers turning against their own people for different political reasons. Sample this: Hawks have left your garden, and birds are all in sing-song; but if you yourself turn a hawk, how futile was this change! As the events after Sheikhs arrest were to show, successive Kashmiri administrators were to participate hand-in-glove with their masters in Delhi –on whose goodwill their remaining in power depended upon- to suppress the dissent and voices of opposition in Kashmir. Sheikh might have suppressed dissent of a smaller religious group in Kashmir, Bakhshi and others managed to suppress and antagonise a much larger section of Kashmir society.

One major tragedy of the changed political scenario was the despondency that crept in early Progressive writers in Kashmir who could not express themselves freely during the successive government regimes in post-1953 Kashmir. They were threatened by jail and loss of government patronage as well as were cajoled by government sops to fall in line with the establishment line.

In fact, many writers and activists, like Ghulam Nabi Khayal, were jailed on flimsy grounds. Though Kashmir produced some great writers who continued to enrich the native language with their work in the second half of twentieth century, they could never attain same mass following and reverence like Mahjoor and Azad achieved earlier. They achieved personal laurels for themselves and though attained respect in academic circles, but it was without the semblance of any popular admiration for their achievements.

Post 1989 further silenced the pen of many literary crusaders in Kashmir. Though in the twenty first century, it is heartening to see writers like Zareef Ahmad Zareef, Sabir Ayuob and Sajad Inquilabi chronicle the miseries of a strife-torn place in their beautiful poetry. Some of these new age literati are using the social media to great advantage in reaching a wider audience.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

18 − six =