Voicing the people's pain

THE KASHMIR question, that has remained unresolved for years, has not just disturbed the political climate. It has its echo in literature.

Mr. G. N. Gauhar, Kashmiri novelist, who was in Chennai, describes the paradoxical situation which the Kashmiris are placed in. ``In our university, we have an M.A. course in Kashmiri but, at the primary school level, the study of Kashmiri is not part of the curriculum.'' He adds that the same is the case with Dogri, another language used widely in Jammu and Kashmir.

The reason for this paradox is, according to the writer, that successive State Governments have not felt they were accountable to the people. ``So, after several years of struggle to set right the anomaly, we have come to the conclusion that unless the core issue is settled, we cannot get our grievances solved in spheres such as language and literature.'' Mr. Gauhar (66), who has written three books in English on the contemporary political history of Kashmir, strongly feels that the main reason for the failure of earlier attempts to solve the vexatious problem is that the voice of the people of J & K was not taken into account, while thrashing out accords between India and Pakistan. ``At least, in the future, all shades of opinion in J & K should be included when the two countries resume negotiations.''

An author of three novels and one collection of poems in Kashmiri, Mr. Gauhar got the Sahitya Akademi award in 1988 for his book ``Paap Te Pune'' (Vice and Virtue). He has also authored two volumes of a research work in Urdu dealing with Kashmiri poetry of the 14th century and Rishi mystic thought, which he describes as a synthesis of Saivite philosophy and Sufi thought. ``I see Vallathol in the south and Kabir in the north as followers of Sheikh Noordin Rishi, saint-poet who lived 600 years ago.'' The writer has translated many works into Kashmiri and notable among them are the poems of Iqbal, Constitution of India and a monograph on Bankim Chandra Chatterjee.

Despite the apparent differences in structure and styles of Indian languages, the experiences of creative writers all over the country remain the same. ``There may be some variations here and there. The feeling of suffocation and the experiences of bitterness in life are reflected in all the Indian languages.'' Also, as in the case of other regional languages, writing in Kashmiri is not remunerative. ``Books do not sell and, most often, we distribute them free of cost among ourselves,'' he says painfully. The ongoing turmoil in the Kashmir region is captured by writers but it is communicated in a subtle and ambiguous manner. ``This is partly due to the fear of incurring official wrath.'' The writer himself has written a series of 40 articles, on the theme ``suffocated soul through creativity'', in the Kashmir Monitor, a daily.

Mr. Gauhar acknowledges that the script of his native language is recently-developed but this takes care of all the needs, including the phonetics peculiar to Kashmiri.

A positive feature is that the script integrates itself well with the modern requirements of the computer age. Some websites have been created in Kashmiri and they are welcomed by people living in the U.S. or the U.K. as their children, who are cut off from the roots, will be able to learn the language.

By T. Ramakrishnan

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