Face to Face
Such a long journey
SHUJAAT BUKHARI
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Rehman Rahi, recently awarded the Gnanpith, writes poetry that reflects the beauty of the Kashmiri language and the pain and suffering of its people.
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Meeting him at his modest house in downtown Srinagar, one can see that all his achievements sit lightly on his rather frail shoulders.
Photo: Nissar Ahmad
A lifetime in poetry: Rehman Rahi.
REGARDED as the greatest living poet of Kashmir, the 82-year-old Rehman Rahi had a gift to give back to the language that had nurtured him. He was awarded the Gnanpith, the highest literary award of the country. He is the first Kashmiri poet to achieve this distinction. As far as he is concerned, the award is simply a recognition of the beauty of his mother tongue, which he has nurtured and promoted throughout his chequered career which started way back in 1942.
Rahi is a celebrity in Kashmir because no other poet, however powerful the writing, has given to Kashmiri language what he has given it. His admirers say that it is his unflinching love and devotion towards the language which has brought him all the recognition. Author of over a dozen books, a fellow of Sahitya Akademi, a winner of the Sahitya Akademi Award, founder of the Kashmiri department at Kashmir University and winner of numerous other awards are just some of the signposts in a glorious career as a poet, writer and philosopher.
Starting early
Meeting him at his modest house in downtown Srinagar, one can see that all those achievements sit lightly on his rather frail shoulders. A good host, Prof. Rahi finds it difficult to recall when exactly his interest in poetry began. But he says that during his college days he first translated an Urdu poem and then scribbled some words to give shape to his first poem in the Kashmiri language. "It was in 1942, when I was a student at S. P. College that I first translated Josh Miliabadi's poem and then tried to write a poem in Kashmiri," he says. It was appreciated by his teachers and since then he has never looked back. It has been a long journey and his latest poem ends thus: Garkhai Wawas Gar Aakar, Bawech Bal Chi Beshumar (If you can give a shape to the winds do it, there are enormous forums of expression).
Rahi says that he has always touched upon issues which have been close to the heart of the people. "Though I never wrote poetry with that intention, it somehow always reflected the situation on the ground, as any such work ought to." Holding master's in English and Persian, Rahi started his career as a clerk in the Public Works Department but "as you can see now, it was not my cup f tea". He wrote a letter to Moulana Masoodi, a distinguished political leader and intellectual of the time, who was editing an Urdu newspaper, Khidmat, at that time. Rahi had discussed Mirza Bedil's poetry in that letter. Bedil was a well-known Persian poet. On reading the letter, Masoodi offered him a job as a sub-editor in Khidmat, which he readily accepted. "It was a tough decision, to leave a government job at that time, but I took it."
He later changed course again and taught Persian in the Education Department of the then Jammu and Kashmir University, where he later founded the Kashmiri Department. His first collection of poems, Sone Wen Saz, was published in 1952 but he came into the limelight with the publication of Nawroze Sabah, which came at the peak of the political turmoil in 1958. Rahi admits that he was shaped as a poet and a creative writer during his association with the Progressive Writers Movement, which was very active in Kashmir under the banner of the Cultural Front. "It was started by the great Urdu novelist Prem Chand in India and here also many people got associated with it." This movement, he says, brought Kashmiri language in step with the other languages of the subcontinent. "The movement was more Urdu oriented but I realised that it is a more natural tendency to want to put forth one's views in one's mother tongue."
Voice of a people
In last 17 years he has been the foremost voice of the pain and agony of Kashmir. In his latest collection, Siyah Roode Jaren Manz (In Black Downpours), there is a mixture of everything from romance to rebellion. Maafi Naame (Apology) was a masterpiece he wrote in defiance of the then Prime Minster Bakshi Ghulam Mohammad, reflecting the "dictatorial regime" he represented. He also gives expression to the agony of Kashmiris from Mughal times. After the series of disappearances recently rocked Kashmir, Rahi has written about the agonising situation in one of his poems: Kus Os Kiyazi Morukh Te Lash Kut Kerhas, Hatas Kathas Chae Kuni Kath Kahbar Te Khamoshi (Who was he, why was he killed, where is the body, the only answer is, who knows, keep silent).
Rahi's main concern now is that the Kashmiri language should get its due place. "Kashmiris have to recognise their language, others have done it," he says. Many people believe that Rahi's could be strong case for the Nobel Prize in literature. Noted critic Mohammad Yusuf Taing says, "it's the richness of his language which bagged him Gnanpith". Another Kashmiri poet, Mir Ghulam Rasool Nazki, had anticipated the award for Rahi when he saw Rahi giving new direction to Kashmiri poetry. Taing says that Nazki, who passed away in 1998, had said, "Gazal Leukh Rahiyan Andaz Badlaweth Setha Ruth Gau, Waen Gow Sati Dupun Ath Gus Yuthi Keencha Jawab Aasun"(Rahi writes the gazal in a new style; it is welcome, there needs to be a matching reply to this trend). Rahi is no doubt a beacon in Kashmiri literature and it is not certain when Kashmiri literature will scale such heights again.
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