JLF and Literature of Conflict

JLF and Literature of Conflict

Time to discover our unsung heroes who narrate our sordid tales

Shuja’at Bukhari

Conflict throws up some fine literature as the victimhood helps giving vent to the inner and real feelings. But in many cases, the oppression does trample even the strongest thoughts. This is true about Kashmir. When those who have the capacity to write themselves become the victims of violence and injustice, their writings can be a befitting tribute to the sufferings of the people.

That is what happened in Jaipur last month. Iftikhar Gilani, Anjum Zamrud Habib and Sahil Maqbool, the three proud Kashmiris were part of many attractions at the annual Jaipur Literary Festival, as their works could find a place among the marathon sessions attended and conducted by some big names of world of literature.

Named as “Prison Diaries”, the session was different by all means. It really brought to the fore the sufferings of these three Kashmiris, who became the victims of unchallenged power of the state. Their accounts are based on their plight, first as how the laws were twisted and violated to throw them behind bars and how they were treated inside the jails just for being part of the region that has been struggling hard for the political rights. Their voices were choked but the power their words unleashed had an impact on the audience. Their narrative was genuine and original, as they had directly faced the ordeal. They stood ground, while living in the conflict unlike those who para-chute and sell Kashmir for their own promotion. Gilani, Anjum and Sahil, sacrificed their own comforts, gave their families nightmares to represent the sentiment of Kashmir. Their diaries cannot be seen in isolation as they symbolise life of an ordinary Kashmiri, who according to a European Union statement lives in a “Beautiful Prison”. That way the presence of these three authors at Jaipur Literary Festival was the real representation of Kashmiris and their plight.
JLF was not an ordinary event though it was overshadowed with the controversy of a controversial writer. But the way the writers of repute from America to Africa to South Asia had gathered there, Kashmir could not found a better place to be highlighted in the backdrop of the raging conflict. JLF saw extraordinary new talents such as Teju Cole, Taiye Selasi and Pola Oloxiarac. Tom Stoppard, David Hare and Ariel Dorfman, the three of the greatest living playwrights in the company of legendary Indian theatre personalities like Girish Karnad and Asghar Wajahat, who shared the dais. It hosted fine novelists such as Annie Proulx, Ben Okri, Kiran Nagarkar, Lionel Shriver and Michael Ondaatje. Oprah Winfrey believed to be the most powerful woman in America stole the show at front lawns of the Palace. Oprah, along with JK Rowling, has probably done as much as anyone else alive to get people reading books.

The commendable job done by the Kashmir trio was in tune with what our poets and writers had been doing for past 20 years, though silently. They are unsung heroes but the way they have recorded their battered history of humiliation, torture and oppression will continue to be graded as something like fine literature. Why rest of world does not know their works. The reason perhaps is that they write in their native language and then even ordinary travelogues in other languages take their place. A cursory look at how our writers have reflected the situation in their works makes one to feel indebted to them.

Agha Shahid Ali, undoubtedly, reflects the Kashmiri sufferings in a befitting manner. The way he projected us and our miseries is something Kashmir has been looking forward for long. But those who wrote silently have not lagged behind. While “A Country without Post Office” is the point of reference for Kashmir in the international arena of writing, long back Amin Kamil wrote “Tickete Lagith te band lifafan manz; Bey Pata Khat Che Dak Khanik Aes” (With stamps affixed on closed envelopes we are the nameless letters of post offices).

One can find so much of literature reflecting the continuous pain and agony in Kashmir. Perhaps fearing reprisal, those who took pains to write about the blood letting have chosen not to highlight what they wrote. A few examples:

There cannot be better expression than what Rafiq Raaz wrote:
“Sani shahre che qabristanek hee aasaar; Shame patai enh rai karan chune kanh bemar”
(Our city has an imprint of a graveyard; even an ailing person can’t sigh after evening)

Aziz Hajini:
Sarai basti nee salaban toti che kehtham bachnich branth
Kamtam badlai lukh che nalan asi che puran hamsayan tal
Tohi ti chua damanau rusti tohi chua wathrawith kend
Mei ous uryaan lukan thekumut ba wepe tuhend sayan tal
(Floods washed away whole habitation but still there is scope for survival
Some other people are crying saying our land is with neighbours
You also are without any cover, you also have thorns beneath
I had boasted to naked people that I would cover up under your shade)

Rehman Rahi is a difficult poet to understand. But when it comes to sufferings, it is easy to relate with his writings. For example one can easily decipher this couplet into the saga of disappearances:

“Kus Ous Kiyazi Su Morukh te Lash Kut Kerhas
Hatas Kathass Cha Koni Kath Khbar te Khomoshi”
(Who was he, why was he killed and where was his body thrown?
There is one answer to hundred questions: don't know! Just silence)

But here too the underlying fact is that a poet of Rahi’s calibre is cautious advising to remain silent.

Prominent poet Fayaz Tilgami stuns one with a long poem on ‘Talashi’ (Search). Searches were part of the Army crackdown for long: See what he writes:
Prath subhan prath shame talashi shahre talashi game talashi
Kati thawak yeme khawb karakh kiya bethi zan karhai jame talashi
Kath taam lafzas thak chu lugmut bael ma karnhan name talashi
Miyani garik khandrath che shahid asi gae kami dum dame talashi
Zani khoda wen haal fayazun aze che chalan tilgame talashi
(Every morning, every evening, cities and villages go through searches
Where will you keep those dreams safe, if you are stripped on way?
Somewhere the right to expression has stopped otherwise why they would ask me my name
Destruction at my house speaks volumes about with which fanfare our house was searched
God knows now what will be my fate as Tilgam is going through searches)

Even Farooq Nazki’s writings portray the sufferings in a befitting manner:
Rate daawe palaw mehrazan hend yete yare balan maje chalan
Yeti mehrene jaman naar hewan doud maej brachan weth rooz pakan
(Where the woe-bygone mothers wash the blood stained clothes of their groom sons
Where the brides’ beauty burn, foster mothers lament and the river flows quietly))

Mushtaq Kashmiri too has written a lot but he paid a heavy price. He was forced to leave Kashmir and live in Pakistan in a miserable condition.

Kashmir’s lone woman poet Naseem Shifai hogged the limelight recently after she was awarded three Awards for her work. The works reflect the pain and agony of Kashmiris. She has given words to countless untold stories of those men, women and children whose voices were not heard.

Akhtar Mohiuddin’s fiction has hardly any parallels. Himself being a victim, who lost his son and son-in-law to the violence, he has touched the high level of creativity by reflecting the situation of early 90’s. His short stories such as ‘Jali hand dande phal’ (The Broken Teeth of Jali), ‘Nav Byemaer’ (The New Disease), ‘Aaatankwaadi’ (The Terrorist) take us back to those horror days. His two collections just came out after his death in 2001 and he aptly dedicated it to his dear ones. It goes like this “Dedicated to the innocent martyrs Muhammad Yusuf and Ahmadullah Reshi and those boys who under the cover of oppression’s darkness were killed in nameless places”. Besides the themes of misery, oppression and horror besetting our literature, another important theme continuously voiced by Kashmiri belles lettres is the remorse and longing the majority community feels for the Kashmiri Pandits, who migrated to Jammu and outside due to violence and bloodshed.
There is enough for us to be proud about, but we only go by the publicity of mediocre works and literature. Let us discover such unsung heroes who in real sense of terms represent our sordid tales.

Feedback at bukhari@risingkashmir.com