DOGRA HERALD BUREAU
JAMMU, Jan 9
Jammu based Kashmir cultural Trust a charitable organization working for promotion of national cultural heritage especially of the UT of J&K organizes Samanbal 2024 – a two days literary and cultural festival at Saigal hall J&K Academy premises Jammu on January 9-10th,2024. About fifty Kashmiri writers, scholars and cultural personalities from across the country are participating.
The programme started by paying homage to all those writers and cultural personalities who passed away during last one year. Notable among are Rehman Rahi, Omkar Nath Shabnam Ghulam Nabi Khayal, Mushtak Kak etc.
Immediately after this Inaugural session was started. Dr.Roop Krishen Bhat Managing Trustee of KCT and co-ordinator of the programme welcomed all the participants who had come from NCR region of Delhi, Kashmir, Jammu and various other parts of the country. He welcomed all the members associated with various literary organizations of Jammu like Samprati, Nagrad,Vomed, Samoh theatre, Young writers guild etc. to the programme. He welcomed the local media for wider coverage of the programme. He highlighted various important programmes conducted by the Kashmir cultural trust during past two decades and few important publications and digital courses prepared like A course on Kashmiri language now available on Utube and KCT website.
Prof R.L. Shant an eminent scholar Inaugurated the programme. He said that since exile of 1990,when large number of writers and cultural workers were pushed out of Kashmir and got scattered in the country and outside, Kashmir shaivism, Abhinavgupt’s scholarship, Kalhanas historical achievement and Lal Ded’s literary pursuits guided and helped writers, resettle and reclaim their lost cultural roots. The pan Indian endeavor of the writers has been to conserve and proliferate Kashmiri literature all over the country. Our connect with Kashmir its language and culture needs a rethink on an additional alternative script for Kashmiri .This will help our language to save it for present and future generations. This alternative is Nagri and adopting it by State and Central academies would be a healthy course to which we are committed. But unfortunately the Central bodies and organizations have been overlooking this issue which smacks of nepotism on their behalf.
Samanbal 2024 raises the voice of Kashmiri writers living in the valley, Jammu, Delhi etc. for its rights as equal participants in the pan Indian post 1990 scenario. Kashmiri writers writing in any part of country have equal rights and demand to be considered for all that the State cultural academy and Sahitya academy do, convene and manage.
Kashmiri literay organizations like Samprati, Nagrad and Kashmir cultural Trust be represented in the literary affairs of the Sahitya academy.
Bal Krishan Sanyasi an eminent poet presented the key note address. He emphasized the importance of mother tongue in social bonding and insisted that we need to find different ways to work to preserve our language. Shri Vijay Bakaya former chief secretary of J&K and Ex. MLC who Presided over the inaugural function said that unless we speak Kashmiri in our homes we can not preserve it. He said we need to sensitise the parents to speak Kashmiri with children at home . Two books 1.Kashmir: nirvasan sahitya editedjointly by Roop Krishen Bhatand M.K Santoshi and a drama book originally by Shakepeare in English and translated into Kashmiri by Gauri Shankar Raina were released on this occasion.
Smt. Promila Kaul ably anchored this session.
In the first session two papers on Kashmiri language and literature during last three decades were presented by Shri Kanwal K. Lidhoo and Shri R.L. Jowhar. They brought out important developments of the language and literature during this period. Dr. Sudhir Mahajan eminent theatre personality of Jammu and owner Director of Samoh theatre group based in Jammu gave a detailed account of Drama groups of Kashmir and jammu based in Jammu who have been active for last three decades. He delvd in detail the current scenario of theatre and drama in J&K. The session was jointly presided by Prof. R.L. Talashi and Prof. Farooq Fayaz former professors of university of Kashmir. They spoke about various presentations of the session and hailed them.
Next session on “Mother tongue ,social bonding, literature and culture :current scenario was moderated by Shri Arvind Shah author and translator and presided over by Shri Aseer Kishtwari”an emient scholar . Opening the discussion Mr. Shah mentioned that Kashmiri Pandits got scattered across the globe after forced exodus of 1990 and preserving their language and culture in diaspora has been a big challenge.
He highlighted several measures taken by certain NGO’s and individuals like AIKS, JKVM, KCT, Samprati, Nagrad etc in preserving the mother tongue and underlined several points which may help in the endeavor to preserve the language. He invited participants from audience to express their views on this subject.
