It may seem hard to believe given the current reality in the Kashmir Valley, but not too long ago some Kashmiri Pandit poets were writing verses in praise of Prophet Muhammad. On Thursday, Srinagar witnessed a rare Ramzan cultural event where many of these poems were celebrated and sung by Muslim vocalists.
The Valley’s leading singers, Waheed Jeelani, Muneer Ahmad, Qaiser Nizami, Raja Bilal, Altaf Sahil, Tehseena Shafi, Shazia Bashir, Qazi Rafi and Gulzar Ganai lent their voices to poems written by Pandit poets such as Dina Nath Nadim, Pyare Hatash, Prem Nath Shad, Pitambar Nath Fani, and Prakash Ram.
The event, titled ‘Naatiya poetry of Kashmiri Pandits’, was organised by the Cultural Academy at the Tagore Hall auditorium. The programme is a bid to revisit old bonds and create new ones between the two divided communities.
“This is an attempt at a cultural renaissance aimed at educating our new generation about our rich and glorious past,” said Jammu and Kashmir’s Culture Minister Naeem Akhtar.
Listeners enchanted
The hundreds of fasting Muslims in the audience were bowled over by the poetry, which had been written prior to the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits in the 1990s when militancy broke out. “I belong to an unlucky generation who didn’t see Pandits in Kashmir. We saw them either on TV or on Twitter and Facebook. Today when naats (devotional poems) of the great poets were being celebrated, I realised what was lost,” said Shah Faesal, managing director of J&K State Power Development Corporation.
“These initiatives are being taken to revive the philosophy of unity in diversity,” Mr. Akhtar said, adding, “The Kashmiri Pandit community has made immense contributions towards the social, political and cultural capital of J&K.”
