{"id":3998,"date":"2018-12-31T11:20:08","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T05:50:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/?p=3998"},"modified":"2018-12-31T11:39:47","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T06:09:47","slug":"kashmir-literary-awards-research-studies-and-hegemonic-discourses","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/editors-take\/kashmir-literary-awards-research-studies-and-hegemonic-discourses\/","title":{"rendered":"Kashmir Literary Awards, Research Studies And Hegemonic Discourses"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/fb:like>

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

PUNCHLINE <\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

\u00a0Awarding Writers and Poets \u00a0<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

By<\/u><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

Z.G. Muhammad <\/span><\/h2>\n

<\/h2>\n

\"\"<\/a>More than a decade back, sitting in a newspaper office, a fellow writer Ashraf Sahil suggested the idea of instituting of the \u2018private awards\u2019 in Kashmir for literature.\u00a0 Comparing the reports and writings of journalists of Kashmir, works of some writers with the literary works of Barbara Harlow, he suggested instituting of annual awards for best journalists, fiction writers, novelists and poets of the year. And for creating a trust for starting the awards, he expressed his readiness of donating half of his retirement emoluments as seed money. Much before the idea could concretise, he was taken critically ill and died in harness. And, the idea also died with him. The idea once again cropped some years back, when a civil society group in a\u00a0 roundtable conference focussing on the importance of promoting \u2018genuine literature\u2019 \u2013 \u201cliterature that maintains its rhythm in pace with the dynamic currents of society\u201d \u00a0also contemplated of introducing \u2018the People\u2019s Award in literature and fine arts\u2019. Moreover, it also talked about mobilising funds for encouraging scholars for conducting research independent of taboos and do\u2019s and don\u2019ts by the academic councils of various universities in the state.<\/span><\/h5>\n
Once again, I \u00a0realised the importance of \u00a0introducing the \u2018private \u00a0awards\u2019 or the \u2018peoples awards\u2019 for literature and creating\u00a0 institutions for offering fellowships and grants for supporting scholars for conducting genuine research in different disciplines without any tags attached when two young scholars approached a \u2018non-academic\u2019 like me for guidance for suggesting them some topic for research on Kashmir. On the face of it, the subject they had subject for research work for their doctorate were virgin and not much work had been done on them. \u00a0Nevertheless, the respective Boards of Research Studies of their Universities in the state and outside \u00a0had asked them to tailor \u00a0the proposals in keeping with \u00a0the \u201csensitivities of the State.\u201d In these takes from the universities, \u00a0\u00a0I also found answers to the queries of some scholar friends; \u00a0why I depended too much on the research works of American and European authors and scholars, including scholars like Mirdu Rai and Ayesha Jalal of South Asian origin instead of the research work by some scholars from universities of Jammu and Kashmir \u00a0and\u00a0 \u00a0many other Indian Universities . It is a subject that needs to be dwelled upon in greater depth. Nonetheless, I will touch it briefly in this column while making a point for the need for funding of research work by the society.<\/span><\/h5>\n
The idea of the \u2018Private\u00a0 Awards\u2019 or the \u2018Peoples Awards\u2019 \u00a0may not find favour with many older generation poets and writers, part of a\u00a0 literary movement during the sixties and the seventies. \u00a0That the Government of India has founded some \u2018prestigious awards\u2019 the Jnanpith Award, the Sahitya Akademi Award, the Yuva Puraskar for promoting literature and focussing on achievements in this field can\u2019t be denied. \u00a0And the state of Jammu and Kashmir has also done its bit by introducing some awards to recognise the achievements of writers and poets.\u00a0 Many familiar names, contributing to poetry and literature in the state have been recipients of these awards. Equally some of Kashmir writers, like many others have been awarded civilian award Padma Shri for their works. That the masterpieces of the literature of dissent were ignored is a reality, and on many an occasion, this award was subjected to expediencies creating ripples of protests in the literary circles is also a fact. \u00a0Some years back poet, painter and journalist Pritish Nandy in an article the \u2018Importance of Awards\u2019 protested against subjecting these awards to politics wrote:<\/span><\/h5>\n
\u201c So when a Sant Singh Chatwal is awarded a Padma Bhushan after facing five CBI cases for cheating banks in India and other frauds in the US, it\u2019s a shame that will take us years to live down. Interestingly, our Embassy in Washington DC was asked to recommend him for a Padma Shri. When they refused, his award was upgraded to a Padma Bhushan as if to score a point.\u201d<\/span><\/h5>\n
In 2010, Awarding Padma Shri, to G M Mir alias Mume Kanna, after it had been recommended after it had been supported by the state, had its tale to say about the awards given by the State. Nonetheless, in our state, where political conveniences reign supreme, the introduction of the \u2018people\u2019s awards\u2019 has become imperative for acknowledging the literary excellence of poets and writers who write in the vein of their predecessors like Abdul Ahad Azad. In Urdu and Kashmiri, there are lots of literary work that deserved the \u2018peoples awards\u2019, two names that instantly came to my mind are a collection of short stories \u2018Ailaan Jari Hai\u2019<\/em> and a poetic collection, \u2018Taran Gari\u2019<\/em>\u00a0\u00a0 Lots, of youth during the past two decades have taken to writing in English, and have produced masterpieces of poetry and fiction. A couple of online journals carrying works of these talented poets and writers testify; many of them are going to make it to the top like their predecessors Agha Shahid Ali and Mirza Waheed. These youngsters deserve to be acknowledged by their society- and the private awards could be a recognition that would encourage them to produce the best literary works and bring literature of the land on the map world literature. \u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/h5>\n
The introduction of the private awards in the state would not be blasphemous. In India alone not speak of other countries there are at least half a dozen significant and prestigious organisation in private that have instituted awards for literature, these include Tata Literature Live Award, the Hindu Literary Prize, the Crossword Book Award and the Birla Foundation Award. These organisations are recognising literary merit of the works if the writers who may not be in sync with the power centres or the recommending authorities.<\/span><\/h5>\n
Most of the research studies on \u00a0\u00a0South Asia by American and European writers are genuinely quality works compared to their counterparts in the region because these are done independently of the state and control of the universities. And are sponsored by the private, independent, non-profit organisation. The research studies conducted on the region by scholars from Robert R Wirsing to Stephen and from Ayesha Jalal to Chitralekha Zutshi but for funding by the independent funding organisation would not have been possible. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0Chitralekha acknowledges this writes, that her book \u2018Language of Belonging\u2019 that involved travel in three continents would not have been likely without fellowship from American Institute of Indian Studies, a grant from Taraknath Das Foundation at Columbia University and Tufts University.<\/span><\/h5>\n
The civil society and patrons of the environment and literature need to come forward to see authentic research done on various facets of the state that otherwise the Universities and state-run institutes are disinclined to take up. The clich\u00e9 \u201cstate sensitivities\u201d that hangs like the sword of Damocles in the \u2018Boards of Research Studies\u2019 in our Universities does not come in conducting ho<\/span>nest research.<\/h5>\n<\/fb:like><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

 
\n 
\nPUNCHLINE
\n\u00a0Awarding Writers and Poets \u00a0
\nBy
\nZ.G. Muhammad <\/p>\n

More than a decade back, sitting in a newspaper office, a fellow writer Ashraf Sahil suggested the idea of instituting of the \u2018private awards\u2019 in Kashmir for literature.\u00a0 Comparing the reports and writings of journalists of Kashmir, works of some writers with the literary works of Barbara Harlow, he suggested instituting of annual awards for best journalists, fiction writers, novelists and poets of the year. And for creating a trust for starting the awards, he expressed his readiness of donating half of his retirement emoluments as seed money. Much before the idea could concretise, he was taken critically ill and died in harness. And, the idea also died with him. The idea once again cropped some years back, when a civil society group in a\u00a0 roundtable conference focussing on the importance of promoting \u2018genuine literature\u2019 \u2013 \u201cliterature that maintains its rhythm in pace …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2946,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3998","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editors-take"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3998"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3998"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3998\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3999,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3998\/revisions\/3999"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2946"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3998"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3998"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3998"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}