{"id":4251,"date":"2021-03-10T17:23:03","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T11:53:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/?p=4251"},"modified":"2021-03-10T18:15:48","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T12:45:48","slug":"nisar-gilanis-transalation-of-younghusband","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/editors-take\/nisar-gilanis-transalation-of-younghusband\/","title":{"rendered":"NISAR GILANI&#8217;S TRANSALATION OF Younghusband"},"content":{"rendered":"<fb:like href='https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/editors-take\/nisar-gilanis-transalation-of-younghusband\/' send='true' layout='button_count' show_faces='true' width='450' height='65' action='like' colorscheme='light' font='lucida grande'><\/fb:like>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/1615373715492-757x1024.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-4252\" width=\"134\" height=\"181\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/1615373715492-757x1024.jpg 757w, https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/1615373715492-111x150.jpg 111w, https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/1615373715492-222x300.jpg 222w, https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/1615373715492-768x1039.jpg 768w, https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/1615373715492.jpg 1720w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 134px) 100vw, 134px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n\n<p>Nisar Gilani&#8217;s Translation of <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>  Kashmir, As I saw It.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>By <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-gallery columns-1 wp-block-gallery-1 is-layout-flex wp-block-gallery-is-layout-flex\"><li class=\"blocks-gallery-item\"><figure><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"365\" height=\"274\" src=\"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/zgm.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-id=\"904\" data-link=\"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/editors-take\/rasul-saab-kashmirs-own-sir-syed\/attachment\/zgm\/\" class=\"wp-image-904\" srcset=\"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/zgm.jpg 365w, https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/zgm-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/06\/zgm-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 365px) 100vw, 365px\" \/><\/figure><\/li><\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p><strong>Z.G.\nMuhammad <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p> <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Irish poet Thomas Moore introduced our beautiful land to the Western World in the second decade of the nineteenth century  with these opening verses of his magnum opus Lalla Rookh : <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&#8220;Who has not heard of the Vale of Cashmere,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>With its roses the brightest that earth ever\ngave&#8221;,<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Most writers believe it was a great introduction that attracted European travelers, tourists, and adventures towards this Elysian land in the mighty Himalaya&#8217;s bosom. The great thing about some of these travelers is that they toured in the vales and dales of our land with their ears and eyes open. And on their way back, while narrating tales of their adventures, they did not forget to mention the agony, pain, and oppression of this land&#8217;s beautiful people. With their bags full of our stories of sufferings, the European travelers were the first ambassadors of Kashmir to the west. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>William Moorecraft told the world around that &#8216;the Kashmiris were looked upon a little better than cattle&#8217;. The cost of killing a native Muslim was just Rs two. Knight, in his travelogue, &#8216;Where Three Empires Meet,&#8217; tells the horrific   tales of humans incarcerated in  the dungeons in the fort on top of the iconic hillock of Srinagar for killing an animal by accidents.   . Walter Lawrence tell the world about the despotic and discriminatory tax system to which the natives were subjected in the nineteenth century. Some of the travelogues and works by European adventures shook the conscience of some conscientious Europeans. Even the Christen missionaries who visited this beautiful land were deeply moved at this beautiful race&#8217;s pitiable conditions born out of twelve great tribes making to this from as far lands as Greece and Persia. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Kashmiris, a tiny nation behind the high ramparts of the mountains with thousands of years of recorded history, feel indebted to these Western travelers for having documented this land&#8217;s stories. \u00a0The biggest irony has been that lots of Kashmiris have not read their stories as told by Europeans to the world because no serious effort has been made to translate these work into the State languages. Besides having been the state language for about one hundred and seventy years, Urdu has been de facto lingua franca that is read and spoken across the state. For the past some years across the dividing line, writers have shown interest in translating European travellers and writers into Urdu and Kashmiri languages, thus widening these works&#8217; reach to a more significant chunk of the population of Kashmir and Urdu knowing readers. The latest translation of a European writer that has hit the stands is &#8216;Kashmir As It Was&#8217; by Francis Younghusband. \u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Syed Nisar Gilani, a former revenue officer and\nfamed television host, has translated this work published in the first decade\nof the twentieth century and titled it <em>Kashmir\nEk Bayazaft<\/em>. &nbsp;&nbsp;The National Council for Promotion of Urdu,\nNew Delhi, has been published, and it has been priced at Rs. 230. Gilani has\ndedicated the hardbound book to his mother and father. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>I might have written it earlier. Let me write it at\nthe cost of repetition, &#8216;the entrancing beauty of our land has waxed even the\nmost prosaic lyrical&#8217;, so one is surprised when European travellers lavish it\nwith all praise. Younghusband starts his book with a quote from Bernier, the\nfirst European to enter Kashmir. In 1665, that was almost four hundred years\nback, he had written, &#8220;In truth, the kingdom (Kashmir) surpasses in beauty\nall that my warmest imagination had anticipated.&#8221; Bernier has not been the\nonly traveller who was spellbound; Kashmir has inspired Sanskrit, Persian, and\nUrdu poets&#8217; scores. Comparing Kashmir with Switzerland, Younghusband frankly acknowledges,\nit excels this European beauty. &#8216;There is not the same wide sweep of Snowclad\nMountains.&#8217; <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>For tens of millions of Urdu knowing readers in the\nsub-subcontinent and across the globe, Nisar Gilani has painstakingly spent two\nyears translating this classic work on Kashmir. Besides providing an insight\ninto the natural splendour of the Valley and administrative set up as existed\nin the early nineteenth century, it identifies the resources that, even if\nharnessed today, revolutionize the state&#8217;s economy. Lucidly, translated work in\nthe chapter titled The Electric Scheme provides many a moot point for changing\nenergy scenario of Kashmir. One of the moot points that instantly stuck my mind\nis the scheme drafted by Mr Fields and Maj Lobiniere for Jhelum&#8217;s dredging for\npreventing the recurrence of floods in Kashmir. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>&nbsp;The books by\nEuropeans like Younghusband translated in Urdu and other languages while\nenabling us to know about the environmental scenario as existed in19th and\nearly 20<sup>th<\/sup> century also serves as a lodestar in drafting plans. I am\namazed why such books should not be included in educational curricula. <\/p>\n<span class=\"fb_share\"><fb:like href=\"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/editors-take\/nisar-gilanis-transalation-of-younghusband\/\" layout=\"button_count\"><\/fb:like><\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Nisar Gilani&#8217;s Translation of <\/p>\n<p>  Kashmir, As I saw It.<\/p>\n<p>By <\/p>\n<p>Z.G.<br \/>\nMuhammad <\/p>\n<p>Irish poet Thomas Moore introduced our beautiful land to the Western World in the second decade of the nineteenth century  with these opening verses of his magnum opus Lalla Rookh : <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Who has not heard of the Vale of Cashmere,<\/p>\n<p>With its roses the brightest that earth ever<br \/>\ngave&#8221;,<\/p>\n<p>Most writers believe it was a great introduction that attracted European travelers, tourists, and adventures towards this Elysian land in the mighty Himalaya&#8217;s bosom. The great thing about some of these travelers is that they toured in the vales and dales of our land with their ears and eyes open. And on their way back, while narrating tales of their adventures, they did not forget to mention the agony, pain, and oppression of this land&#8217;s beautiful people. With their bags full of our stories of sufferings, the European travelers were &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":4252,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[3,5],"tags":[385,372,386,24],"class_list":["post-4251","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-editors-take","category-kashmir-talk","tag-nisar-gilani","tag-punchline-greaterkashmir-z-g-muhammad","tag-younghusband","tag-z-g-muhammad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4251"}],"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=4251"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4251\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4257,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4251\/revisions\/4257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4252"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4251"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4251"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peacewatchkashmir.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4251"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}