Pakistan is a paradigm example of a failed state that has undergone an extremely dangerous form of radical Islamisation.
Kashmiri
Kashmiri has an interesting
linguistic history. Like the other North Indian languages, it branched
off from the Indo-Aryan Sanskrit, but had another ancestor before that-
the Shina languages of the Indo-Iranian family. But when mighty Sanskrit
came, Shina was thickly overlaid. From about the 14th century, medieval
Persian too started creeping into Kashmiri. With such foreign
influences, the Kashmiri language boasts of peculiarities like certain
vowel and consonant sounds which no other Indian language has.
Kishtawari is the most popular dialect of Kashmiri.
The literary history of Kashmiri, beginning from 12th century AD, is
equally interesting. Poetry is the key word, with writers experimenting
with different forms of it in all ages. Anyway, contrary to what
happened in other literatures (or rather what has been recorded of
them), the first great Kashmiri writer was a woman. She was everybody’s
favourite- Lal Dad or Granny Lal. Her sensitivity and mysticism in the
verses "Vaakh" appealed to the Hindus, Muslims, scholars and
peasants alike. Other works of this formative phase (till about 1555
AD), though not as brilliant as Lal Dad’s, are Shrukhs of Sheikh
Noor-ud-din, Mahanay Prakash of Shiti Kantha, Banasura Katha of
Bhatavatar and Sukhadukhacharitam of Ganaka Prashasta.
Love-poetry flourished in the next few centuries. Along with the
mystical and esoteric verses perfected by Habib Ullah Navshohri
(1555-1617) and Rupa Bhawani (1625-1720), a new kind of love poetry
developed. This was the beautiful lol-lyric, sung mostly by women. Habba
Khatoon (1551-1606) and Aarnimal (late 18th century) were the ruling
ladies of this genre of mellifluous verses.
Although a garden jasmine I,
in the very prime of bloom,
yet waste I as the snow in June.
Come in the garden, Love,
Come and enjoy the jasmine bloom;
It blooms for you.
Habba Khatoon
Persian literature became quite an influence on Kashmiri in the late
18th century. And Kashmiri littérateurs like Mahmud Gani and
Waliullah Motoo (both mid-19th century) took to translations from
Persian and writing masnavis (couplets expressing one emotion) and
ghazals (romantic poetry set to music) in a big way. The legendary love
tales of Laila and Majnu, Shirin and Farhad, Sohrab and Rustum, and many
more were brought in which, a hundred years later, also became excellent
fodder for hit films.
Lila-poetry was another innovation where the poet sang like a
lover-devotee of the Creator’s exuberance. Paramanand (1791-1885)
excelled in this, while others like Prakash Ram, Maqbul Shah, Lachman
Raina, Rasul Mir and Shams Faqir dealt with other forms of poetry. The
Kashmiris are a singing people; songs and ghazals have always been a
part of their literary culture. The cult of the maikhana (liquor house)
and sharaab (wine) in ghazals, popular in Urdu poetry too, was created
in the 1890s and 1900s. The first few decades of the 20th century saw a
prolific writing of mystical and secular poetry, ghazals, masnavis and
geets (songs).
Prose appeared pretty late in Kashmiri, only in the beginning of this
century. But there’s really not much good Kashmiri prose, except
for a few translations. It was also the time of great socio-political
movements all over the country, which had their impact on modern poets
like Ghulam Ahmed Mahjoor (1885-1952), Zinda Kaul and Abdul Ahad Azad.
Dramas are a recent entry in Kashmiri, with only a few noteworthy like
Somnath Zutshi’s Mo’dur Mas and Viji Vaav, and some from the
Machaama series of Pushkar Bhan.
