Renowned Kashmiri poet Rehman Rahi, who dedicated his life to the promotion and preservation of the Kashmiri language and gave its poetry a distinct identity, passed away at his residence in Srinagar, the largest city of Kashmir, on Monday. His age was 97 years. His son Dr Dildar Ahmed confirmed the death.
Throughout his career as a writer and university professor, Mr. Rahi remained committed to Kashmiri, a language he saw as a source of Kashmiri identity and essential to preserving the ancient culture of a divided region.
He published more than a dozen books of poetry and prose in Kashmiri and is credited with restoring the language spoken by over six million people to the realm of literature, bringing it out of the shadows of Persian and Urdu, which Once dominated the literary scene. In Kashmir, a disputed territory that straddles India and Pakistan.
Rahman is gone but his legacy lives on. He has proved to be the strongest and most committed poet and writer of contemporary Kashmir who has elevated the Kashmiri language to the heights of the languages of the country. He is the only recipient of the Alam Peth Award from Jammu and Kashmir, among other honors and honours. Rahi was a versatile writer in the Kashmiri language who tackled diverse themes in poetry and prose. Recognized for his rich vocabulary, multicultural allusions, and density of meaning, Rahi is a true poet with unparalleled complexity of thought.
In the mid-twentieth century, Kashmir’s cultural foundations were rapidly advancing, leading to structural changes in its aesthetic and cultural needs. Thus the movement of progressive writers helped save Kashmiri identity, culture and literature from fragmentation. Rahi, real name Abdul Rahman Mir, was born in Srinagar in 1925. After completing his secondary education from Islamia High School, Srinagar, he did his Masters in Persian and then English Literature and was appointed as a lecturer at the University of Kashmir. After a few years of college, he joined the Persian Department of the University of Kashmir, and in 1977 he joined the university’s newly established Department of Kashmir, where he taught until his retirement. Although he was attracted to poetry from childhood, he started writing poems inspired by the movement of progressive writers. In these early poems, he comes across as an idealized romantic, longing for a perfect world where all his youthful passions are fulfilled. His poetry collection Nowruz Saba reflects this combination of progressive ideology and romantic aspirations. However, unlike other poets who wrote under the influence of this movement, he was also aware of the importance of art. This is evident in his poetry of this period, which not only helps trace Rahi’s evolution as a poet but also his continued commitment to the pursuit of art in its purest sense. . . It helps. This combination of romanticism with his passion for pure art can be seen in many of his poems, including Shayair (The Poet), Hasan-e-Lazwal (Eternal Beauty) and, above all, Fan Barai Fan (Art for Art’s Sake). ) Included. ) Included. ) Included. . The latter celebrates art as an attitude that is sufficient to survive in life. Through his collection, Jaran Manz established Rahi as the most creative force among contemporary Kashmiris. It also reflects his imaginative canvas and his individual approach to universal themes and the human condition in general. Prof. GR Malik rightly calls it the key with which we must unlock the treasury of his poetry. The poem is a paean to Kashmiri culture and language, and a tribute to his vibrant imagination. As Rahi matured, he abandoned the borrowed idiom and began to express his sense of living instead. He embarked on a quest to create his own idiom based on his individual experiences. This language was independent of its immediate background and had its own rhythm and music, harmoniously integrated with the structural existence, unique experiences and thematic preoccupations of its poetry. This is the approach Rahi adopted for his later poetry and which distinguishes him from his contemporaries, predecessors and successors. Qari Darya Silsbal, Sada, Olon etc., are some of the poems that are completely new experiences in the Kashmiri aesthetic realm, taking him on a path that was famous for his classical and contemporary genius.
In his search for an idiom, Rahi fundamentally changed the idiom of Kashmiri poetry, thereby subverting traditional expressions in the cultural fabric of Kashmir. Through his creative expressions, he literally created a fresh worldview that was more appropriate and compatible with contemporary sensibilities and contemporary realities. The result is a poetry that has enriched the Kashmiri imagination, expression and idiom in an unprecedented way. Rahi’s poetry mirrors a contemporary sensibility that reflects an awareness of the tragic sense of life, its frailty, its sense of fragmentation. of consciousness, the latest research in science, both abstract and material, historical evolution and the changing meaning of basic human emotions such as love.
Rahi is also known for his multicultural awareness which is reflected in his choice of themes and diction. His extensive study and awareness of the symbols of diverse cultural identities, from Greco-Roman to Middle Eastern, Central Asian, and subcontinental, gave him a global perspective, allowing him to deftly integrate these symbols into his poetic world. . , and his own vocabulary which is distinguished by its complexity, originality and concreteness.Zabarwan bale thangi (The Zabarwan Peak) and Zanti akh nazm (As if it’s a poem) are some such poems integrating multi-cultural allusions to cause a dramatic effect while revisiting some traditional motifs in light of changed realities in modern times.
Rahi does not observe life from a distance but experiences it on a personal level, brings it to life in his imagination and then transforms it into a metaphor. What Rahi aims for in his poetry, especially in his poem, is precision and spontaneity with a vocabulary that is uniquely his own and which he has mastered completely.
Rahi believes in pursuing life’s fleeting moments and its swinging consolations, by using metaphors in novel ways to make them mean more than they traditionally meant. For example, Zabarwan Bale thangi (The Zabarwan peak) is a poem in which the poet addresses the Zabarwan peak in a dramatic manner revisiting its mythical, historical and geographical importance in modern times. Zabarwan and Deep River of Paradise are two examples of such poetic behavior of Rahi.
A versatile and prolific reader, Rahi draws on Kashmir’s rich cultural identity and its mythic topography to shape his poems. He is so engrossed in the cultural landscape of Kashmir that he composes much of his poetry by borrowing freely from Kashmir’s past and present. The ancient character of Kashmir, its legends and cultural landmarks are his useful references. Most of his poetry is about his journey towards self-discovery and his cultural affinity with the cultural mood of Kashmir. He sees Kashmir not as a neighborhood but as a fantasy. He hates to lose the cultural idiom of Kashmir. It is for this reason that he seems preoccupied with reviving dying cultural expressions, words and idioms and preserving them for posterity. He then uses these cultural expressions as a window into Kashmir’s famous past that is on the brink of death. From the 1970s, Rahi wrote poems in simple idioms to describe the complexities of contemporary life, thus introducing postmodern aesthetics to Kashmiri literature in his unique style. He completely changed the concept of love in his poems like Karb (Creator).
Rahi’s poetry is also known for its serious engagement with the deeper questions of life. This poetry also has a liberal recourse to myths and images that are universal in their reach. At this stage Rahi realizes the essence of humanity that it is not only connected to its past but also connected to its destiny. This poetry is characterized by an “intellectualization of style”, which freely uses “symbols from Greek, Islamic and Indian mythology. Its emotional movement. Its structure is more harmonious and subordinate to the poet’s experience.” She provides the freedom he longs for while he is bound by a bond. A reasonable measure of discipline. was the result of his realization that the ghazal was more suited to his passions and more suitable for conveying nuances of emotion and expression than traditional metrical patterns. His poetry “helps one deal with anger and enables one to live life on one’s own terms.
Apart from his poetry, Rahi was also a critic and prose writer. He enriched Kashmiri prose through his unique style, and his critical writings proved to be pioneering. He introduced universal standards of literary creativity and appreciation, suggesting tried and trusted touchstones of literary criticism for assessing the true value and merit of Kashmiri writings. Which in itself led to the development of poetry, prose and criticism which strengthened the language in other genres besides poetry.His essays like ‘Shaarut te Tamik Tarkeebee Ajza’ have been hailed as milestones in Kashmiri critical prose. His collection of essays, Kahwet, published in 1979, remains the only evaluation of its kind of Kashmiri language and literature. It sheds light on unexplored dimensions of classical and modern Kashmiri poetry, explicating the definition and explanation of creative literature in changing times. Another book of his, titled Shaar Shineasi, is a pioneering work on Kashmir’s mystic ethos. It explains how the Sufi and mystic poetry of Kashmir has humanistic roots and how it is relevant even now.
Rahi is the name of eternal evolution. He is always open and receptive to changes on the outside and growing maturity on the inside. From being a celebrated poet to a trendsetting critic and literary theorist, Rahman Rahi is one of the most influential figures on Kashmiri culture and literature. His distinct approach to the Kashmiri language and his adoption of it to convey universal themes is unique. His legacy of creating his own idiom to express himself sets him apart from his contemporaries. His artistic achievements have expanded the imaginative and poetic world of the Kashmiri language in an unprecedented manner.