 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these messages)
|
Zareef Ahmad Zareef (born 17 April 1943) is a Kashmiri poet, writer, social activist and environmentalist. He is best known for his satirical poetry and efforts to highlight various social and political problems. He is involved in the preservation of the environment, culture and heritage of Kashmir. [1] [2]
Zareef Ahmed Zareef was born as Zareef Ahmed Shah in 1943, in the downtown city of Srinagar (Aali Kadal) to Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din. His father owned an embroidery workshop, in a locality that was also a hub for Hakims, Sufis, poets, traders, and merchants. As a child, Zareef held the Sufi saint Khawja Habibullah Ataar in great esteem, and still visits his mausoleum regularly to pay obeisance. Zareef received his education from Islamia High School, Rajouri Kadal. He was an enthusiast and a regular face in seminars, symposiums, debates, and annual events throughout his formative years. He received guidance from his teachers and noted writer - especially Sattar Shahid - and eventually found himself uttering lines expressing personal feelings and thoughts on stage. He soon developed the ambition to become a poet. [3]
As stated by Zareef numerous times, it was Ghulam Ahmed Mir Abid, a lesser known writer was the one who showed Zareef how to use his own imaginative powers and fine-tuned his writing aptitude. Hakeem Manzoor, an eminent Urdu writer, introduced Zareef to the great beauty of verse and the profoundness of literature.
 |
In 1968, Zareef was appointed as a scriptwriter in the Department of Information. While serving in the cultural unit of the Department of Information he remained active in organizing public shows, dramas, mushairas and features. He retired from the department as an assistant cultural officer.
After retirement, Zareef started his life as a poet, with Kashmiri being the medium. Much of the poetry portrays social evils, and Zareef aims to raise public awareness in order to address these issues. Imbalances in society, the plight of the weaker sections, and environmental filth have been some main themes of his writing.
Zareef has authored six (6) books:
After retirement from government service, Zareef's services have been utilized in numerous public, social, and literary fields. He has been selected/chosen as:
Literature of Kashmir has a long history, the oldest texts having been composed in the Sanskrit language. Early names include Patanjali, the author of the Mahābhāṣya commentary on Pāṇini's grammar, suggested by some to have been the same to write the Hindu treatise known as the Yogasutra, and Dridhbala, who revised the Charaka Samhita of Ayurveda.
Ghulam Rasool Santosh, also known as G. R. Santosh, was a prominent Kashmiri painter and poet. He was best known for his themes inspired by Kashmir Shaivism. In 1979, he became the recipient of Sahitya Akademi Award for his poem titled Be Soakh Rooh.
Peerzada Ghulam Ahmad, known by his pen name as Mahjoor, was a poet of the Kashmir Valley, along with contemporaries, Zinda Kaul, Abdul Ahad Azad, and Dinanath Nadim. He is especially noted for introducing a new style into Kashmiri poetry and for expanding Kashmiri poetry into previously unexplored thematic realms. Mahjoor is recognized as father of Kashmiri language.
Ghulam Mustafa Tabassum, was a 20th-century poet. His pen name was Tabassum.
Abdul Ahad Dar, popularly known as Abdul Ahad Azad, was a Kashmiri poet, historian and literary critic. Born in the Rangar village of Chadoora in Budgam district, Azad is considered to be the first revolutionary poet of Kashmiri.
Rasul Mir also known as Rasul Mir Shahabadi, was a romantic poet of Kashmir in the 19th century. He was born at Doru Shahabad, a historic town in Anantnag district of Kashmir. He is often referred to as imām-e-ishqiya shairi' for his literary contribution to Kashmiri romanticism. Mir was said to have been alive in around 1855 when Mahmud Gami and Swoch Kral sa'eb died. He died a few years before Maqbool Shah Kralawari. Though, Muhammad Y. Taing, in his book کلیاتِ رسول میر mentions of a document from Revenue Department, Anantnag, dated 5 April 1889, acknowledging Rasul Mir as a muqdam.
Amin Kamil (1924–2014) was a Kashmiri poet, literary critic, researcher and editor. He is also known for his short stories, a genre of which he was one of the pioneers in Kashmiri. He remains one of the most popular and influential masters of the Kashmiri language, leaving behind a legacy of literary brilliance.
Abdur Rehman Rahi was an Kashmiri poet, translator and critic. He was awarded the Indian Sahitya Akademi Award in 1961 for his poetry collection Nawroz-i-Saba, the Padma Shri in 2000, and India's highest literary award, the Jnanpith Award in 2007. He is the first Kashmiri writer to be awarded the Jnanpith, India's highest literary award for his poetic collection Siyah Rood Jaeren Manz. He was honoured with Sahitya Akademi Fellowship in 2000 by Sahitya Akademi, New Delhi.
Yusuf Jameel is a Kashmiri journalist known for his coverage of the Kashmir conflict, the disputed Himalayan region over which India and Pakistan have fought two of their three wars since independence from Britain in 1947. Kashmir. Jameel has written for BBC News, Reuters, Time, Voice of America, the New York Times, and the Indian newspapers Deccan Chronicle and the Asian Age. He received an International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists in 1996, which recognized him as having had "to withstand pressure and attacks from all parties to the conflict in Kashmir".
Z. G. Muhammad is an Indian writer.
Professor Ghulam Nabi Firaq was a Kashmiri poet, writer and an educationist.
Mullah Nadri or Mulla Nasiri was a Persian-language poet in Kashmir during the reign of Sultan Sikandar and then at the court of Zain-ul-Abidin (1423–1473).
Haji Mohi-ud-Din Miskin also Ghulam Mohiuddin was a Kashmiri poet who also wrote a history of Kashmir, Tarikh-i-Kabir. He is the first, after Mirza Ghulam Ahmad himself (1899), to record identification of the Roza Bal tomb with Jesus: "Others believe that it is [the] tomb of a great Prophet who is no other than Hazrat Isa [Jesus], the Spirit of God.” (1902).
Shamas Faqir or Shams Faqīr was a Kashmiri Sufi poet. He belonged to the Qadiriyya silsila of Sufism.
Abdul Wahab Khar, also appears as Wahab Khar, was the 19th-century Kashmiri Sufi mystic poet and saint. He is sometimes referred to as "scholar" for his contribution to the literature of Kashmir. He was actively engaged in writing Sufi devotional poems and used to attend musical gatherings throughout his life. From the poetry's perspective, he is primarily known for his devotional poetic book titled Verses of Wahab Khar, comprising Kashmiri language poems which was later published by the Kashmir Jay Kay Books in 2007.
Ghulam Nabi Gowhar was a multilingual Indian Kashmiri author, novelist, poet, columnist and a retired sessions jurist. He wrote about sixty books in Kashmiri, Urdu, and in English languages on various subjects such as politics, literature, history and on Sufism. In 1971, he wrote a novel titled Mujrim, leading him to become the "first novelist of Kashmiri literature". The recipient of cultural and literary awards and accordion, including Sahitya Akademi Award, he is also credited for translating constitution of India into Kashmiri language.
Mir Ghulam Rasool Nazki, also spelled Meer Ghulam Rasul Naazki, was a Kashmiri poet, writer, broadcaster, and teacher. He wrote books, including poetry in regional and foreign languages such as Urdu, Persian, Arabic and later work in Kashmiri language. The recipient of Sahitya Akademi Award for Awaz-e-dost, a Kashmiri poetry, he is also credited as the "first Kashmiri writer" to write in Rupublic of India after independence, and the first poet to resuscitate quatrain poetic form in Kashmiri literature, which originally began during the period of thirteen and fourteenth century poets such as Lal Ded and Nund Reshi.
Ghulam Ahmad Fazil Kashmiri was a Kashmiri poet and lyricist. He was involved in Arabic, English, Persian, Urdu and particularly in Kashmiri literature. His uncertain work includes thirty six books published in various genres such as ghazal, nazm, rubaʿi, qata, marsiya, munajat, naʽat, manqabat and leela among others.