Prof. Farooq Fayaz
From the remote past, Kashmir apart from its scenic beauty has been equally appreciated for its rich and colourful literary and cultural pursuits. Even during unfavourable political clime, Kashmiris never lost keen sense of scholarship and artistic zeal and produced monumental works in variegated disciplines of art, culture, literature and aesthetics. True, at different intervals of historical times, Sanskrit and Persian scholarship under the state patronage outshined the chances of literary promotion in vernacular; but the sensible souls, though seemingly illiterate, gifted with creative merit and insight used Kashmiri language as a medium to express their mystic experience. This resulted in the production of vast corpse of Kashmir poetic literature which provided enough chances to sick and sullen Kashmiris to amuse themselves amid political gloom and social strain
Fabricated by specific socio- economic conditions prevailing during 18th and 19th century Kashmir, the Sufi themes constituted the predominant shade of Kashmiri poetry. However, with the beginning of the past century there dawned a new age of socio-political consciousness, which alongside other branches of public life radically influenced the domain of Kashmiri literature as well. Ghulam Ahmad Mehjoor was the first Kashmiri poet to understand this new literary trend and temperament. The major element of divinity and unseen was replaced by human centric aspirations and the reflection of socio-political realities combined with deep sense of love for the soil became the cherished themes of new Kashmiri poetry. Mehjoor’s younger contemporary Abdul Ahad Azad under the new Marxian influence added new element of revolution against social injustice in the growing literary corpse of Kashmiri verse. The two remained dominant voices in modern Kashmiri literary history till 1947.
The shift augmented by Mehjoor and Azad played significant role to acquaint otherwise frozen and monotonous tone of Kashmiri verse with the borders of vibrant literary landscape that was being shaped by new global historical forces and processes .Taking cue from this new literary culture, there emerged a band of young educated writers gifted with exemplary creative mind on literary horizon of Kashmir, who latter days enriched various branches of Kashmiri literature through their writings. This young circle of writers includes Nadim, Kamil, Rahi, Firaq and others.
Following the footsteps of educated literary fellows, Kamil started his literary career by using Urdu as medium of his creative expression. The poet in question immediately shifted to Kashmiri and his shift to Kashmiri proved significant enough on the ground that Kamil’s wide ranged works not only added in terms of quantity to Vernacular literature but his was the remarkable addition to literary corpse of Kashmiri language and literature in terms of its intellectual fertility and richness. No doubt, like his other colleagues in the field, Amin Kamil, under the influence of Marxian literary theory, produced good mass of poetic production but its thematic range was very limited. This is evident from his poetic collection titled “MAS MALLERI”. The collection, though, apparently as the title suggests make one to believe Kamil as a romantic aesthetic abreast with imaginative craft, but contrary to this, a reader discovers undertones of descriptive and addressing style. This set of specific literary behaviour governed by the Marxian influence continued till sixties of the twentieth century after which new literary currents from West began to pour in the neighbouring world. Kamil gifted with an acute degree of wit and vision, very immediately understood the pulse and genuineness of the new literary movement, modified his literary behaviour and outlook and began to see things from the lens of modern literary cultural canons.
From 1960 onwards, Kamil with inborn creative ability comes forward with a mature literary calibre, thought and treatment. Precision, beauty, wit, satire, dramatic treatment and dialogue centric expressions combined with rich, colourful and mysterious background in regional setting becomes the remarkable feature of his literary style. All these qualities provide unmatching originality to his creative style. This distinctive behaviour stands exhibited in his poems like ‘Jungle’, ‘Zero bridge’, ‘Pren Sharah’ and other works in verse. The element of dialogue, theatrical tendency, and symbolic treatment combined together outshine earlier element of description and panoramic. His famous poem “Zero Bridge” symbolically represents the conflict between passion and reason, destiny and endeavour, culmination and concept. As a poet, he is original and provoking. He makes his readers to think about life exclusively in a dispassionate manner and draw results after taking into cognizance multiple forces which keep in shaping the human personality and its various shades. The satirical tone that he adopts, aims at exploring those invisible shades in a given work, which otherwise would fail to seek the attention of the sensitive reader. This does not only apply to his poetic works but it stands true to his prose works as well.
For a long period of time, the assertion has gained momentum that Kamil’s best creative accomplishments stand demonstrated in the form of Ghazal and not in Nazm. I, personally, disagree with the statement on the plea that Kamil was a creative writer par excellence who possessed necessary craft and skill to express his felt experiences in a form he thought suitable for the theme. True, he initiated a path breaking process of experimentation in the form of Kashmiri Ghazal, but that never means he possessed lesser creative merit to conceive, design and articulate a quality Nazm. In his latter poetic collections, alongside the verse in Ghazal, the reader comes across couple of beautiful Nazms on diverse themes.
Every literary production, produced in a given period of time bears imprints of contemporary realities and the milieu of the time. Creative writer seldom attempts to verify truths of his times, instead, complexity and colourfulness of available realities and felt facts do influence writer’s creative personality and these influences unnoticingly stand expressed through metaphoric idiom. Kamil was never a blind follower of convention, he believed in creative innovations which often coaxed him to debase the established literary canons. To quote Kamil: “Time glides so swiftly and with every passing day, it advances new requirements and principles. In the light of these new requirements, I, also attempted to set into motion couple of experiments. This new initiation played a commanding impact on my younger contemporaries and they began to follow the same style. By this assertion, I, never mean that my poems hardly fall short of poetic merit and be treated as unmatching pieces of literary art. However, the truth remains that this style is unquestionably fresh, original and unique.” Kamil exercised considerable influence on the new generation of Kashmiri poets and his style, of course, became a new school of poetic orientation towards the end of the previous century.
Unlike his other contemporary poets, Kamil, through his works articulates a deep sense of detachment from the otherwise established literary traits which according to him lack originality, commitment and truthfulness. This sort of distance brings yet another distinctive feature in his style- i.e.-intense satirical tune. This stands evident in all his works, be it poetry or prose.
Kamil’s creative range is immense, he writes with perfect ease and mastery on themes ranked from every possible sphere of life and a high standard of performance is maintained throughout. The period of poetic activity in his case extended over sixty years.
Besides being a poet with a distinct style, Kamil, by publishing his first and last collection of short stories titled “Kathi Manz Kath” left even his ardent critics spell bound .Kamil had his own ideas about the nature and relevance of fiction writing. For him, Afsana or short story is not a mere matter of relaxation and entertainment but he considers it as a powerful instrument of moral and social suggestion. His short stories present satirically the disillusionment and frustration of contemporary social life. His quick and sensitive imagination enables him to construct his plots and sketch his characters in a manner which provide them larger degree of societal legitimacy and this is the reason why Kamil’s short stories received exemplary recognition from cross sections of Kashmiri society. A serious study of his short stories tends the reader to believe that the author offers variety, flexibility and clarity to vernacular fiction writing.
As a critic and researcher, his craft of analysis and interpretation comes to fore when in his official capacity as chief editor, Kashmiri Sheeraza, Kamil brought out a wonderful collection of Kashmiri Sufi poetry in three volumes. The work gained wide spread appreciation for Kamil as a researcher and after Azad’s monumental work, Kashmiri Zaban aur Shairi, it was acknowledged as the second best endeavour in the domain of Kashmiri literary history. The work offers penetrating insights into the mystic nature and character of Kashmir’s Sufi history and culture. The editorial noting, footnotes, chronological construct and objective interpretation carried in the given work speak volumes about Kamil’s potentiality as a professional researcher.
As playwright and novelist Amin Kamil selects his characters from marginalised sections of Kashmiri society. He presents his characters with all beauty and ugliness against a complex regional sociological background. Like early Victorians, Kamil gives primacy to characters. Incident is used not only to expose a character but also to rope in more characters.
Born in 1924, at Kapren Kulgam, in a respectable family,Amin Kamil, shifted to Srinagar with a purpose to pursue higher education. After doing graduation, he sought admission in law stream in Aligarh Muslim University. On his return to valley, Kamil for a shot time served as a demonstrator in a local city college. After the establishment of J&K Cultural Academy in 1958, Kamil joined the new organization and acted in different positions till he reached to his superannuation. Amin Kamil for his remarkable literary contribution to Kashmiri language and literature has been awarded couple of state and national level awards. His work both in verse and prose has been translated in number of national and international languages.
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