Sheikh Showkat
Sheikh Showkat

Dr Sheikh Showkat Hussain

Legally Aligarh Muslin University is supposed to work for advancement of educational and cultural needs of Muslims.  Consequently it has to go for talent hunt within the community and promote it. The way AMU is doing this job became clear when it decided to confer D.lit degree upon Oscar Winner A R Rahman. The University is going to confer D.Lit degree upon A R  Rahman only after he has managed to win Oscar and rise to global fame.

Had he been conferred this degree prior to winning of Oscar Aligarh could have genuinely claimed to have contributed to his promotion and fulfilment of its raison d’etre. Coferment of degree after Oscar simply depicts that the university wants to share a pride for achievement of which it hardly contributed. It is not Aligarh only which is behaving this way. All universities of the sub-continent behaved in the same way when Prof. Abdul Salam of Pakistan  and Amartya Sen of India got noble prizes. All Institutions lined up to shower degrees and awards upon them. The degrees and awards were showered at a time when they hardly needed any encouragement and had excelled within their fields.

Kashmiris too do not lag behind their counterparts within the subcontinent in this pursuit. We take pride in tracing ancestry of so many excellent brains of the subcontinent and the world to our place. We seldom ponder over the fact that why Iqbals Nehrus Mantoos Khomainis and others get projected in alien lands and we hardly produce talents of such stature within Kashmir. The reason is obvious, we, like people of the subcontinent only know to share the bounties which come after personnel endeavour and hard work and do not know to promote talent within our state. Leaders are acknowledged if they are recognised elsewhere, scholars are perceived to be worthy of any attention if they achieve something elsewhere artists and ausicians are revered once they get awards abroad. It is this attitude of ours that has landed us in the mess with in which we are, enslaved and degraded in a worst situation than the nations which do not surpass us either in numbers or in talent.

Why don’t we ever asses reasons for elevation of Kashmiri’s to the level of leadership within the freedom movements and revolutions abroad and their failure to make any progress towards their own freedom. Why Nehrus Iqbals and Khomainis rose to top within other societies and we couldn’t produce likes within our own land. Isn’t our negative attitude responsible for suppression of talent and leadership within Kashmir. Let us become  promoters, appreciators and elevators and not become impediments in the way of excellence and talent.

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