by Khawar Khan Achakzai
Post-Partition politics revitalised Kashmiri literature through Radio Kashmir, ushering in the Nadim era, followed by philosophically rich modern and post-classical poetry reflecting conflict, continuity, and renewal.
The political events that unfolded in Kashmir in the aftermath of partition resulted in the mobilisation of Kashmiri poets, writers and artists. The establishment of Radio Kashmir in 1948 played a vital role in the revival of popular interest in the indigenous forms of poetry, music, song and prose, providing a platform for artistic expression.
It was at this time that Dina Nath Nadim rose to prominence and remained at the forefront of the Kashmiri literary scene ever since. Widely regarded as one of the most innovative and sensitive Kashmiri writers, it was due to his profound impact on various genres of Kashmiri literature, his influence on his contemporaries and on younger writers, and his formal experimentation and thematic extension that his period of Kashmiri literature is often identified as the Nadim era, or the age of Nadim.
Nadim passed through numerous stages and in each of them engaged in distinct thematic and stylistic experiments. He wrote his first Kashmiri poem in 1942 on Moj Kashir at a time when Kashmir was passing through a critical political stage, with the mass movement of ‘Quit Kashmir’ challenging the Dogra dynasty. Nadim wrote patriotic poems like Sounth (Spring), Grav (Complaint) and Arivali Prarakhma.
In 1951, Nadim introduced blank verse in Bi Gavi ne Az ( I will not sing today). Nadim continued to be politically active, political poems had a socialist background that did not sound like sloganeering.
In 1953, he wrote the first opera in Kashmiri Bombur te Yemberzel (Bee and Narcissus). Nadim kept on experimenting with Petrarchan and Shakespearean conventions in which we find selective diction, suggestive imagery and delicate linguistic craftsmanship.
After trying various new forms such as free verse, the sonnet, Japanese Haiku style etc, in the 1960s Nadim returned to the native tradition, which had reached its peak in Lalla.
Nadim’s dexterity and stylistic innovations make him one if the greatest in Kashmiri literature who marches over many of his predecessors and contemporaries.
This era paved ways for many other poets like Amin Kamil, Rahman Rahi and Zareef Ahmad Zareef. Kamil excelled in Ghazals; he introduced realism and modern sensibility in Ghazal and nativised it in diction and symbolism. One finds novelty in all the fields that Kamil experimented with, i.e., poems, short stories, poetry, drama, criticism and novel.
Rehman Rahi
The poetry of Rahman Rahi occupies a central and transformative place in modern Kashmiri literature, marked by its philosophical depth, linguistic sophistication, and profound engagement with history and human experience. Early in his life, he came under the influence of leftist and progressive political and literary ideologies. During the early part of his life, he wrote mainly in Urdu.
It was in 1950s that he began writing in Kashmiri. Sanivin Saz (The penetrating notes) included many ghazals, and they had an intrinsic merit with hardly any weak line or metaphor; in line with what was called ‘progressive writing’.
Drawing creatively on classical Kashmiri forms such as the vakh and shrukh while infusing them with modern existential and socio-political concerns, Rahi bridges tradition and modernity with remarkable intellectual rigour. The titles of some of his poems, like Yeli Rav Khasi subhuk prav travaan (When morning sun appears disseminating its rays) are classic examples of progressive style, diction, and metaphor.
His poetry reflects a deep awareness of Kashmir’s cultural memory, collective suffering, and moral dilemmas, often employing dense symbolism, myth, and metaphor to explore themes of identity, alienation, time, and continuity. It is evident that between 1950 to 1955 he was deeply influenced by Nadim.
However, the clear break from the progressive phase came in 1970 when he wrote Yakrar (Confession), where Rahi metamorphosed from a progressive materialist to an existentialist, as we see in Sadah (A plea) and Baas (Feeling).
Unlike the overt romanticism of earlier poets or the direct revolutionary rhetoric of some contemporaries, Rahi’s verse is contemplative and layered, demanding an active, thoughtful reader. His mastery of language and form from various literary quarters, combined with his ability to universalise Kashmiri experience without diluting its specificity, earned him recognition as one of the most intellectually accomplished poets of Kashmir. He drew non-Western influences from modern Persian writers like Nima Yushij and Faurugh Farrukhzad. The western influences came from Eliot, Manly Hopkins and others.
The intellectualisation of style in Rahi’s poetry, his adaptation of symbols from Greek, Islamic and Indian mythology, established him as a defining voice of its modern poetic consciousness.
Just like Rahi, Firaq served his apprenticeship under progressive and Marxist influences. In 1962 he published a join collection with Rahi called Yim San Alav (Our calls). Firaq contributed to translating into Kashmiri the poems of Tennyson, Keats and Elliot. He concentrated on nature and romantic lyrics with a descriptive and alluring lyrical quality.
Moti Lal Saqi began life as a government employee in the Department of Agricultural Development, where, there being no work as such, he found bundles of time for study, a blessing for which he does express his gratitude. His subsequent postings were Radio Kashmir and Jammu and Kashmir Cultural Academy.
The Muse blessed him early in life, and he published his first collection of poems Modury Khaab (Sweet Dreams), in 1968. He grew up to be essentially a poet of the nazam and the rubai. Though he was influenced by the stalwarts of the progressive movement like Nadim, whom he admired enormously and from whom he learnt a lot about the art of poetry, he was never a poet of slogans and revolution.
On the contrary, he chose topics like gabirachh (shepherd), Yaavun (youth), Obur (cloud) and other down-to-earth themes. His language is the pure and simple language of the soil, far removed from the sophistication which poets aim at for ‘effective communication’. He never believed in literary extravaganza. His simplicity summed up his entire personality.
The other poets of this era include Ghulam Rasul Santosh, Makhan Lal Mahav, Muzaffar Azim, Mohan Nirash, Ghulam Nabi Khayal, Moti Lal Naz, Chaman Lal Chaman, Makhan Lal Bekas, Ghulam Ahmad Gash, Ghulam Ahmad Ajir, and Rafeeque Ahmad Raz.
Post Classical Phase
Currently, there are numerous poetic trends and no dominant influence, making the literary scene much different from the organised one which existed up to the 1960’s.
Ghulam Mohammad Gamgeen’s Brum, Mishal Sultanpuri’s Vany Ditymas, and Farooq Nazki’s Kob Kul present the picture of a world gone haywire. And Mohammad Ayub Betaab has that same story to say in Duhuly Khaab.
Ghulam Hassan Taskeen in Nazam laments the pallor of aarawal (the yellow rose). Rahim Rahbar in Zaal talks of the crawling snakes and of how the spider is the victim of his own devices, caught in the web he himself has woven.
Mirza Arif asks the Harduk Gwolaab (autumn rose) why he should enter a garden where butterflies and bumble bees are no longer the same friendly types, where water lies frozen hard, where the bulbul has bloodshot eyes. Ahmad Zareef in Boonü laments the merciless felling of the glorious Chinars.
Rasul Pompur in Vuni ti Ganeemath says it is a miracle that we are still together and is afraid the situation may not last long, for anything might happen tomorrow.
The same is the theme of Raghu Nath Kastoor’s Sonchi Manza Neri Kyaah. He finds the howling storm everywhere, with no sign of abating.
There is a fugitive hope, however, as can be seen in Rahi. This fugitive hope that good will prevail in the end is also expressed by Ranjoor Kashmiri, Muzaffar Azim and Rafiq Raaz.
Zareef Ahmad Zareef’s poetry stands at the intersection of satire, social critique and cultural memory in modern Kashmiri literature, and is central to understanding contemporary Kashmiri sensibility. Best known for his sharp satirical verse, collected notably in Taaran Garee and Buzeiy ne kaensi zaeree, he exposes hypocrisy, corruption, and cultural pretensions with biting humour. He writes in an accessible, idiomatic Kashmiri, drawing heavily on oral speech, proverbs, street idiom and folk humour, which makes his verse immediately communicative to common listeners
With continuously changing and reforming social and political circumstances in Kashmir, new subjectivities and sensitivities keep emerging. These find expression in unique forms of poetic articulation. The canon of Kashmiri poetry is as living as Kashmir itself and keeps constantly reshaping, revising, and renewing its contours.
This is the last part of the series on the evolution of modern Kashmiri poetry. Read the first part here, the second here and the third here.
(The author is a Kashmir-based cardiologist and writer. His areas of interest include Kashmiri history, philosophy, and literature, with a particular focus on cultural memory and interpretation. Ideas are personal.)
