Srinagar
Former Union minister Professor Saifuddin Soz, on Wednesday, said that to remember poet Mehjoor on his 66th death anniversary is a celebration as he has given voice to the pent-up feelings of Kashmiris and awakened the spirit for a unique struggle for freedom.
The spokesman said that Mahjoor was the first poet in Kashmir whose songs were sung almost instantaneously by the people of all ages, throughout Kashmir.
Mahjoor had galvanized the masses and his poems had inspired the Kashmiris to fight for their dignified future.
A prominent actor and film director of the time Balraj Sahni was so impressed with Mahjoor that he had remarked that ‘Mahjoor has given a new meaning and dimension to the then powerful leader of Kashmir to fight his battle’.
Paying a tribute to Mahjoor for his popularity with the masses, Sahni had also said,‘When his work takes him to the capital, he walks through streets unnoticed. And, yet his songs and poems are the cherished property of every man, woman and child, living between Baramulla and Pir Panchal’.
It was my privilege to convince the then Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that government of India need to commemorate Mahjoor for his popular poetry by issuing a postal stamp. This function of historic importance was held at SKIIC and the PM had released the Mahjoor Stamp in presence of Mrs Sonia Gandhi and others.
Today, the need of the hour is that we lay the foundation for a mechanism commemorating Mahjoor as a beacon of light and courage to preserve our precious Ethos for all times to come.
Peerzada Ghulam Ahmad was born on August 11, 1887, and died on April 9, 1952). He was better known by the pen name 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. In addition to his poems in Kashmiri, Mahjoor is also noted for his poetic compositions in Persian and Urdu.
