The Kala Nidhi Division of Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts organised the launch of the book Jammu and Kashmir : The Wounded Paradise by eminent journalist Jawaharlal Kaul yesterday. It is published by Khama Publishers.
Manoj Sinha, honourable lieutenant governor of Jammu and Kashmir graced the occasion as the chief guest and launched the book. Rambahadur Rai, the president of IGNCA trust presided over the function. Dr Sachchidanand Joshi, member secretary of IGNCA, and Dr Rajneesh Shukla, the vice-chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi Antarrashtriya Hindi Vishwavidyalaya, Wardha, were the other speakers in the programme.
Prof Ramesh C Gaur, the dean and head of Kala Nidhi Division, IGNCA, introduced the programme and delivered the welcome address.
The author described the book as his personal engagement with Kashmir, and its unknown histories and issues. It also incorporates the optimism to rebuild the paradise.
Shukla termed the book as the author’s firsthand experience about Kashmir that chronicles the reasons for its changing nature for decades. He pointed out how the author has looked at the journey of Kashmir from 1940s till 2019 from a very personal point of view while closely touching upon various moments that are otherwise overlooked by writers and general readers. This book aims at finding ways to rebuild Kashmiriyat. Dr Joshi underlined the fact that rather than being a socio-political or geographical account of Kashmir, the book by Kaul is an emotional history of Kashmir. He mentioned that author’s dialogues with the younger generation of Kashmir inspired him to pen the book which not only diagnoses the wounds of the paradise on Earth but also holds hopes and aspirations for rebuilding the place again, and attempts at bringing back its lost glory.
In his speech, Sinha praised the author for writing such a personal historical account of Kashmir, bringing out histories missed out by other scholars. The seeds of this book lie in his love for Kashmir. It speaks about the past, present and future of Kashmir and the way forward for Kashmir to gain its lost glory. He termed Kashmir as the 'spirit of our consciousness'. He assured the author that some of his dreams for Kashmir are being acted upon and highlighted on the various positive measures that the Union Government, under the leadership of the PM, has taken for redeveloping Jammu and Kashmir. Closed doors of various public facilities have been opened. Facilities like electricity, road construction, health, youth employability, health care, development of water bodies, regaining lost lands, industrialization, food processing have been widely extended to the people and much progress has been achieved towards that direction. Laws have been modified for easy access to resources of the land by the people. He termed the book as a must-read, for the scholars, on Kashmir.
As the concluding remarks as the chairperson of the event, Ram Bahadur Rai shared personal anecdotes about the author while informing the audience about the story behind the book and the zeal of the author to bringing out the book while fighting against Covid at a hospital. He called the book the 'Kathoponishad on Kashmir' because of the author’s close engagement with the book even in the wake of his extremely critical health.
It was attended by about 80 participants at Samvet auditorium of IGNCA, including the MP of Ayodhya Lallu Singh, Usha Joshi, Manoj Mishra and others. The programme was also broadcasted live on Facebook and YouTube, and the recording of the programme will soon be available on IGNCA Youtube channel for those who were unable to attend it.