Dr Muhammad Maroof Shah

We have few scholars of national or international standing in certain fields and what a tragedy if we don’t recognize them After the death of Amin Kamil many felt that we, as a community, didn’t honour him as he deserved and we failed to make full use of his great erudition in Kashmiri literature. What use do we make of  another literary giant Rahi Sahib, arguably the greatest living Kashmiri poet and critic whose poetic and critical work we have failed to translate and introduce to international audience  and we have failed to familiarize our newer generation with him despite his being the last great link from Lalla till date in what can be called Kashmiri Tradition– for learning to read him  newer generation may profitably consult young critics as Abir Bazaz (his essay “Learning to read Rahi”  comes to mind)  except for gracing certain formal occasions and occasional talks on electronic media? We have no platform for benefiting from our best scholars after...

Today we discuss one of the most gifted teachers and distinguished scholars that Kashmir University has the honour of  nurturing – Prof. G. R. Malik. There are two kinds of students of English in Kashmir University – those who have heard Prof. Malik lecturing on English Romantics or Shakespeare and those who are not so fortunate. A scholar of classics of at least four languages, arguably the most accomplished scholar of Iqbal studies in Kashmir, the most illustrious teacher of English literature in last three decades, a treat to listen in religious gatherings and refresher programmes or teacher training sessions or as speaker in seminars, the most formidable voice in  what some  literary critics have called Tameeri Adab movement in Kashmir, Prof. G. R.  Malik is the best known Kashmiri literary critic of English literature. He is also  one of the most articulate Kashmiri ideologues of Islamic literary and cultural tradition. It is unfortunate that no compr...