J&K poet Mahjoor’s house crumbling, blame govt apathy

PULWAMA: Just 25km from Dadasara, the village of dead Hizb commander Burhan Wani, a retired librarian guards the quaint little house of one of Kashmir’s greatest progressive poets, Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor. She waits all day for visitors, mostly young students, to narrate some of Mahjoor’s popular poetry with themes of peace and communal harmony.
Nestled amidst shrubs, white carnations and a small lush green kitchen garden, the 73-year-old house made of wood, bricks and mud, in Mitrigam village of Pulwama, was designated as Kashmir’s heritage in 2005. However, Pulwama district has been mostly in the news for Burhan Wani-led new-age militancy and the latest suicide bombing that killed 44 CRPF jawans.
“There is a renewed interest among the younger generation in Kashmir in Mahjoor. Lot of school and college students come here to know about Mahjoor’s life and works,” says Perveza, the retired chief librarian from degree college Pulwama, who is also Mahjoor’s granddaughter-in-law.
As she opens the door to the house built by Mahjoor in 1946, when he was around 60 years old, and where he spent a great deal of his later years writing poetry, Perveza mentions that all the successive governments in J&K ignored Mahjoor. “If only they propagated Mahjoor’s literature, a lot of destruction could have been averted in Kashmir. He always preached peace and communal harmony.”
Mahjoor’s poetry is so well known in the literary world that late Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee quoted him once when he visited Kashmir. Coke Studio also produced a song by Mahjoor ‘ Sahibo sath chham mae chaniy wath mein asalich hawtam (Lord, my only hope is you, Show me the right path),’ which became widely popular some years ago.
A widow, who, after a bitter legal battle with her clan, remains the sole custodian of the house, Perveza laments that though the state government under then chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed declared the property as monument, neither Omar Abdullah nor Mehbooba Mufti governments invested in its preservation and maintenance.
“None of them fulfilled the commitments to turn the site into a popular educational and literary tourist destination. They didn’t give me any compensation or substitute land. The walls of the house are crumbling and I can’t even repair them because it’s a monument,” she complains, adding that she wouldn’t vote for anyone in the elections now.
Just across the street, the government abandoned the construction of two structures, one of them a library, midway. “This could be a model village but the government has cheated us,” says Perveza, who sustains her two daughters-in-law and grandchildren on her pension. Her two sons moved out last year in search of employment.
Incidentally, Sarhad, a Pune-based NGO, which has adopted over 100 Kashmiri children for education away from the violent and volatile situation of Kashmir, some years ago tried to set up Mitrigam as the village of books and poetry. “The concept has potential to employ hundreds of youths in the village,” says Sarhad founder Sanjay Nahar.
“We have already started work on this without any government support,” he says, adding that some help from the administration could just make the village a world-class tourist destination.