Young Writers in Kashmir: An Appraisal

The recent years have seen a sudden surge in the breed of young writers and surrounding them a phenomenon of self-publication. While many people describe this effect as a talent boom and the launching of Kashmiri youth into the orbit of writing and authorship, others have described the phenomenon as one of boomerang, repeatedly warning us of the caveats and clauses that need to be kept in mind while assessing these works. As somebody involved in writing both articles, research papers and books, I do well understand the “urge of writing” and the passion to share one’s thoughts and understanding with the rest of the world. But the writer, young or old, needs to be attentive and careful of the fact that while he writes, he imposes on himself a certain responsibility, which he can’t escape. 

The ideas he is going to express and share with the world are going to impact the readers, no matter how lesser in number these readers are. Thus, one can’t write anything, without any reason and rhyme, without any basis and sound foundations and then escape the responsibility that these erroneous writings engender. It thus becomes imperative for writers to thoroughly understand their subject matter and carry an in-depth analysis of the theme they intend to write about. But is it possible for a teenager of average mental abilities to understand Plato, Hegel, Heidegger and others, say for example if he intends to write about philosophy?

The fact remains that any attempt to write about philosophy without having an in-depth understanding of these representative authors and dozens others is futile. At the same time it can’t be expected of a writer in his teenage years to understand these doyens, let alone absorbing and assimilating their ideas. This not only demeans whatever he will write in the face of this handicap but also makes his writing redundant and of vestigial nature.

What has been typically said of philosophy applies equally to the fields of human intellectual enterprise like religion, spirituality, science and any other discourse where seriousness and an encompassing understanding of the subject is prerogative and of primary importance. The problem is not with writing per se, but with the fact that when these books and articles come across an intellectually piercing gaze, not only are their errors revealed, but the reign of misunderstanding, appropriation and pseudo-knowledge they try to erect also falls on its own. What about those, who are not intellectually well-tamed and can’t sift chaff from the grain who are easily impressed and driven away by the premature arguments of these books and when they encounter a solid counter-argument, not only do they feel at loss, but they castle of their beliefs is also rattled apart. A student of Urdu writing about physics with the confidence of Einstein is surely going to boomerang and make the entire intellectual niche vulnerable to the reign of misosophy. This situation compels us to caution our young and aspiring writers to take their time, fatten their knowledge purse, explore counter—arguments objectively and then arrive at conclusions that are valid to the best of their understanding and that is corroborated by a storehouse of their previous studies. This creates the environment of growth and evolution and the author duly learns from his previous mistakes as he ascends the never-ending spiral of intellect. This is opposed to the case where the writer battles the vacuum with his vacuous arguments and moves the sword of his intellect blindly in alleys of ignorance. 

There are genres where, without underestimating the value of learning and observation, one can appreciate the upcoming writers and authors. In the past, we have seen young novelists, poets, story-tellers embellishing our literary landscape across the linguistic divide. What distinguishes this genre – the genre of fiction from that of serious non-fictional writing — is that here reader’s beliefs and cherished ideas are not at stake. Here the truth value of the work of writing doesn’t concern the reader, the power of arguments is not weighed nor does the possibility of counter narratives arise. But that shall not drive us into the belief that anybody with a keyboard under his/her hand shall start writing. Fiction too has its rigorous and well-defined parameters to evaluate any work of art and thanks to these parameters, one can, as much as possible, discern the worth of one literary work from another. It is in ignoring these parameters like thematic, technique, craftsmanship, use of words and a dozen others that most of the works of fiction suffer the fate of oblivion and ignorance. Those works of literary merit which take care of these standards don’t only survive the test of time but also carve for them an undestroyable niche.

What has been said above will be of no use if we don’t add a few more words to it. The budding/young/teenager writers must get their manuscripts at least cross checked by the experts of the subject they are writing about. This will eliminate their broad and rough errors at the very outset and the reader shall also feel that the book he is holding in his hands, coming from a young writer it may be, carries with it a weight of credibility. Books must be written with a prospect of shelf-life and an idea of creating an impact among its target readers. These goals can be met when the author rises above the banter of short term applause and unqualified appreciation – something which arrests the youth immediately and to which they fall easy prey to. To rise above the short-term jubilation to long-term impact can be had only when the writer is fully aware of his responsibility and the reason behind putting his thoughts on pages. Indifference to these indispensable factors leads our books to the state of ignorance by readers – fate which is evident to us all. Foreword-ing is something which our young writers need to be careful about and they must try to  get their book foreword-ed by man of letters, merits and credibility and it is evident that no man of credibility will foreword a book which is not worth  it. Thus it sets a quality check at the very outset and also raises the reputation of the book. These are some of the preliminary observations made in context of the emerging writers in Kashmir, in absence of which we believe that the books and authors can’t be remembered beyond their release dates.  

Views expressed in the article are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent the editorial stance of Kashmir Observer

• The author is a Srinagar-based columnist 

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