‘It is not just sufficient to say that Kashmir must be resolved, but what steps are we taking towards that?’

New Delhi: Mahatma Gandhi’s grandson and former West Bengal Governor Gopalkrishna Gandhi has questioned the Indian leadership for not taking any step towards resolution of the Kashmir issue.

“How much do we know of Dara Shikoh and how he was inspired from Kashmir? Whenever we think about Kashmir we think it is troubled….It is not just sufficient to say that the issue of Kashmir must be resolved but what steps are we taking towards that,” Gopalakrishna said.

He was speaking at a function here on releasing Kashmiri and Urdu translations of a book on Mahatma Gandhi’s leadership written by retired career diplomat Pascal Alan Nazareth here on Friday evening.

The book ‘Gandhi’s outstanding Leadership’ was first published in 2006 and has been translated into 15 languages including Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, Portuguese and several other Indian languages.

Gopalkrishna released the books in place of Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra who was scheduled to release them but could not attend.

“It is very good that the knowledge about Gandhi spreads in Kashmir and it is very good that the knowledge about him grows in Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal. But there should also be awareness about the literature of Kashmir in other areas of the country,” he said.

Gopalakrishna said it was his desire to listen to the music of Subbulakshmi in the morning and that by Begum Akthar in the evening.

“Now it is enough blaming the Quaid-e-azam and the Muslim League, we should remove the divisions within ourselves. Gandhi did his work, we have to do our work now. In this darkness we have to march forward with our own small torches,” Gopalakrishna said.

Prof Majrooh Rashid of Kashmir University, who translated Nazareth’s book into Kashmiri, said the process of translation “inwardly transformed” him.

“It was a great challenge for me because the legacy and tradition of writing prose in Kashmiri is a recent development though we had some translations done in the 19th century but prose as a serious and sensitive genre in Kashmiri began developing after 1947,” Rashid said.

“This book transformed me and for me this book will go a long way for Kashmiri students to have a better understanding of Gandhian philosophy, vision, secularism thought and international brotherhood,” he said.

Speaking in the function, Nazareth said he had in September 2011 given a talk on Mahatma Gandhi in University of Kashmir for which he said he received great ovation particularly from students.—Agencies

KR Desk