Abdul Ahad Hajini was born on 19 April 1948 at a scenic and naturally village in Hajin in district Bandipora. He is a Kashmiri writer, translator, critic, essayist, prosaist, columnist, and much more. In 2013 Hajini was awarded the Sahitya Academy Translator award for his book “TEUTH PAZAR”. The book is a translation in Kashmiri of short stories of various Indian regional languages including Assamese, Kannada, Telugu and Dogri. In 2019 Hajini was again awarded the Sahitya Academy Award for “AKH YAAD AKH QAYAMAT” (collection of short stories).
Abdul Ahad Hajini did B.A. in English Literature and honours in Kashmiri Literature. He started his literary career in 1964 and began to reshape and advance Kashmiri language and literature. He modernised Kashmiri literature by spurning rigid classical forms and linguistic structures and brought a new creative and figurative language. Under the supervision of Prof Mohi ud Din Hajini and Mohammad Ahsan Ahsan saab, Hajini left no stone unturned to reform Kashmiri literature.
Abdul Ahad Hajini’s literary works (essays, short stories, criticism, prose) have been published since 1973 in different newspapers, journals and magazines of the state of Jammu &Kashmir. He has authored 8 books till now:
1 KASHRIS ADABS PETH AKH NAZAR (1973)
2 TEUTH PAZAR (2009)
3 HAWAS (2011)
4 YAETI NOOR ¬–SIER ARZO-SAMA (2012)
5 AEJAZ-e-GAREEBA (2013)
6 AKH YAAD AKH QAYAMAT (2015)
7 RAAI TRAAI (2016)
8 MIR GHULAM HASSAN KHUI HAMI (2017)
All these works are written in a stylised language. Like Wordsworth, he romanticises the world of nature. Like G.B. Shaw, he is a social reformer who always brings out the dark realities of society. Like Mathew Arnold, he has been characterised as a “sage” writer who chastises and instructs the reader on contemporary social issues. He in the manner of P.B. Shelley wants to liberate his society from the chains of slavery and wishes to bring forth revolution in every field of life. Finally, like S.T. Coleridge, he feels mesmerised in everything beautiful and puts the best words in the best order.
Abdul Ahad Hajini has deep faith in the power and supremacy of God and he also has firm belief in the blessings of Prophet Mohammad (SAW). He shows this spirit in his famous travelogue ‘Pilgrimage to Mecca’, (YAETI NOOR ¬–SIER ARZO-SAMA). In his collection of essays titled “HAWAS”, Hajini has been able to inspire his readers not only aesthetically, spiritually and morally but intellectually as well. His award-winning book “AKH YAAD AKH QAYAMAT” is a collection of Kashmiri short stories embedded in the Kashmiri spirit and atmosphere. The stories reflect the social environment of Kashmir and revolve around human relationships and principles. Hajini in his critical work “KASHRIS ADABS PETH AKH NAZAR” elaborately discusses literature and criticism, the place of short stories in Kashmir, Kashmiri drama, the Poet and his Consciousness, Art and Poetry, and Kashmiri Poetics. The book further concentrates on classical, aesthetic, logical and positive criticism in Kashmiri literature and language.
Abdul Ahad Hajini is a member of Halqa Adab Sonawari, the Chief Editor of “PRAVE”, a quarterly journal in English and Kashmiri of Adbi Markaz Kamraz. In 2013 he was selected as member of Sahitya Academy Advisory Board. He participates in seminars, workshops and debates conducted by prestigious institutions of India and Kashmir regarding the development of Kashmiri Language and Literature and is highly respected and honoured in these literary programmes. As far as his character is concerned, he is down to earth, God fearing, reverent, faithful, free from hatred and malice. To conclude, one must praise this exceptional, dazzling and scintillating writer in the words of William Shakespeare:
“So long as men can breathe, or eyes can see,
So long lives this, and this gives life to thee.”

The writer is a student at Dept of English, University of Kashmir. [email protected]

Aaqib Akbar