Tongues Of Lilting Grace

A band in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir singing lyrics penned by a legendary poet wins hearts in the Valley

- Naseer Ganai in Srinagar

Ha gulo tuhi ma sa vuchwun yaar muen Bulbuloo tuhi tchandtoun dildaar muen

O flower, have you seen my love? O bulbul, you search for my belo-ved. So sang the poet 78 years ago, as a valley writhed amid the tum-ultuous twilight of its ancien rég­ime. And recently, so also sang Altaf Ahmad Mir, 55, a singer based in Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakis tanoccupied Kashmir (PoK). The wellloved lines of Ghulam Ahmad Mahjoor (1887–1958) found musical expression when Mir and his band, Qas amir, were featured on Coke Studio Explorer, an initiative by the Pakistani franchise of music platform Coke Studio that seeks to unearth diverse and undiscovered talent. And although the accents of PoK are poles apart from the Kashmiri spoken in the Valley, leading Kashmiri singers, young and old alike, say the band’s rendition—performed by musicians who have their roots in the Valley, using traditional instruments—captures the essence of Kashmiri music.

The poet, Mahjoor, was no bystander to the events of the 1940s, no ascetic meditating in the mountains, but an idealist whose poetry was published regularly in Hamdard, a newspaper set up by Sheikh Abdullah and Prem Nath Bazaz when they were enmeshed in the struggle against feudalism and the rule of the Maharaja. Together with the likes of Dina Nath Nadim and Abdul Ahad Azad, Mahjoor was a political poet whose works held up a mirror to the political reality of Kashmir. He supported the revolutionary cause until he grew disillusioned after 1947.