Wednesday, November 23, 2011

KASHMIR BOOKS


I was really amazed to find that a huge number of books written about Kashmir are available on the net and many of them can be downloaded gratis.I do not know if an anthology or a simple bibliography pertaining to books written about Kashmir has ever been attempted.I think the time to undertake such a task has come as most of the required information can be obtained from the net.But who will do this?In fact we do not have any institutions dedicated to such type of activities.Whatever institutions we have are neither programmed nor equipped to undertake any worthwhile task .We need a non Governmental initiative to locate, document, preserve and initiate studies on all written heritage.The million dollar question is ,how to go about it ?I have been crying hoarse for doing something about manuscripts which are fast disappearing into stomachs of silver fish and rodents.Now i have taken it up in my own little way.The manuscripts i have are now slowly but steadily getting scanned,page by page.I intend to start uploading on my website of nazki foundation and then invite others to scan and upload for free.This way we may be able to create a platform .No big dreams .Just do what you can within your resources of time and finances.Any collective action seems not only difficult but also appears risky in our circumstances.Any number of NGOs are available in many chosen areas of activity but how many of them are actually doing the work they ought to be doing.So let every one concerned citizen wake up and asses for himself the extent to which one can go and contribute.Now therefore an attempt will be initiated on these pages to begin with to produce book by book a bibliography of all books published about Kashmir in any language .Naturally the maximum entries would be from titles published in English but works in other languages would also be included.In the next post will be given the first entry and the manner and style to be followed in recording the entries.

1 comment:

ayaz rasool said...

Altaf Hussain Noble cause, very clear, very bright. Our best wishes are with you.
Wednesday at 11:45pm · Like

Vijay Wali while as nund reshi is our rooh it would be scientificaly just to accept that kashmiri shawls n artifacts have been grace of european r westerners of yore.still vast unexplored area remains if the author had personally been to kashmir or got first hand account from any visitor.if the former option is touched upon then there should be definitely any refrence to reshiism or the rishi him self.however no doubt nice work.
9 hours ago · Like....(from facebook)