To Relive Yesterdays May Be Like Breathing Life into Rotten Skeletons of the Dead
By Mushtaq Ul Haq Ahmad Sikander, New Age Islam
10 July 2024
While Unfolding Shrouded Events of Yesterday, I Am
Afraid, I May Suffer Grievous Wounds Deep into My Soul. This Will Be Like
Breathing Life into Rotten Skeletons Of The Dead. Will The Miracle Happen? May
It Be So! If I Dive Deep into The Ocean of Time, What Do I Come Up with?
Shells-Hallow and Valueless-No Gems and No Pearls.
------
Beyond
Me: Weaving Yesterday’s Wavering with Fragile Threads into Tomorrow
Author:
Professor Abdul Ghani Butt
Publisher:
Gulshan Books, Srinagar, Kashmir
Price:
Rs 895, Pages: 264
--------
Autobiographies are very essential to
understand the life and times of people who have contributed in shaping a
society or influenced any aspect of human life. A life lived quite well
certainly will help the readers to draw lessons and implement the same, if
pragmatic in their own lives. Prof Abdul Ghani Butt, is a man of many shades,
the prominent one being his involvement in the resistance and separatist
movement in Kashmir. He is one of the stalwart leaders of Hurriyat Conference
and an articulate speaker and immaculate writer. Going through his autobiography
is quite a refreshing experience, because it details his childhood, student
days, his job as a college lecturer and stops at the very initiation of his
public life as a politician. Although, he promises to detail the same in other
volume of his autobiography, that is still anticipated by the readers.
The Introduction is quite powerful, that
keeps the reader hooked. He very well observes about nostalgia, what it means
and how reliving past may throw up emeralds for future. “It is quite heartening
to witness that people who are active in any capacity in the public life are
penning down their memoirs. It helps the readers, to understand the nuances,
complexities and contributions of these people who have a public figure stature
in the society. Kashmir was always in the grip of politics, that offered a huge
propaganda potential for polarization of masses. In the process of narrative,
counter narrative propaganda about Kashmir, the real narrative of Kashmir got
mired into oblivion.”
“To relive yesterday’s maybe nostalgic-as
nostalgic in my case as it is reproachful. While unfolding shrouded events of
yesterday, I am afraid, I may suffer grievous wounds deep into my soul. This
will be like breathing life into rotten skeletons of the dead. Will the miracle
happen? May it be so! If I dive deep into the ocean of time, what do I come up
with? Shells-hallow and valueless-no gems and no pearls. That being the case I
will obviously have achieve nothing except stumbled on objects of very little
value or no value at all. And if I chose to gather shells, maybe a pearl
accidently falls to my lot.” (P-3)
Prof Butt, describes the village life of
his times, and how it has changed now because of the changing trends, that has
impacted the raw rural life too. He is a typical village boy born in Boitengoo,
Sopore, struggling with studies and the hard work he has to put in to continue
his education. It is interesting to know how he landed into choosing Persian as
a subject for his study at under grad and post-graduation level that ultimately
landed him into a teaching job in university. It is interesting to know that
another separatist leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani taught him Persian, although
briefly. He believes that many times choices are decided by others and later
are loved by the person, who initially resisted them.
Being a teacher himself, he is all praises
for his teachers as he is enrolled in S.P College. The teachers praised the
students, instilling among them the joy of reading, and from there he lands
into the prestigious Aligarh Muslim University (AMU), where he opts for dual
degree in Persian and LLB. He praises Prof Hadi Hussain, Head Department of
Persian for his teaching style, and how he used the pedagogy of English to
teach Persian. However, Prof. Butt is critical of the gender segregation at
AMU, “We got down to studies, eyes focused on books, heads bending downwards in
a brooding state and hearts beating, pleasingly on desks in a room, converted
by a black screen into two-a part for us and a part for girls in conformity
with the traditions, being so jealously guarded at the campus. ‘Tradition’ and
the force behind it could not be flouted in any case. May be, segregation
between male and female members of the human hive helps promote, in observance
of religious injunctions, a chaste, orderly living or maybe, in preservation of
social taboos, it discourages tendencies to defile the moral fabric of a people
or maybe, in terms of psychological interpretations, it breeds more curiosity
to be more intensely drawn towards the opposite sex. However, co-education at
the highest institutional level contradicts any rationale behind segregation
between male and female student community. Co-education and girls with veils or
maybe, in veils constitute a contradiction even in terms of logic. Tradition
nevertheless holds sway. The girl students even at the Masters level wearing
veils outside are put behind screens in the classrooms as well. It could be
veils within screens, if not veils and veils concealing frailty and beauty of
opposite sex.” (P-93)
He further laments, about his decision of
opting for LLB, then later justifies his decision. “But then, why at all did I
do LLB? Gropers in educational institutions like the blind in sunshine
constitute a struggling, stumbling and directionless lot, lost in fantasies. No
illiterates can properly guide their offspring. I represented the first
generation of my family to have been initiated into educational institutions.
Don’t ask questions. Answers are not easy to flow. Look, I was apprised symbolically
in the dream that the legal profession was, in spite of LLB, beyond me and that
I could not become a lawyer. Pre-destination and free will are working which
way, maybe difficult to spell out categorically. To my mind, however,
predestination and free will seem to be operating in harmony, each partly
equally to shape future. How could my future shape? I could hardly exactly
predict, except put in an effort to see tomorrow shaping up to my heart’s
content.” (P-108)
With a chronology of his life, he relates
the events in politics, friendships and fellowships that developed with
colleagues, transfers and postings in different colleges. He mentions about
Prof Abdual Salam Dhar, who served as Principal of Degree College Sopore, and
was a disciplinarian, who took strict actions to curb the free spirit of
Professors, but then Butt dissented. He informs the readers, about the
relations with students, pedagogy, helping maintain sanity among them, and how
to maintain discipline among students in co-ed colleges, where boys and girls
fall in love with each other. However, the irony is that he does not mention
about his own love story or his marriage. He also describes how he joined a
literary forum (Adbi Markaz Kamraz),
and his relationship with Prof Abdual Rasheed Nazki, and later he grew close to
Prof. Ghulam Mohiuddin Hajni. The dates of his transfer and years served at
different colleges are missing from the pages of this autobiography, as he
taught for 23 years and informs the reader about what teaching involves.
“A teacher is expected to put everything
into teaching-his head, his heart and his soul too. He could otherwise lose
grace as a teacher and even forfeit claim as the master of art of teaching.
Teaching is not a dry, thoughtless occupation. It involves devotion and
direction, discipline and determination to impart lessons on life.” (P-225)
The autobiography is worth reading,
particularly in context of pedagogy, teaching and teacher’s experience, that
few among the masses know about the personality of Prof Butt. His involvement
in politics from 1990s till now, is open for mass consumption, but this volume
of his autobiography does not cover that aspect of his life, even if it is the
dominant characteristic of his personality. In this work we come to know about
Prof Butt as a teacher and employees’ leader, but the real struggle of this
politician is yet awaited by the readers. The publisher too has done a
commendable job; by publishing this work and we are aware about the versatility
of Gulshan Books, that has bestowed a voice to many unsung heroes of Kashmir.
------
M.H.A.
Sikander is Writer-Activist based in Srinagar, Kashmir
URL: https://www.newageislam.com/books-documents/relive-yesterdays-breathing-life-skeletons-dead/d/132669
New Age Islam, Islam Online, Islamic Website, African Muslim News, Arab World News, South Asia News, Indian Muslim News, World Muslim News, Women in Islam, Islamic Feminism, Arab Women, Women In Arab, Islamophobia in America, Muslim Women in West, Islam Women and Feminism