Foreword
It
gives me great pleasure to say a few words about
this remarkable autobiography created by a very
distinguished scientist and humanist, Shri Ram Nath
Kak, who has lived through some of the most momentous
events in the history of Kashmir, no less than in the
history of India, in the twentieth century.
As I read through this
manuscript, a question gradually took shape in my
mind: how do we locate memoirs and autobiographies
within creative literature as a whole? I am not a
literary critic and therefore, I can offer no formal
answer to this question. Yet I have no doubt that
memoirs, if sensitively created, rate very high in the
scale of creative writing. For this mode of literary
creation not only provides a glimpse of the inner
psyche of the person, it also portrays the 'context',
or the 'times', in which an individual pursues his
life. Shri Kak's memoir meets all the requirements of
a truly distinguished autobiographical piece. It has
the additional advantage of having been penned with a
poignant sensitivity that captures and constructs the
past - no less than the viewpoint of the participant
observer - with a faithfulness of extraordinary
quality.
Autumn Leaves, as Shri
Kak calls his reminiscences, portray with rare
elegance the culture of Kashmir and the manner in
which sensitive minds located in this beautiful valley
interacted over the centuries with creative men in
India, on the one hand, and Central Asia, on the
other. In the course of this portrayal the composite
character of popular religion in Kashmir is sketched
with rare grace and understanding. Against the
backdrop of a remarkably integrated culture, Shri Kak
delineates his life as a growing child in a Pandit
household, characterized by intensely close bonding
between generations, no less than within generations.
Through such a portrayal, he captures the strength of
the family as the basic unit of Kashmiri society,
which gives great resilience to the individual, no
less than to the wider community.
The core of Autumn
Leaves is concerned with the professional career of
Shri Kak as a distinguished scientist, on the one
hand; and the love and affection with which he
nurtured his family, in close interaction with the
larger kinship community, on the other. This part of
the memoir spells out a remarkable success story so
far as the Kak household is concerned; but even more
telling than material success is the affection and
concern which tie different members of the family to
each other.
In the concluding
sections of the memoir, Shri Kak dwells upon the
exterior world in which his life work was located as a
Kashmiri and a citizen of India. We see through his
eyes the growing politicization of Kashmir prior to
1947; as we also perceive the tragic handling of
politics in the state by the Delhi authorities after
it had been drawn into the Indian Union. There is much
here that would be of interest to those who are
reflecting on the Kashmir problem today as well as to
those who are responsible for fashioning the destiny
of Kashmir.
I trust this
autobiography will get the wide circulation it so
richly deserves. For it conveys in a way no formal
work of scholarship can convey, both the cultural
quality of Kashmir and the tragedy which has overtaken
it of late. Yet the spirit of the Kashmiri people and
their extraordinary ability to refashion lives of
dignity and creativity for themselves comes across
even more powerfully than the tragedy which has
overtaken this beautiful valley in Shri Kak's account
of his life and times.
RAVINDER KUMAR
Teen Murti House
New Delhi
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