KASHMIRI POETS

Dr. Kundan Lal Chowdhury

Kundan Lal Chowdhury was born in Srinagar, the geographical , administrative and political heart of the valley of Kashmir, a few years before India gained its independence from the British and thus grew up in an era of optimism, constructive planning and hope. His parental home in Srinagar was in a locality which is 99.9% Muslim, where his family was one of the few Hindu families. He grew up amongst Muslim childhood friends from families ranging in circumstances from poor to the well connected, the politically savvy and the financially well off. He studied in mixed, secular schools like his siblings. Prejudice was largely absent and both mother and father were accepted by all and sundry in the Muslim community as friends and advisors on a wide range of issues. 

Dr. K. L. Chowdhury

As a poet Kundan Lal Chowdhury is concerned with the universal human concerns in a world dominated by big power, big money and big guns. The book must be read in a universal context of our times embracing the historical mistakes which are being repeated again as well as new problems unique to these times . The anguished cry of the oppressed and the exiled is as relevant in Africa or Europe or North America or the middle East as it is in Kashmir. It speaks both for the oppressed and the oppressor communities. For there are many in both who lament the destruction of their universe.