In the hallowed precincts of Tagore Hall, Srinagar, where the echoes of countless literary gatherings reverberate through time,
The conferment of the 'Khil'at-e-Marghoob 2025' upon Dr Abdul Ahad in the hallowed precincts of Srinagar’s Tagore Hall transcends ceremonial protocol. The award, bearing the venerable name of Prof Marghoob Banihali, a beacon of Kashmiri literary and spiritual tradition, couldn’t have found a more deserving recipient than this distinguished scholar whose life's work has been an unrelenting pursuit of historical truth amidst a chaotic maze of contested narratives and ideological appropriations. Dr Ahad is not merely a chronicler but a conscience-keeper of Kashmiri civilization.
Dr Ahad represents that rare synthesis of academic rigour and cultural intimacy which elevates historiography from the realm of abstract scholarship into the domain of lived experience and collective memory. Educated within the hallowed corridors of Kashmir University, where he pursued his doctoral research on Ladakh's socio-economic tapestry, he has since traversed the entire spectrum of Kashmir's historical consciousness—from the terracotta fragments of 3rd-century B.C. Hutmara that confirm the region’s ancient civilizational roots, to the buried treasures of Maidan-e-Chogul that whisper secrets of forgotten economies, to the contemporary upheavals chronicled in his forthcoming work "Kashmir: Ashes Beneath the Paradise."
His trajectory from lecturer at Amar Singh College to Commissioner Secretary, and his transformative tenure as Director of Archives, Archaeology, Museums, Research and Public Library, equipped him with both the institutional authority and the grassroots understanding necessary to undertake the sacred task of preserving Kashmir’s miraas while interpreting its contemporary relevance.
Dr Ahad's scholarship does not see Kashmiriyat as an abstract philosophical construct, but as a tangible reality woven through the warp and weft of daily existence, articulated most eloquently in his seminal work "Shawls and Shawlbafs of Kashmir: Legends of Unsung Heroes."
In this masterful study, he has accomplished what few historians dare attempt - the transformation of material culture into a comprehensive civilizational narrative. The Kashmiri shawl becomes a repository of the aspirations of artisans, the dynamics of global trade, the aesthetics of Persian and Central Asian influences, and the resilience of indigenous knowledge systems.
Through archaeological and cultural evidence, Dr Ahad has established that the Shawl was indigenous to Kashmir, not an import from Central Asia as commonly assumed. Through painstaking research that bridges oral histories with archival documentation, he has rescued from oblivion the names and narratives of countless shawlbafs whose fingers created beauty even as history consigned them to anonymity.
His other major works—"Kashmir Rediscovered," "Kashmir: Triumphs and Tragedies," and "Kashmir to Frankfurt"—collectively constitute an intellectual architecture through which one may comprehend the multiple dimensions of Kashmiri identity: its historical individuality forged through centuries of synthesis and struggle, its political vicissitudes from Dogra absolutism through various phases of contested sovereignty, and its economic transformations as local craftsmanship encountered global markets.
What renders these works indispensable is not merely their archival precision or analytical depth, but their moral clarity and human sensitivity. Dr Ahad writes with the understanding that behind every political upheaval lies human tragedy, behind every cultural transformation lies the anxiety of continuity and change, and behind every economic statistic lies the lived reality of artisans, traders, and common citizens whose voices are too often drowned in the cacophony of grand narratives.
In an age characterised by the weaponisation of history, where the past is frequently conscripted to serve present ideological agendas, Dr Ahad's unwavering commitment to evidence-based scholarship assumes the dimensions of moral courage. His methodology of combining archaeological discoveries, archival research, oral histories, and cultural analysis yields a historiography that resists both colonial distortions and contemporary revisionism.
While documenting the 3rd-century B.C. terracotta tiles from Hutmara, he asserts Kashmir's deep temporal roots and its capacity for indigenous cultural development. When he documents the shawl industry's decline, he is chronicles not just economic transformation but the erosion of entire knowledge systems and social structures.
Yet what elevates Dr Ahad beyond the realm of conventional scholarship into that of the truly venerable is the seamless integration of intellectual excellence with personal humility. Those who have encountered him, whether in academic conferences or informal gatherings, invariably remark upon this quality. He’s a scholar of immense erudition who wears his learning lightly, a man whose every utterance carries the authority of definitive historical testimony yet who listens with genuine openness to alternative perspectives, a public figure who commanded administrative power yet remained fundamentally connected to the human dimensions of governance.
The timing of this recognition assumes particular poignancy in our current historical moment, as Kashmir navigates transformations whose long-term implications remain unclear and contested.
In such times, the role of the historian becomes crucial not merely as a documenter of the past but as a provider of perspective, a reminder that present upheavals, however cataclysmic they may seem, are but moments in a longer civilizational journey.
Dr Ahad's forthcoming work, "Kashmir: Ashes Beneath the Paradise," which promises to trace Kashmir’s trajectory from medieval complexities through post-2019 transformations, will undoubtedly offer future generations the intellectual tools to comprehend their inheritance and navigate their destiny with both realism and hope.
The Marghoob Banihali Award, conferred upon the globally acclaimed author and historian Dr Abdul Ahad, is an acknowledgment of a lifetime devoted to truth and scholarship. He is an ideal choice. Just as Prof Banihali infused Kashmiri poetry with philosophical depth and spiritual authenticity, Dr Ahad has endowed historiography with empirical rigour and cultural sensitivity. Both have served as bridges, connecting contemporary consciousness with historical roots, linking local identity with universal values, and ensuring that the Kashmiri voice retains its distinctiveness without succumbing to parochialism.
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