Delhi University to offer Rs 1 lakh award for research paper on Kashmiri Culture

The vice-chancellor of Delhi University (DU), Yogesh Tyagi, has announced that any student who researches and publishes a paper on Kashmiri culture or music would get a reward of Rs 1 lakh. He asked for quality research on Kashmir and Kashmiri culture. He was speaking at the first Kashmiri folk music event Meeras-e-Kashmir. JNU professor Amitabh Mattoo and former Rajya Sabha member Karan Singh were the guests of the event.

Karan Singh motivated people not to give up faith in culture. He said people are surrounded by violence and corruption everywhere, but they have to maintain themselves. It is only then people would fulfill their potential. He further said that Kashmir’s history goes back thousands of years. He emphasised on the importance of diversity and inclusiveness of Indian culture and urged not to get into exclusivism mode. Recalling the time when Sufis came to Kashmir, he said there were places Srinagar where people would pray namaz on the first floor and do aarti on the ground floor.

Amitabh Mattoo said that there were three strains that needed to be restored if people wanted to strengthen the idea of co-existence. The first he told was history and idea of Kashmiri Shaivism, the second Sufi tradition and last Kashmiriyat. The JNU professor further stated the recovery of the tradition of Meeras-e-Kashmir was the recovery of pluralism, co-existence, and diversity. He said the recovery of these elements would form the bedrock of the idea of India. The function is a part of a series of musical programmes under the banner of cultural flavours of India.

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