Nida Nawaz

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Nida Nawaz Biography

Dr. Nida Nawaz: A Voice of Conscience, Dissent, and Cultural Bridges! In the rich and diverse literary landscape of Jammu and Kashmir, Dr. Nida Nawaz occupies a distinctive place as a poet, translator, journalist, broadcaster, and public intellectual whose work transcends linguistic and cultural boundaries. For more than four decades, he has remained an unwavering witness to the aspirations, anxieties, sorrows, and resilience of his people, transforming lived experience into literature marked by emotional depth, social commitment, and artistic refinement. Endowed with a rare combination of scholarly rigor and creative sensibility, Dr. Nawaz holds Master's degrees in Psychology, Hindi, Urdu, and Mass Communication, in addition to a Ph.D. This remarkable academic foundation has enriched his literary vision, enabling him to approach human experience with both intellectual insight and profound empathy. His writings reveal a keen understanding of the human psyche, a deep engagement with society, and an abiding faith in the transformative power of language. As a poet, Dr. Nawaz belongs to that tradition of writers who regard poetry not merely as an artistic exercise but as a moral and emotional response to the realities of their time. His celebrated Hindi poetry collections—'Akshar Akshar Rakt Bhara' (1997) , four'Baraf Aur Aag' (2015) , and 'Andhiare Ki Paziab '(2020) —bear testimony to a poetic consciousness deeply rooted in the struggles and contradictions of contemporary life. His poems traverse the landscapes of pain and hope, alienation and belonging, silence and resistance. They capture the tremors of a troubled age while preserving the enduring human capacity for compassion and renewal. An important dimension of Dr. Nida Nawaz's literary identity is his role as a poetic voice of dissent emerging from the conflict-ridden landscape of Kashmir. Writing in Hindi from a region marked by decades of political turmoil, violence, displacement, and human suffering, he has employed poetry as an instrument of moral witness and human conscience. His poems neither surrender to despair nor seek refuge in rhetoric; rather, they articulate the pain, anxieties, aspirations, and resilience of ordinary people caught in the crosscurrents of history. In contemporary Hindi literature, Dr. Nida Nawaz's poetry stands out as one of the most compelling voices of dissent from Kashmir, distinguished by its ethical urgency, humanistic vision, and unwavering commitment to truth. Through a language that is at once lyrical and incisive, he challenges silence, questions injustice, and affirms the dignity of human life, transforming poetry into a testimony of memory, resistance, and hope. The publication of Samkaal Ki Aawaz (2022) , a selection of his representative poems, further consolidated his position among significant contemporary Hindi poets. The subsequent Punjabi translation, Samkaal Di Aawaz (2023) , expanded the reach of his poetic voice, enabling it to resonate with a wider readership and affirming the universality of the concerns that animate his work. Equally remarkable is Dr. Nawaz's contribution as a translator, a role he has embraced with exceptional dedication and cultural responsibility. Through translation, he has built enduring bridges between languages, regions, and literary traditions. His Hindi translation of Aakh, the acclaimed Kashmiri short-story collection by Mushtaq Ahmad Mushtaq, introduced a wider readership to one of Kashmir's significant literary voices. The work, published by the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, stands as an important example of literary mediation across linguistic frontiers. His engagement with translation has extended to some of the most respected literary institutions in the country. He translated Kashmiri poems for the Sahitya Akademi publication Ujla Ragmarag and rendered the Sahitya Akademi Award-winning Hindi poetry collection Anubhav Ke Aakash Par Chand into Kashmiri. His Hindi translation of noted Kashmiri poet Shad Ramzan's Kora Kagaz Sonp Gaya further exemplifies his commitment to preserving and disseminating the literary heritage of Kashmir beyond regional boundaries. Through these works, he has enriched the dialogue between Hindi, Kashmiri, Urdu, Punjabi, and other Indian literary traditions, reinforcing the idea that literature is a shared cultural inheritance. Beyond literature, Dr. Nawaz has made a substantial contribution to journalism and public communication. For nearly thirty-six years, he remained associated with Radio Kashmir Srinagar as the writer of the influential editorial programme Aaj Ki Baat. Through this widely listened-to broadcast, he engaged with contemporary social, cultural, and political issues, helping shape informed public discourse across generations of listeners. His voice, expressed through thoughtful commentary and measured analysis, became an integral part of the region's intellectual life. His journalistic contributions extend to the international sphere as well. As a contributor to the BBC Hindi Service, London, he authored a series of Radio Diaries that offered vivid insights into the everyday realities, cultural nuances, and social transformations of Kashmir. Over the past three decades, he has also written hundreds of feature articles and cover stories for leading Hindi magazines, documenting the region's complexities with rare sensitivity, balance, and human concern. As a chronicler of Kashmir's turbulent contemporary history, he has consistently sought to foreground the human dimension of conflict, giving voice to those who often remain unheard in larger political narratives. A firm believer in the democratization of knowledge, Dr. Nawaz has consistently employed language as a tool of public education and social awareness. During a period spanning nearly ten years, he translated approximately two hundred episodes of science documentaries for Radio Kashmir Srinagar under a project of Vigyan Prasar, Ministry of Science and Technology, Government of India. By making scientific knowledge accessible in local languages, he contributed significantly to the popularization of science among wider audiences. His commitment to public welfare is further reflected in his translation of thirty-five health-awareness booklets of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Government of India, into Urdu, Hindi, and Kashmiri. These translations enabled crucial health information to reach diverse linguistic communities, underscoring his belief that language should serve not only literature but also society at large. The excellence and significance of Dr. Nawaz's literary achievements have been recognized through numerous prestigious honours. His debut poetry collection, Akshar Akshar Rakt Bhara, received the National Award of the Directorate of Hindi, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, in 1998—an early acknowledgement of a powerful new poetic voice. Over the years, he has also been honoured with the Maithilisharan Gupt Samman, the Yug Kavi Dinanath Nadim Samman, the Dr. Shiv Kumar Mishra Kahani Samman (2016) , and the Ayodhya Prasad Khatri Smriti Samman (2017) , among other accolades that celebrate his multifaceted contribution to literature and culture. Dr. Nida Nawaz's literary journey is, at its core, a journey of dialogue—between languages and cultures, memory and history, individual experience and collective consciousness. Whether writing poetry, translating literary masterpieces, chronicling social realities, or communicating knowledge to the public, he has remained steadfast in his commitment to human values and cultural understanding. In an age increasingly marked by fragmentation, polarization, and erasures of memory, Dr. Nida Nawaz stands as a literary bridge-builder, a chronicler of his times, and a courageous voice of conscience. His oeuvre continues to enrich contemporary Indian literature, preserving the spirit, pain, beauty, and resilience of Kashmir while speaking to universal human concerns that transcend geography, language, and generations. Through his poetry, translations, journalism, and cultural interventions, he has created a body of work that not only documents an era but also illuminates the enduring possibilities of empathy, dialogue, and hope.)

The Best Poem Of Nida Nawaz

A Ritual Of Blinding Virgin Eyes

(Dedicated to those young children of Kashmir who lost their eyes for ever to the pellets of 'security forces')

It was a fine day
Or so it seemed
When you stepped out of your homes
Gingerly holding on
To your father's little finger
Your mother's long gown
Lest you would get lost
In the world outside
Little did you know though
That there lurked behind
In dark shadows
Round the street's far bend
The all too familiar cops
Whome you would address
In all your innocence
As 'soldier uncle'
Waiting for you to come near
So that they could snatch away
Your lovely little eyes
And all brilliance
That belonged to them
Your lovely little eyes
That were virgin as yet
Quite uninitiated as yet
In manoeuvering their curiosity
Through the spectrum of colors
And chiseling dreams from them
Your lovely little eyes
That were yet to know
The ways of the world
Meandering through silly differences
And bitter experiences
Your lovely little eyes
That were still very pure and fresh
From their first brush with the alphabet
And carried on their pellucid pupils
Lilting images of dolls and teddy bears
Besides a thick outline of round
Glass rimmed spectacles
Dominating Gandhiji's pencil sketch
Your lovely little eyes
That blinked and shone incredulously
While watching on television
Just a few days back
The Independence day celebration
Of Indian nation
Marked by unfurling of the tricolor
At Redfort
And the ritualistic release
Of white pegons
All of this is however
Past now
Well past you, for ever
For you have lost the grasp
On your father's little finger
Your mother's long gown
Lost as you are now
In the milling darkness of gloom
Stranded helplessly on the margins
Of an epic
Called life
You might at times
Find your imagination work its way
Through the contours of Indian nation
Only to find a rash of silhouettes
Images and reverberations
Some quite queer, some intimidating
Play in the constricted gallery
Of your mindscapes
Silhouettes of a map
Sketched out of drab darkness
Scary images of heartless soldiers
Deafening reverberations of pellet gun fire
All converging into an endless void
And every thought
Whether fleeting or studied
Of the Indian tricolor
Would churn up within your being
Dark melancholia
Strewn with the images
Of bloodied eyes and tattered wings
Of white pigeons
All across the sky's of historic Red Fort
And the familiar thick outline of round
Glass rimmed spectacles
Dominating Gandhiji's pencil sketch
Would appear to be nothing but
A poor camouflage
For an elaborate plan of violence
Drown into the creases and furrows
Of his face.
{ 24 अगस्त 2016}

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