6 Nov : Eminent Kashmiri poet Rahman Rahi was honoured with the prestigious Jnanpith award by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who said not enough attention was paid to humanities which helps the growth of better human beings.
Presenting the award to Rahi at a function in New Delhi on Thursday, Singh said though schools and colleges focused on providing children and young men and women with the means to go forward in life and grow up as responsible citizens "sometimes I believe we do not pay enough attention to the humanities that will help them grow up as better human beings".
The Prime Minister said even as youths learn skills and equip themselves for employment, they were not deprived of access to literature and poetry, history and other forms of creativity.
Observing that no society could consider itself complete if it has insufficient room for creativity, Singh hoped that works of authors recognised by the Jnanpith award could be made available through translations in other Indian languages to larger readers.
The Prime Minister said literature and poetry gave freedom to people’s imagination and liberated them from "stereotypes and narrow thinking. It has moved societies, sparked revolutions and lit the light of knowledge".
Accepting the award which comprised Rs five lakh, a citation and a bronze replica of Vagdevi, 82-year-old Rahi said Kashmiri language, the repository of rich poetic and prose literature, was totally neglected at all official levels.
"To deprive the language of its rightful place while raising empty slogans of ‘Kashmiriyat’ would imply not only gross injustice to the language and the people who speak it but a serious harm to the cultural heritage of the subcontinent", he said.