About

In his relatively short span of life, Shamim Ahmed Shamim blazed a bright trail over the horizon of his homeland—Kashmir—and beyond in literary, political and journalistic spheres. His fearlessness defines his public profile. Between 1964 when he started his immensely popular Urdu weekly, AINA, from Srinagar to his demise in 1980, at the age of 46 years, Shamim’s name and fame as a forceful legislator, parliamentarian, orator and journalist had travelled across the subcontinent. Renowned author/editor, Khushwant Singh had described Shamim as one of the three best speakers of his time in the Lok Sabha: Atal Behari Vajpayee in Hindi, Piloo Mody in English and Shamim in Urdu. Shamim earned global fame with his strident opposition to imposition of Emergency in India in 1975 and consequent muzzling of opposition and the media. Born into a middle class family at Nasnoor in 1934, Shamim completed his school education in Shopian town of South Kashmir.

Shamim Ahmad Shamim is an unforgettable name in the folklore of journalism in Kashmir. I put him alongside my two chief inspirations in writing. Orwell and Manto. One I love for his clarity, second for his rawness and both for their courage. Shamim offers me the meeting point. For me – he is too distant and too close. Distant as I have not seen him. But close as when I grew up I fell in love with those who destroyed the false gods of the time. And given the slavery, the flattery we have nourished as a trait if someone stands up and says it clearly, boldly – I get closer. And that defines my intimacy with Shamim.
We either eulogise or denigrate and both ways the truth is lost. Death doesn’t make us great. The only difference it should make is the difference of tense. Alive I am `is’, dead I will be `was’. The rest is unchanged. Neither the persons, nor the places are sacred. Well that never means we treat each other with contempt. That means we treat each other respectfully but realistically.

The first reason of his being important is his power of writing. Writing is a plain act of saying something clearly. If you want to half-say it, don’t say it. Silence is safer than ambiguity. Don’t edit your soul (as Fanon captures the essence of honesty). Shamim wouldn’t keep you guessing as to whom is he training his guns at. Shamim’s prose, like Manto’s, was naked. He wrote what he meant without hiding behind a bogus politeness which takes the sheen off your words. He was unlike many of his contemporaries whose writings were (as Shakespeare says) `full of sound and fury, signifying nothing’. Shamim’s pen was a firearm and his words bullets that hit hard the target. He would identify a problem or a place or a person or an idea and go on shooting left, right and centre. Some call it arrogance, some courage and some a mix of both. Whatever but his style is murderous. As a writer he was a savage. But was that savagery a principle he applied irrespective of the mood of the time and irrespective of the loyalty he held towards a leader or a habit reversed when the situation reversed for him. If first is the case, then it’s uprightness, if second then it’s sadism. I leave it as a question only for Shamim biographers to attempt an answer.

JUSTICE KHAN SAYS “He was a renowned Urdu journalist and a firebrand parliamentarian of sub-continental fame. A mercurial but charismatic and colourful personality. A born rebel who would fight any establishment and injustice,” Justice Khan posted on social media while remembering late Shamim. He described Shamim as “a man of conviction who would not compromise on any wrongdoing”. “A crusader of just and genuine causes. He was fearless and courageous and would stand up to high and mighty, unmindful of consequences. He was a diplomat by instinct and would deal with friends and foes even handedly. His writings would shake the highest and his oratory would cast a spell on all and sundry,” Khan wrote. Khan remembered Shamim as “someone who was ranked the best Urdu speaker in the Parliament”. “He was a one man opposition in Emergency days. He had a finger in every pie and had miles to go but he was cut short young at age of 43. Above all he was my role model from whom I learnt in my formative years,” Justice Khan wrote. “He was Shamim Ahmad Shamim, a young turk firebrand Parliamentarian of the Emergency era who died before he could reach the peak,” Justice Khan wrote. “Remembering Bhai Sahib as he was fondly called on his death anniversary. May God rest his soul in peace.” Justice Khan also posted a picture of late Shamim with a caption, “Here he (Shamim) is seen interviewing former Pakistan Prime Minister Zulfikar Bhutto in Karachi.”