Interactive session with noted historian, Prof. Fida Mohammad Hassnain organized

J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages and Radio Kashmir, Srinagar Thursday jointly organized a talk-cum-interactive session with noted socio-cultural historian, Prof. Fida Mohammad Khan Hassnain.
Hosted under the title “Naamwar’ the interactive session was part of a monthly series started by JKAACL-Radio Kashmir in January this year with a view to afford opportunities of interaction with eminent persons from various spheres of life. Speaking on the occasion, programme head, Radio Kashmir, Srinagar, Syed Humayun Qaisar said that the programme shall not be restricted to any particular domain of activity but would instead cover all fields of social life. “We will not restrict Naamwar to any particular field or activity but would instead allow interaction with unsung personalities from diverse fields,” Qaisar said, adding, eminent persons from the field of sports to the domain of science shall be invited to interact with people under this initiative. The event started with a welcome speech by Deputy Secretary, JKAACL, Syed Shakeel-ur-Rehman who shared his personal experiences with the noted historian and said that people should respect the sensibilities of Hassnain who has mostly written on unconventional topics. The welcome address was followed by a question-answer session in which members of the audience actively participated and posed myriad questions to the noted historian mostly on Kashmir history and culture. Sharing his life experiences as a socio-cultural historian, Hassnain said that Kashmir is an ancient civilization and is arguably the only place in the world which has a documented history. “As an ancient civilization Kashmir is rich insofar as documentation of its history is concerned,” he said, adding, a lot of work has been done on it and much more was in the offing.
Responding to audience queries he said that there is nothing final in the domain of research.
“This is my experience that there is nothing final in the domain of research,” he said adding, people have done research on Kashmir and continue to do so. The question-answer session was followed by a brief speech by guest of honour and Director School Education, Kashmir, Dr. Shah Faisal. Echoing his sentiments, Faisal said that the moment he came to know of the event on facebook, he decided to join the organizers. “I came to know of the programme on facebook and immediately conveyed to director Radio that I would be joining such an important event,” he said, adding, that he would love to be part of such events in future also. As part of the event a comprehensive paper on various aspects of life and works of Hassnain was read by noted historian and academic, Dr. Farooq Fayaz. While highlighting the contribution of Hassnain to Kashmir history and culture, Fayaz laid emphasis on doing further
research to fill the gaps in Kashmir history. As a token of affection, a shawl and citation were presented to Prof. Hassnain by the organizers. The programme culminated with a vote of thanks by Satish Vimal while proceedings of the event were conducted by Rashid Nizami.