SRINAGAR: The University of Kashmir (KU) on Monday organised a felicitation ceremony to honour its former Professor and eminent Kashmiri litterateur, Prof Shafi Shauq, who was recently conferred the prestigious Padma Shri by the Government of India on the eve of the 77th Republic Day in recognition of his outstanding contribution to education and literature especially for preservation and promotion of Kashmiri language.
The ceremony, held at the Main University campus, witnessed the presence of senior University functionaries and faculty members who gathered to celebrate the illustrious academic and literary journey of Prof Shauq, an alumnus of the University and one of its most distinguished faculty members.
The Padma Shri, one of the highest civilian honours of the country, acknowledges his decades-long dedication to education and literature including preservation, promotion and enrichment of the Kashmiri language.
Vice-Chancellor, KU Prof Nilofer Khan, while presiding over the felicitation ceremony, remarked that Prof Shauq had embodied the spirit of interdisciplinary education much before it found articulation in the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020. “Prof. Shauq has made a great contribution to the promotion and enrichment of the Kashmiri language and literature. His academic work and teaching reflected the multidisciplinary spirit that the NEP 2020 talks about today, much before it formally came into place,” she observed.
Congratulating the awardee, the Vice-Chancellor said the University takes immense pride in having produced such stalwarts who have brought laurels not only to the institution and Jammu & Kashmir but to the nation at large.
She added that the honour felt like recognition of the University itself and reflected the collective efforts bearing fruit, be it in NIRF rankings or the recent A++ grade awarded by NAAC.
Prof Khan further expressed the University’s keen interest in engaging Prof Shauq in some capacity as a mentor to guide students and scholars, particularly in the School of Arts, Culture and Languages.
In his remarks Prof Shafi Shauq expressed deep gratitude to the University administration, describing the University of Kashmir as a family that has always nurtured and acknowledged his hard work and dedication. “I never worked with the expectation of awards or recognition; I wrote because I loved to write,” he said, adding that his passion for literature had always been his greatest motivation.
Sharing personal anecdotes from his long association with the University, Prof Shauq recalled his appointment in 1978 in KU and spoke about continuing the legacy of hard work, particularly in lexicographical pursuits such as dictionary writing.
He credited noted scholar, Linguist and writer George Abraham Grierson as his inspiration, saying he consciously followed in his footsteps while shaping his academic and literary journey.
Various speakers including Dean Academic Affairs KU Prof Shariefuddin Pirzada, Registar Prof Naseer Iqbal and Dean, School of Arts, Culture and Languages Prof Aejaz Mohammad Sheikh in their remarks, highlighted Prof Shauq’s profound literary and academic contributions, particularly his role in strengthening Kashmiri language studies which they said left a lasting impact on generations of learners and researchers.
The proceedings of the felicitation ceremony were conducted by Dr Ashfaq Zarri Special Secretary to the Vice Chancellor, KU who also shared his reflections on the occasion and the inspirational legacy of the Padma Shri awardee.