Abdur Rehman Rahi was an award winning Kashmiri poet, translator and critic known to have promoted and preserved the Kashmiri language and gave its poetry a distinct identity. He was credited for restoring the Kashimiri language after the language had been removed from schools and its formal speech had fallen into disuse. Rahi was born in the Wazpora area of the city of Srinagar and studied Persian and English at Sri Pratap College and Kashmir University respectively, earning a master’s degree i... moreAbdur Rehman Rahi was an award winning Kashmiri poet, translator and critic known to have promoted and preserved the Kashmiri language and gave its poetry a distinct identity. He was credited for restoring the Kashimiri language after the language had been removed from schools and its formal speech had fallen into disuse. Rahi was born in the Wazpora area of the city of Srinagar and studied Persian and English at Sri Pratap College and Kashmir University respectively, earning a master’s degree in each language. He began writing poetry in college but it wasn't until after attending a Kashmiri poetry reading that he began writing Kashmiri poetry. Rahi went on to have a very successful career winning numerous awards like the Padma Shri, India’s fourth-highest civilian honor, in 2000, and in 2007 the Jnanpith Award, India’s top literary prize, becoming the first Kashmiri to do so. He was also a Lecturer at Kashmir University in the Persian department but later switched to Kashmiri department. He will be remembered as the greatest poet of modern Kashmiri language.
