Know J&K’s Padma Shri Awardees – Prof Shafi Shauq and Brij Lal Bhat

STC EDITORIAL DESK
SRINAGAR, JANUARY 26 (STC): Prestigious Padma Shri Award for the year 2026 from the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir has been conferred upon Prof Shafi Shauq and Brij Lal Bhat for their selfless services in their respective fields.
Remarkably, the President of India approved conferment of the Padma Awards to 131 for their distinguished services in various fields.

Brief Profile of Brij Lal Bhat
Brij Lal Bhat, a Kashmiri Pandit, retired as Director of the Horticulture (Marketing and Planning) Department. During the peak militancy period, he didn’t migrate and continued to serve in Kashmir.
After retirement, Bhat became an activist of the Swami Vivekanand Kendra, Kanya Kumari. The Kendra deputed him to work at its Nagdandi Ashram in the Kashmir Valley’s Achabal area of Anantnag district.
He has been the chairman of Vivekanand Ashram at Nagdandi in South Kashmir’s Achabal area of Anantnag district for the past 20 years, helping local farmers grow apples and walnuts using modern techniques.
Notably, to convince local farmers to use modern techniques, the ashram developed a high-density apple orchard on its land. In the process, Bhat got vast tracts of unproductive barren land in Kashmir turned into high-yielding apple and walnut orchards, raising the income of local farmers.
Under his leadership, the ashram has been organising various programmes for Kashmiri Pandits living in the Valley and also for those who have migrated to connect them to their homeland. Its programmes are aimed at promoting intra- and inter-state integration from Kashmir to Kanyakumari.
The Nagdandi Ashram conducts five-day spiritual programmes and personality development courses for youth working under the PM’s employment package in the Valley.
Soon after announced as a Padma Shri awardee in the Unsung Hero category, Bhat called upon the Centre and the J&K government to prepare a comprehensive and definite module for the return and rehabilitation in the Valley of the Kashmiri Pandit community.

Brief Profile of Professor Mohammad Shafi Shauq
Distinguished Kashmiri academic, author, poet and linguist, Professor Mohammad Shafi Shauq, got recognised as a Padma Shri awardee for his contribution to education and literature.
Originally from South Kashmir’s Shopian, Shauq taught at the University of Kashmir in Srinagar till his retirement in 2010.
Shauq was born in the remote Kapren village of Shopian in 1950. He completed his Bachelor’s degree in Science from Anantnag Degree College. But his love for Art and Literature took him in a different academic direction, and he completed his Master’s in English Literature from Kashmir University, before going to get a doctorate in the subject. However, he is most known for his major contribution to Kashmiri language.
Professor Shauq was first appointed at the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages (JKAACL) as a junior fellow, where he worked on a project to develop a Kashmiri dictionary.
He was then appointed at the University of Kashmir, where he rose to become the Head of the Department of Kashmiri from 1997 to 2009. In 2009, he was appointed as the Dean of the Faculty of Arts. He retired a year later.
Shauq also emerged as a prominent author, having an authoritative hold on both prose and poetry. He penned many poetry collections and stories in English, Urdu and Kashmiri. Having a hold on multiple languages, he has penned, edited and translated around 100 books.
After his retirement, Professor Shauq focused his energies on developing a comprehensive Kashmiri Lughat, or dictionary. The 1,400-page book is seen as a reference book for the Kashmiri language.
Shauq has been conferred with several awards in the past. In 2006, he was awarded the Sahitya Academy Award for creative writing, followed by the Sahitya Academy Award for Translation a year later.

(Straight Talk Communications)