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R.K. Bharti - Unsung Hero of Journalism in J&K vehemently opposed and criticized the Congress government and Mir Qasim for snatching the landed properties of petty landowners who mostly were Kashmiri Pandits and conferring it to the Muslim tenants without any compensation. He filed two writ petitions against the Land Reform Act of the Jammu and Kashmir Government in the Supreme Court of India, where he hired the services of Nani Palkiwala, an advocate of repute and expert in revenue matters. A stay was imposed on the operation of the Land Reform Act. But later on the stay was vacated. Bharati was a fearless man, and it is said of him that while leading a delegation of landlords, he had a heated verbal exchange with the Chief Minister Syed Mir Qusim in the secretariat and Shri Abdul Gani Lone, who then was a Congress Minister prevailed on the chief minister, and so there were talks between the delegation of aggrieved landowners and the chief minister. Shri Bharati also called on the then Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi and apprised her of the discriminatory land reform act of the Jammu and Kashmir government
The death anniversary of Lt.Shri R.K. Bharati was observed on 12th January 2025 by RK Bharati Foundation as usual and tributes were paid to the literary genius and journalist of repute. Shri R.K. Bharati and was born on 19th January 1937 to a traditional and typical Kashmiri Pandit couple - Nath Ram Pandit and Rajrani Pandit in a small village, Kakran, in the south of Kashmir, then Tehsil Kulgam, then district Anantnag, Kashmir. His father had a shop in the same village and had some land as well. Bharati had his early schooling at High School Kulgam, where from he passed the matriculation examination. His father wanted him to take up the family business but the inquisitive , very sensitive son who was fond of reading ,totally reluctant to do family business and much against the wishes of the family got appointed in the school education department as a teacher. His love and intense interest in education grew further and further. He passed BA, BT as a school teacher privately and did not see the light of college. Then he passed MA in Hindi subject also through privately.
Not satisfied with MA Hindi, he studied English literature and passed MA in English subject that too privately. After passing MA English, he pursued Med in 1972 as a regular student from the Government College of Education, Moulana Azad Road, Srinagar, where he came in contact with the principal of that college Shri Syed Aaga Ashraf, who was a towering educationist of the time. Aaga Ashraf was his teacher, but later close friendship grew between the two. In the education department, much afterwards, Shri Bharti was promoted as Headmaster, Master, then after some years as senior headmaster, high school. From his school days and early age he had an interest in writing letters and other writing ups in local newspapers, and with the passing of days, he wrote very interesting articles in the newspapers in Urdu, Hindi, English, and even Gogri. He worked for many years as the headmaster of the Teachers Training School Shopian. He played a pivotal role in protecting the landed property rights of the petty landowners. Shri Bharti canvassed against the most draconian, discriminatory and unjust land reform act passed by Congress government headed by Syed Mir Qasim.
He vehemently opposed and criticized the Congress government and Mir Qasim for snatching the landed properties of petty landowners who mostly were Kashmiri Pandits and conferring it to the Muslim tenants without any compensation. He filed two writ petitions against the Land Reform Act of the Jammu and Kashmir Government in the Supreme Court of India, where he hired the services of Nani Palkiwala, an advocate of repute and expert in revenue matters. A stay was imposed on the operation of the Land Reform Act. But later on the stay was vacated. Bharati was a fearless man, and it is said of him that while leading a delegation of landlords, he had a heated verbal exchange with the Chief Minister Syed Mir Qusim in the secretariat and Shri Abdul Gani Lone, who then was a Congress Minister prevailed on the chief minister, and so there were talks between the delegation of aggrieved landowners and the chief minister. Shri Bharati also called on the then Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi and apprised her of the discriminatory land reform act of the Jammu and Kashmir government. He also called on almost all the big opposition leaders of the then Jansung, such as Shri A.B. Vajpayee and L.K. Advani and other leaders, and put his views about the discriminatory land reform act before them. He also called on communists’ leader Sardar Surjit Singh Sukrala , and he inquired from this leader if in the Soviet Union the land reform laws on the same pattern were made, which denied land rights to some and conferred the land to some others that too without compensation. In his write-ups he wrote extensively against the draconian Land Reform Act not once but a number of times in different newspapers and in radio talks he also put forth his views about the Land Reform law. Shri R.K. Bharati wrote much on the plight of Kashmiri Pandits and Dogri-speaking Kashmiri Rajputs, who also were made paupers overnight by one stroke of his pen by Chief Minister Mir Quasim. He was a farsighted person and had forecast the adverse days for Kashmiri Pundits. Bharati had drawn a cartoon in some newspaper showing KP’s in the cartoon wherein he showed them as being Na Ghar Ke Na Ghat Ke and had also written in the same cartoon, an Udru Capulet, which reads - Na Khuda He Mila Na Vasale Sanam Na Idhr Ke Rahe Na Udhar Ke Rahe .He, along with his family, left. Kashmir and settled in Jammu .In Jammu he worked as a district project officer Adult Education for some years and also worked as District Planning Officer (DPO) Rajouri for some time, and then he was again posted as Sr.
Head Master in Pragawal and retired from the school education department after rendering 34 years of service. It is often said of him that he was transferred almost the same number of years as his service. The reason was that he was honest, straightforward, called a spade a spade, and was bold and fearless, so was an eyesore of the administration. In Jammu, Bharati, besides writing articles, stairs, etc, also worked with several newspaper organizations. He worked with Excelsior for a few years, where he also started a column, ‘All Your Answers in Sunday Magazine & had good relations with S.D,Rohmetra the founder editor of this newspaper He also worked with the English daily State Times for some years. Bharati also worked in the English newspapers Northlines and Dehat Sandesh for a few years. He also worked in the Gujjar Desh Charitable Trust for a few months. then left this job after some months. Mr. Bharati also worked with Hind Samachar, a national Urdu Daily in Jallandar for some time. He also worked in the Urdu department for a few years after his retirement from state government, and there he taught Professional Urdu Journalism to graduate and postgraduate students. He possessed profound knowledge of Urdu and had great command of the Urdu language though the fact is that he studied Urdu only up to 10th class.
His Teaching graduate and post-graduate students was not less than a miracle. He never became a professor but his dream to teach higher classes came true while teaching professional Urdu journalism in Jammu University, where he came in contact with the VC Amitabh Mattoo and the Friendship grew between the two. Bharati also taught for some time in the institute of Journalism & Mass Communication of veteran journalist Balraj Puri .There was intimate friendship between Dr. Farooq Abdullah and Bharati. Dr. Farooq used to pay visit to his Talab Tillo residence. Farooq used to come to the Kakran residence of Bharati. In Jammu, friendship grew between KT Editor Shri Ved Basian and Bharat and, between Editor of State Times Raj Daluja and Bharati, between Editor of Northlines Rattan Gill and Bharati. There was friendship between Founder editor of Jammu Jottings Subash Mehra and Bharati and there were good relations between the founder editor of Shadow Dr Roop Lal Sharma and Bharati Here in Jammu, Bharati often took part in the literary and cultural functions in the Cultural Academy, Abnav Theatre, and Press Club Jammu, Jammu University, etc. Throughout his life he was a busy man, reading, writing articles, and doing all the chores at home. He was very punctual during his service career and after his retirement while serving in newspaper organizations and while working in the Urdu Department of Jammu university .He attended many conferences in Delhi, Patiala, and other places. In Jammu university friendship grew between Bharati and Prof. Zahoor Ahamed, Bharati and Jagan Nath Azad, Bharati, and Dr. Prof. Shoib Inayet Mallik. In literary circles there was friendship between Bharti and many literary figures, such as Mr. Aseer Kishtwari, who was the DGAT J&K and Mr. Shyam Talib, the founder of Adbi Kunj Jammu, who passed away recently in Jammu. He was also held in high esteem by one Amin Banjara, a teacher and a literary figure.
Shri R.K. Bharati was a multifaceted personality, and it is no exaggeration to say that he was all in one man. He was an academician, educationist, doyen of journalism, picture designer, cartoonist, palmist, future teller, always ahead of his time and still a simple and honest man .Bharati Sahib was a teacher by profession and was a teacher of repute, and he has impressed many students with his teaching and more by his behavior, and he was a role model for many. He was a leading light of journalistic field, and he had to his credit thousands of articles and write-ups published in national, regional, and local papers. Bharati was a versatile writer and wrote with ease and precision on socio-economic, cultural, and Kashmiri Pandit issues boldly. His write-ups were published in RSS mouthpiece - Organizer and national Urdu newspaper.
He many a time wrote satirically on the current social and political issues and problems and was a critic and a good translator and had translated many books of great authors, including Pro. Jagarnath Azad's book ‘Alien in a Native Land’ and Dr. Karan Singh's book ‘My Hair apparent, to mention a few. This great person, who was also a down-to-earth man, passed away after a brief illness at his Talab Tiloo residence on 12th January 2008. His death was mourned by the then chief minister Gh Nabi Azad, cultural academy officials, and its secretary. People from different walks of life condoled his death and participated in his cremation, and still many visited his residence, and among them were Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Amitab Matoo, VC of Jammu University, DGP Kuldeep Khoda,Mr Mr. M.Y. Teng, Prof. Zahoor Ahamad, and many other prominent personalities and members of the journalistic fraternity. By his passing away, a great void was created in literary and journalistic circles. The best tribute to the multifaceted personality is to imbibe his qualities of simplicity, honesty, hard work, and punctuality.
Email:--------------------------------------------onkoul2019@gmail.com
R.K. Bharti - Unsung Hero of Journalism in J&K vehemently opposed and criticized the Congress government and Mir Qasim for snatching the landed properties of petty landowners who mostly were Kashmiri Pandits and conferring it to the Muslim tenants without any compensation. He filed two writ petitions against the Land Reform Act of the Jammu and Kashmir Government in the Supreme Court of India, where he hired the services of Nani Palkiwala, an advocate of repute and expert in revenue matters. A stay was imposed on the operation of the Land Reform Act. But later on the stay was vacated. Bharati was a fearless man, and it is said of him that while leading a delegation of landlords, he had a heated verbal exchange with the Chief Minister Syed Mir Qusim in the secretariat and Shri Abdul Gani Lone, who then was a Congress Minister prevailed on the chief minister, and so there were talks between the delegation of aggrieved landowners and the chief minister. Shri Bharati also called on the then Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi and apprised her of the discriminatory land reform act of the Jammu and Kashmir government
The death anniversary of Lt.Shri R.K. Bharati was observed on 12th January 2025 by RK Bharati Foundation as usual and tributes were paid to the literary genius and journalist of repute. Shri R.K. Bharati and was born on 19th January 1937 to a traditional and typical Kashmiri Pandit couple - Nath Ram Pandit and Rajrani Pandit in a small village, Kakran, in the south of Kashmir, then Tehsil Kulgam, then district Anantnag, Kashmir. His father had a shop in the same village and had some land as well. Bharati had his early schooling at High School Kulgam, where from he passed the matriculation examination. His father wanted him to take up the family business but the inquisitive , very sensitive son who was fond of reading ,totally reluctant to do family business and much against the wishes of the family got appointed in the school education department as a teacher. His love and intense interest in education grew further and further. He passed BA, BT as a school teacher privately and did not see the light of college. Then he passed MA in Hindi subject also through privately.
Not satisfied with MA Hindi, he studied English literature and passed MA in English subject that too privately. After passing MA English, he pursued Med in 1972 as a regular student from the Government College of Education, Moulana Azad Road, Srinagar, where he came in contact with the principal of that college Shri Syed Aaga Ashraf, who was a towering educationist of the time. Aaga Ashraf was his teacher, but later close friendship grew between the two. In the education department, much afterwards, Shri Bharti was promoted as Headmaster, Master, then after some years as senior headmaster, high school. From his school days and early age he had an interest in writing letters and other writing ups in local newspapers, and with the passing of days, he wrote very interesting articles in the newspapers in Urdu, Hindi, English, and even Gogri. He worked for many years as the headmaster of the Teachers Training School Shopian. He played a pivotal role in protecting the landed property rights of the petty landowners. Shri Bharti canvassed against the most draconian, discriminatory and unjust land reform act passed by Congress government headed by Syed Mir Qasim.
He vehemently opposed and criticized the Congress government and Mir Qasim for snatching the landed properties of petty landowners who mostly were Kashmiri Pandits and conferring it to the Muslim tenants without any compensation. He filed two writ petitions against the Land Reform Act of the Jammu and Kashmir Government in the Supreme Court of India, where he hired the services of Nani Palkiwala, an advocate of repute and expert in revenue matters. A stay was imposed on the operation of the Land Reform Act. But later on the stay was vacated. Bharati was a fearless man, and it is said of him that while leading a delegation of landlords, he had a heated verbal exchange with the Chief Minister Syed Mir Qusim in the secretariat and Shri Abdul Gani Lone, who then was a Congress Minister prevailed on the chief minister, and so there were talks between the delegation of aggrieved landowners and the chief minister. Shri Bharati also called on the then Prime Minister Smt. Indira Gandhi and apprised her of the discriminatory land reform act of the Jammu and Kashmir government. He also called on almost all the big opposition leaders of the then Jansung, such as Shri A.B. Vajpayee and L.K. Advani and other leaders, and put his views about the discriminatory land reform act before them. He also called on communists’ leader Sardar Surjit Singh Sukrala , and he inquired from this leader if in the Soviet Union the land reform laws on the same pattern were made, which denied land rights to some and conferred the land to some others that too without compensation. In his write-ups he wrote extensively against the draconian Land Reform Act not once but a number of times in different newspapers and in radio talks he also put forth his views about the Land Reform law. Shri R.K. Bharati wrote much on the plight of Kashmiri Pandits and Dogri-speaking Kashmiri Rajputs, who also were made paupers overnight by one stroke of his pen by Chief Minister Mir Quasim. He was a farsighted person and had forecast the adverse days for Kashmiri Pundits. Bharati had drawn a cartoon in some newspaper showing KP’s in the cartoon wherein he showed them as being Na Ghar Ke Na Ghat Ke and had also written in the same cartoon, an Udru Capulet, which reads - Na Khuda He Mila Na Vasale Sanam Na Idhr Ke Rahe Na Udhar Ke Rahe .He, along with his family, left. Kashmir and settled in Jammu .In Jammu he worked as a district project officer Adult Education for some years and also worked as District Planning Officer (DPO) Rajouri for some time, and then he was again posted as Sr.
Head Master in Pragawal and retired from the school education department after rendering 34 years of service. It is often said of him that he was transferred almost the same number of years as his service. The reason was that he was honest, straightforward, called a spade a spade, and was bold and fearless, so was an eyesore of the administration. In Jammu, Bharati, besides writing articles, stairs, etc, also worked with several newspaper organizations. He worked with Excelsior for a few years, where he also started a column, ‘All Your Answers in Sunday Magazine & had good relations with S.D,Rohmetra the founder editor of this newspaper He also worked with the English daily State Times for some years. Bharati also worked in the English newspapers Northlines and Dehat Sandesh for a few years. He also worked in the Gujjar Desh Charitable Trust for a few months. then left this job after some months. Mr. Bharati also worked with Hind Samachar, a national Urdu Daily in Jallandar for some time. He also worked in the Urdu department for a few years after his retirement from state government, and there he taught Professional Urdu Journalism to graduate and postgraduate students. He possessed profound knowledge of Urdu and had great command of the Urdu language though the fact is that he studied Urdu only up to 10th class.
His Teaching graduate and post-graduate students was not less than a miracle. He never became a professor but his dream to teach higher classes came true while teaching professional Urdu journalism in Jammu University, where he came in contact with the VC Amitabh Mattoo and the Friendship grew between the two. Bharati also taught for some time in the institute of Journalism & Mass Communication of veteran journalist Balraj Puri .There was intimate friendship between Dr. Farooq Abdullah and Bharati. Dr. Farooq used to pay visit to his Talab Tillo residence. Farooq used to come to the Kakran residence of Bharati. In Jammu, friendship grew between KT Editor Shri Ved Basian and Bharat and, between Editor of State Times Raj Daluja and Bharati, between Editor of Northlines Rattan Gill and Bharati. There was friendship between Founder editor of Jammu Jottings Subash Mehra and Bharati and there were good relations between the founder editor of Shadow Dr Roop Lal Sharma and Bharati Here in Jammu, Bharati often took part in the literary and cultural functions in the Cultural Academy, Abnav Theatre, and Press Club Jammu, Jammu University, etc. Throughout his life he was a busy man, reading, writing articles, and doing all the chores at home. He was very punctual during his service career and after his retirement while serving in newspaper organizations and while working in the Urdu Department of Jammu university .He attended many conferences in Delhi, Patiala, and other places. In Jammu university friendship grew between Bharati and Prof. Zahoor Ahamed, Bharati and Jagan Nath Azad, Bharati, and Dr. Prof. Shoib Inayet Mallik. In literary circles there was friendship between Bharti and many literary figures, such as Mr. Aseer Kishtwari, who was the DGAT J&K and Mr. Shyam Talib, the founder of Adbi Kunj Jammu, who passed away recently in Jammu. He was also held in high esteem by one Amin Banjara, a teacher and a literary figure.
Shri R.K. Bharati was a multifaceted personality, and it is no exaggeration to say that he was all in one man. He was an academician, educationist, doyen of journalism, picture designer, cartoonist, palmist, future teller, always ahead of his time and still a simple and honest man .Bharati Sahib was a teacher by profession and was a teacher of repute, and he has impressed many students with his teaching and more by his behavior, and he was a role model for many. He was a leading light of journalistic field, and he had to his credit thousands of articles and write-ups published in national, regional, and local papers. Bharati was a versatile writer and wrote with ease and precision on socio-economic, cultural, and Kashmiri Pandit issues boldly. His write-ups were published in RSS mouthpiece - Organizer and national Urdu newspaper.
He many a time wrote satirically on the current social and political issues and problems and was a critic and a good translator and had translated many books of great authors, including Pro. Jagarnath Azad's book ‘Alien in a Native Land’ and Dr. Karan Singh's book ‘My Hair apparent, to mention a few. This great person, who was also a down-to-earth man, passed away after a brief illness at his Talab Tiloo residence on 12th January 2008. His death was mourned by the then chief minister Gh Nabi Azad, cultural academy officials, and its secretary. People from different walks of life condoled his death and participated in his cremation, and still many visited his residence, and among them were Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Amitab Matoo, VC of Jammu University, DGP Kuldeep Khoda,Mr Mr. M.Y. Teng, Prof. Zahoor Ahamad, and many other prominent personalities and members of the journalistic fraternity. By his passing away, a great void was created in literary and journalistic circles. The best tribute to the multifaceted personality is to imbibe his qualities of simplicity, honesty, hard work, and punctuality.
Email:--------------------------------------------onkoul2019@gmail.com
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