Agnishekhar
Kuldeep Sumbli, better known by his pen name Agnishekhar, is a Kashmiri Pandit writer and political activist. He is the founder of Panun Kashmir organization, a group that advocates for the cultural rights of Pandits and a homeland. As a poet, he has contributed to the development of a Hindi poetry of exile from a distinctly Kashmiri perspective. He views pre-Islamic culture as a source for contemporary Pandit identity.
Works
Agnishekhar is the author of Kisi Bhi Samay, a collection of poetry published in 1992. The book is organized into two sections: the 49 poems of "Kram", and the ten poems of "Visthapit Kashmir" which differ from "Kram" in being labeled by place of composition and a date ranging from mid-1990 to early 1991. The poem "Mahavipada", from the "Displaced Kashmir" section, criticizes the camps into which displaced Pandits were settled.Agnishekhar also contributed to the screenplay for the "Bollywood-style" movie Sheen, which uses Pandit displacement as the context of a love story.
Athrot is an organization of displaced artists and writers organized its first ever Kashmiri Poetry day on 27 August 2018 and Agnishekar presided over the poetic session.
Mohammed Ayub Betab's poems in original Kashmiri are translated to Hindi by Agni Shekhar.