Akhone Asgar Ali Basharat is an author and poet from the

Kargil district Kargil district is a district in Indian-administered Ladakh in the Kashmir#Dispute, disputed Kashmir-region,The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the ...

in the

Union Territory of Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India and China since 1959.The a ...

in India. His writings are in the

Balti language Balti (Perso-Arabic script: , Tibetan script: སྦལ་ཏི།, ) is a Tibetic language natively spoken by the ethnic Balti people in the Baltistan region of Gilgit-Baltistan, Nubra Valley of the Leh district and in the Kargil distric ...

which is a

Tibetic language The Tibetic languages form a well-defined group of languages descending from Old Tibetan.Tournadre, Nicolas. 2014. "The Tibetic languages and their classification." In ''Trans-Himalayan linguistics, historical and descriptive linguistics of the H ...

natively spoken by the ethnic Balti people in the

Baltistan Baltistan (); also known as Baltiyul or Little Tibet, is a mountainous region in the Pakistani-administered territory of Gilgit-Baltistan and constitutes a northern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a dispute bet ...

region of

Gilgit-Baltistan Gilgit-Baltistan (; ), formerly known as the Northern Areas, is a region administered by Pakistan as an administrative units of Pakistan, administrative territory and consists of the northern portion of the larger Kashmir region, which has b ...

Pakistan Pakistan, officially the Islamic Republic of Pakistan, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by population, fifth-most populous country, with a population of over 241.5 million, having the Islam by country# ...

Nubra Valley Nubra, also called Dumra, is a historical region of Ladakh, India that is currently administered as a subdivision and a tehsil in the Leh district. Its inhabited areas form a tri-armed valley cut by the Nubra and Shyok rivers. Its Tibetan nam ...

of the

Leh district Leh district is a district in Indian-administered Ladakh in the Kashmir#Dispute, disputed Kashmir-region. The application of the term "administered" to the various regions of Kashmir and a mention of the Kashmir dispute is supported by the WP:T ...

and in the

Ladakh Ladakh () is a region administered by India as a union territory and constitutes an eastern portion of the larger Kashmir region that has been the subject of a Kashmir#Kashmir dispute, dispute between India and Pakistan since 1947 and India an ...

, India. He had had no formal school/college education; instead, he had his early education in a

madrassa Madrasa (, also , ; Arabic: مدرسة , ), sometimes romanized as madrasah or madrassa, is the Arabic word for any type of educational institution, secular or religious (of any religion), whether for elementary education or higher learning. ...

established by his father at his home in 1972. The madrassa used to teach its students the Balti,

Persian Persian may refer to: * People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language ** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples ** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...

and

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

languages. He became interested in writing poetry from around 1980 and his early writings were

Naat A nucleic acid test (NAT) is a technique used to detect a particular nucleic acid sequence and thus usually to detect and identify a particular species or subspecies of organism, often a virus or bacterium that acts as a pathogen in blood, Tissue ...

(poetry in praise of the Islamic prophet, Muhammad) and Manqabat (Sufi devotional poem, in praise of any Sufi saint). Akhone Asgar Ali Basharat was a regular participant in the poetry recitation programme of All India Radio's Kargil station from the first day of the establishment of the radio station in 1999. He is a regular invitee to poetic symposiums in different parts of Jammu & Kashmir and to shows organised by Doordarshan Srinagar, J&K Academy of Art, Culture and Languages, and other organizations. He was selected for the

Padma Shri The Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī'', lit. 'Lotus Honour'), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. In ...

award in 2022 for his efforts to revive and popularize the Balti language. The books (all in Balti language) authored by Akhone Asgar Ali Basharat include: *''Guldastae Bashara'', a collection of poetry (2002) *''Waseelai Najaat'', based on translations from Persian (2006) *''Bazme Basharat'', a collection of poetry (2011) *''Aeena e Kargil'' (Reflections on Kargil) (to appear)

Recognition

*In the year 2022, Govt of India conferred the

award, the third highest award in the Padma series of awards, on Akhone Asgar Ali Basharat for his distinguished service in the field of literature and education. The award is in recognition of his service as a "Balti Poet and Author from Kargil working for the preservation and promotion of Balti language and culture.".

References

{{authority control Balti people People from Kargil district Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Recipients of the Padma Shri in literature and education