Meet Baldev Prasad Sharma of Jammu and Kashmir who was listed in the Limca Book of Records for becoming the oldest working journalist for having worked even at the age of 92. Born on January 1, 1909, Baldev Prasad Sharma, popularly known as `B P Sharma’, the Walking Encyclopaedia of J&K, died on January 23, 2005 at the age of 97. Blessed with the rare qualities of head and heart, B P Sharma had to his credit over 70 years of distinguished service as a mediaperson and a Research Scholar. A doyen of Dogra Culture, B P Sharma had begun his journalistic career as early as 1927 when he was still a student of Class 10 at Srinagar
Kashmir Rechords is reproducing here a portion of a write-up by noted Dogri, Hindi and Sanskrit scholar, Late Dr S P Shrivatsa on the life and works of Mr B.P Sharma, the Doyen of Dogra Culture.
Pioneer of Journalism
Born in Srinagar in a Dogra Brahmin family, B P Sharma had completed his schooling from Sri Pratap High School Srinagar and then joined Sri Pratap College, Srinagar for higher studies. He had finished his graduation in the first class from University of Punjab, Lahore, in 1931.
Dr S P Shrivatsa , a well-known Dogri , Hindi and Sanskrit scholar from Jammu, in one of his write-ups ( published in Kashmir Today magazine, August-Sept 1993), had termed B P Sharma as the pioneer of English journalism in the State, having launched the “Kashmir Times” as a weekly newspaper from Srinagar on September 24, 1934. According to Shrivatsa, Sharma was the first Dogra to head the Information Service of the then State of J&K as Principal Information Officer. He was also the first Station Director of Radio Kashmir Jammu, from where he had retired in January 1967. He had also worked at All India Radio Stations at Calcutta, Bhopal and Indore.
Sharma’s contribution towards Dogri language
Apart from working with State-run media organisations, B P Sharma, during his longest journalistic career, had also worked for Reuters, Times of India, Hindustan Times and The Tribune. He had done much research into the language of Dogri and unearthed several documents to prove that Dogri was an ancient language with its own grammar. He had also written series of articles about political and historical developments in Jammu and Kashmir during the pre and post-Independence era. He had the history of all important events at his fingertips. As a member of the Sahitya Academy for many years, he contributed much towards the development of the Dogri language.
B P Sharma had also contributed towards publication of the book “The Stamps of Jammu and Kashmir”, which was authored by Frits Staal, a Professor at University of California, Berkeley, and published by the New York Collectors Club in 1983. The book carries a series of articles about the postal system under the Dogra rulers.
Challenging Grierson
According to Dr S P Shrivatsa, B P Sharma was the first scholar to have “challenged’’ the statement of the well-known linguist, Sir George Abraham Grierson, who in his “Linguist Survey of India” had said that neither the Dogri type nor any printed book in Dogri was in existence at a time he had visited Jammu. B P Sharma had proved that about 20 Dogri books, some of them in Dogri type were actually printed years before Grierson had come to Jammu.
His tireless service in digging the history of Dogri language and culture brought him the distinction of being elected unanimously as President of Dogri Research Institute, Jammu, in 1978. He remained President of this prestigious Institute for over a decade.
B P Sharma had unearthed the elusive “Lilawati”, a treatise on Mathematics, being a Dogri translation of the Sanskrit “Lilawati” of the famous Indian astronomer and Mathematician, Shri Bhaskaracharya. This Dogri book was printed at the “Vidya Vilas Press”, Jammu, in 1873. Sharma had also established that the old Takri script which was used for writing Dogri, was got modified and improved by Maharaja Ranbir Singh, so much so that it was actually brought at par with the Devnagri script.
B P Sharma had also served the Sahitya Akademy as a member of its Dogri Advisory Board for nine years.
Sharma as a Researcher
Another remarkable research in the history of journalism in Jammu and Kashmir conducted by B P Sharma had established that the first newspaper was started from Jammu in 1867. “Vidya Vilas”, a bilingual weekly newspaper, had two columns per page, one half in Hindi and the other half in Urdu. Its editor was Vainkat Ram Shastri. It was the journal of “Vidya Vilas Sabha”, a literary and cultural organisation of which Maharaja Ranbir Singh himself was the patron.