Sarwanand Koul Premi, also spelled Sarvanand Kaul Premi, was a famous Kashmiri poet, journalist, research scholar and independence activist living in Jammu & Kashmir, India. He was kidnapped and executed by unidentified assailants in 1990. The assassination happened during the rise of Kashmir's militant movement.
Early life and education
Sarwanand was the son of Gopinath Koul and Omravati Koul, who were members of the Kashmiri Pandit family of Soaf-Shali village in Kashmir's Anantnag district. They were a farming family and used to live in the village of Sof-Shali, near the Kokarnagtourist area in the Anantnag District of Kashmir. Premi's father was the first in his family to receive further education. After his initial schooling, Premi was admitted to a mission school in Anantnag and enrolled in Punjab University, Lahore. Later, he obtained his B.A., M.A. and B.Ed. degrees from Srinagar. From 1942 to 1946, he worked under-cover for the Quit India Movement and was arrested six times during 1946-47. For a few years he worked for the Village and the Khadi Industries Board as well as the Industries Department of Punjab. He returned to Kashmir and joined the education department of Jammu and Kashmir as a teacher from 1954-1977.
Personal life
In 1948, he married Oma who came from the village of Hangalgund. They had 3 sons and 4 daughters.
Work
His poetry was primarily focused on the common suffering of the Kashmiri people. His early work was written in Hindi and Urdu, but he later began writing in Kashmiri as well, on the advice of Zinda Koul, a renowned poet, and a contemporary. He was often in the company of other poets like Zinda Koul, Ghulam Ahmed Mehjoor and Arjan Deo Majboor. It was Mehjoor who gave him the name "Premi" because his poetry was full of love for Kashmir. He could read and write in Hindi, Urdu, English, and Kashmiri and understood Persian and Sanskrit.
On the evening of 29-30 April 1990, three masked assailants entered his home and kidnapped him and his younger son, Virendra Koul. Their dead bodies were found on 1 May 1990. Their murders were part of a series of killings of prominent personalities from the minority Kashmiri Hindu community during the rise of the anti-India, pro-Pakistan Islamic militant movement in Kashmir.
