Ved Rahi, Dogri Writer and Sahitya Akademi Fellow, Dies at 93

Ved Rahi, the Dogri and Hindi writer who also built a long career in Hindi cinema and television, died at his residence in Maharashtra's Thane district on the morning of November 1, the Daily Excelsior reported from Jammu. He was 93. Rahi was a Fellow of the Sahitya Akademi, the honour India's national academy of letters reserves for a small number of living writers.

His last rites were to be held at the Kopari cremation ground in Thane later that day, according to the paper. He is survived by his two daughters, Geetanjali and Poonam, and their families.

A writer in three languages

Rahi came from Jammu. He was the only surviving son of Lala Mulk Raj Saraf, whom the Daily Excelsior has called the father of journalism in Jammu and Kashmir. In a December 2024 profile, the paper said he began writing in Urdu at the age of 12 or 13 and later moved into Hindi and Dogri, and that he kept writing in all three for some six decades.

He started out as a script writer at All India Radio in Jammu and later worked as editor of the Hindi monthly Yojana. The same profile credits him, together with Madan Mohan Sharma and Narendra Khajuria, with the story collection Kale Hath and the novel Had, Bedi Te Pattan. His own collection of Dogri short stories, Aale, won the Sahitya Akademi Award in 1983, and he had earlier received the award of the Jammu and Kashmir Academy of Art, Culture and Languages in 1971.

Films and television

Rahi left that job for Mumbai, where he first worked as an assistant writer and director to Ramanand Sagar. The Excelsior profile says he went on to write the scripts of 25 films, among them Pavitra Papi, Paraya Dhan, Pehchan, Sanyasi and Charas, and to direct films including Darar, Prem Parbat and Andhi Surang. He also made a film in Dogri, and he produced Kali Ghata.

On television he was best known for Gul Gulshan Gulfam, the story of a Kashmiri family that Doordarshan broadcast in 1987. It ran for 45 episodes, and the paper notes he won a best director award for it in 1992.

The Akademi's highest honour

The fellowship is the highest honour the Sahitya Akademi gives a writer. Rahi was 91 when it was presented to him at his home in Thane district in December 2024. Akademi president Madhav Kaushik and secretary K Sreenivasarao handed it over, citing his "eminence as Dogri writer and scholar."

Tributes from Jammu

Dogri Sanstha Jammu issued a statement of condolence on the day of his death. Its president, Lalit Magotra, called Rahi "one of the most distinguished literary figures of Jammu." The group's general secretary, Rajeshwar Singh, said he was "not merely a celebrated writer but an institution in himself," and pointed to Aale as a milestone in modern Dogri literature.

The Sanstha had honoured him itself, with a lifetime achievement award in 2018 and a literature and arts award in 2020.