Nazir Ahmad Mir is a renowned name in the arena of martial arts known to millions as ‘Grand Master’.

The 52-year-old veteran from Drangbal locality of Saffron town Pampore rose to ranks from a modest player to an internationally acclaimed champion who founded Kashmir’s indigenous art form, Sqay, into an international sport played across 62 countries of the world.

Sharing his years of experience with Rising Kashmir, Nazir narrated that he was introduced to martial arts by his father’s friend, an Indian army officer at Badamibagh Cantonment Srinagar, in 1975 when he was just 5.

“I learnt basic skills of the martial arts from the army officer for three years,” Nazir, who wrote the rule book for Sqay martial arts, said, adding that he continued to learn the game and simultaneously started participating in different local events.

As he grew up, he won many national and international Championships.

Nazir said that he switched to coaching youngsters in different styles of Martial arts which were mastered by him.

As an international player he visited different places around the world and noticed they have their own respective martial arts.

The curiosity to trace Kashmir’s indigenous martial art took him to many texts and chronicles concerning Kashmir. Ultimately, he came across Sqay which was prevalent in ancient Kashmir as war art.

Sqay, a Persian word means knowledge of war.

Nazir said that in ancient Kashmir kings used to train their army in Sqay martial arts to protect themselves from enemies.

He added that people also used Sqay to prey wild animals in forests.

Those days Sqay was known locally as Shamsheerizen which was also displayed on certain festive occasions like marriage functions and fairs.

However, the art faded away after 1819.

To revive this traditional art form, Nazir reintroduced Sqay as a sport in Kashmir on May 7, 1987.

Initially, people took less interest in learning this art so Nazir focused on Thang- Ta which is a traditional martial art form of Manipur.

While coaching youngsters at National Institute of Martial Arts (NIMA) at Pampore, Nazir persuaded his friends and co-trainers to adopt Sqay.

The grand master then founded an organization for promotion of Sqay with assistance from like-minded people of his native town including Ali Mohammad Naiko, Dr Ali Mohammad Mir, Bashir Ahmad and Murrawat Hussein.

This organization was precursor of today’s International Council of Sqay.

After training his friends, Nazir started to popularise this sport in other parts of the country and the world. His morale was boosted when Maharashtra state adopted the sport after a demonstration by him. Thailand was the first country to accept Sqay. However, the major leap came in 2006 when around 20 countries accepted this sport after a demonstration by the grand master in Bangladesh.

Nazir said that Sqay is now played in 62 countries of the world which include India, Nepal, Bhutan, Bangladesh, Syria, Jordan, Iraq, Cyprus, Russia, Azerbaijan and Sri Lanka.

He said that the language used in this attack and defence game is Kashmiri.

“Commands like play, come, stop and counting of points is all in Kashmiri with its translation available to non-natives,” he said.

Besides popularising the sport in different countries of the world, he talked to his contacts and friends in the country and other parts of the world to float professional bodies for organising events at national and international level.

It was in 1992-93 that he founded India Federation of Sqay and looked after the technical affairs.

Later on, he left the organisation to float International Council of Sqay and is serving as its Secretary General.

Nazir said that he was able to popularise the sport because of its originality.

“People adopt the sport because it is original,” he said, adding that these days women players like Hanaya Nisar of Kokernag are making us feel proud by representing the country at international level.

Hanaya of Kokernag bagged Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar award 2023 for winning Gold in 3rd World Sqay Championship in South Korea in 2018.

However, to encourage girls from Kashmir to reach to this stage, Nazir’s struggle and contribution need a mention. It was in 1990 that he started encouraging women players to take up Sqay but no one turned up initially.

“When women players hesitated, I started from my home,” he said, adding that he started coaching his two sisters, Shugufta and Sakina as his first female students.

Both of his sisters became good Sqay players who demonstrated their skills at national and international platforms before they were married. He said that both of them inspired others to take up Sqay.

Nazir said that there are different categories of the sport like combat where two players take to each other one on one basis without causing any physical injury, artistic which is an individual performance, group performance and Aero Sqay.

Besides serving the game as a player and coach, the Grand Master has served Martial arts with his pen also.

He has authored three books, Sqay pride of Kashmir, Martial Art and Islam and Martial Art self-defence for women. 

“I want to preserve this traditional art form of Kashmir by passing it on to the young generation,” Nazir said, adding that this feeling has been his driving force for all these years.