Kazi Nazrul Islam

Kazi Nazrul Islam: Known as "The Bidrohi Kobi," "The rebel Poet" for his astonishing masterpiece "The Bidrohi." A furious manifesto of self-conscious against immorality. Sajid Kamal describes the poem as, "A universal proclamation, an affirmation, an inspiration, an invocation, of 'The Rebel' within the hearts of each 'I' of the common humanity which lay oppressed, subjugated, exploited, resigned and powerless." It is said that Nazrul would have been Nazrul even if he hadn't written anything else but "The Bidrohi.

The following is a part of the poem "The Bidrohi."

The national poet of Bangladesh, Kazi Nazrul Islam was born in Churulia, Burdhaman district, West Bengal in 1899 (1306 Bengali year.) He didn't grow up with the luxury of enjoying his boyhood, rather lost his father in his early life. For financial hardship, he worked as a teacher in a lower "Islamic school," at the age of 9. His education went up to 10^th grade but continued learning Arabic and Persian languages. As a boy, he translated Persian ghazals and Arabic writings in Bengali. He also educated himself enough to enjoy the writings of Keats, Shelly and Whitman.

The British rule of India influenced Nazrul to take an active part through his writings in the Swadishi and Khilafat movement. He was imprisoned by the British government for one year of hard labor for his writing "Andamoyeer Agamaney," which appeared in Dhumketu.

Rabindranath Tagore called him "Dhumketu," "The Comet," Mahatma Ghadhi described his poem as, "The song of the spinning wheel" and "Nazrul is the ultimate spirit of the spinning wheel and freedom runs through his vein."

Nazrul wrote 50 books of poetry and songs, 6 books of stories and novels, 3 books of translations, 53 plays, verse-plays and operas, 2 movie scripts, 5 books of essays and 4000 songs and ghazals. (Source: Nazrul Institute, Bangladesh.)

Nazrul holds the world record of recorded songs, most of which, the music were composed by Nazrul himself. (Source: Nazrul Institute.) 

The Rebel Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, not only refused to compromise with the unjust, but carried on so much of agony throughout his entire life. His first son Krishna Muhammad died in less than a year of his birth; his second son Bulbul also died in his childhood. Broken-hearted Nazrul wrote his first Bengali gazal...

He also wrote:

His wife Pramila became paralyzed from her waist down in 1938. Nazrul found himself more hopeless and depressed. Starting in 1942, he felt loss of speeches and finally became mentally dysfunctional and lost his speech completely in a short time.

He also wrote....

As his final wish, in 29^th of August in1976, The national poet of Bangladesh Kazi Nazrul Islam was laid to eternal rest by the mosque of Dhaka University.

¾ SHAMS