The Yuvs

The raging controversy between TMC and Congress, recently, regarding the renaming of Indira Bhawan in Salt Lake, Kolkata, as Nazrul Bhawan, caught the eyes of many. The protests of Congress, against Mamata Banerjee’s decision, to house a research centre and museum on works of famous poet, Kazi Nazrul Islam, reached it’s flashpoint in January, 2012. Indira Bhawan was primarily named after Indira Gandhi. It served as her Guest House during her visits to Kolkata. The controversy didn’t just unveiled the ambiguous parameters of Secularism that Congress professes, but also aroused a curiosity towards the poet, who despite being so iconic in terms of his creations, remained mysteriously absent from popular literary circuit of India.

Kazi Nazrul Islam was born in May, 1899, in a village of Burdwan district of Bengal, in a Muslim Quazi family. He himself worked as a Muezzin for some time. Young Nazrul also joined a travelling theatre troupe which enriched his experience in terms of literature. His wandering inclinations led him to join Indian Army in 1917. This was the period when he extensively read Bengali and Persian literatures. Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s works had a high influence on volatile emotional soul of Nazrul. He left army and settled in Calcutta in 1920, the year that saw Gandhiji’s emergence in a national role via Non co-operation Movement.

An excerpt from one of his speech:

‘I was the first in my class. The headmaster had great hope that I would bring more honor to the school, but the world war of Europe came along. One day I saw people going to war. I also joined a platoon. I went to Chattogram, saw the sea, and I thoroughly enjoyed my life by diving into it. One day a policeman aimed his pistol at my forehead, while standing right in front of me, and said, “I can kill you.” I exclaimed: “Friend! Indeed, I have been searching for death all along.” . . .’

Nazrul met Rabindranath Tagore in 1921, in Shanti Niketan. Despite being so different from each other, both were very affectionate to each other. Nazrul was rebellious from heart, body and soul, and had a certain rugged quality reflected in his poems, unlike Tagore’s sophisticated style. Nazrul is also considered as brainchild of Rabindranath Tagore, as evident from following lines of Tagore:

‘He who is close to the soil, 

 I am all ears to hear from that poet’

Nazrul considered Gurudev his mentor and was his staunch supporter. Rabindranath died on 7th August, 1941. The bereaved poet wrote a poem titled ‘Rabi Hara’ on the day Rabindranath died. Few excerpts from the poem:

“amra tomare bhebechi sree 

 bhagabaner ashirvad

 she ashish jeno loy nahi kore mrityur abashad”

(we took you to be the blessing from the God, may not that blessing be withered away with your demise)

Gandhiji’s Non Co-operation Movement, the forerunner of all national mass movements, was at it’s peak in 1922. Publication of ‘Bidrohi’, in the magazine ‘Bijli’, in 1922 accelerated the National Movement and also earned the sobriquet of ‘Bidrohi Kobi’ for Nazrul. ‘Bidrohi’ remained Nazrul’s best and most admired work. Nazrul became an overnight sensation achieving the fame unparallel in 1000 years of Bengali literature. Few lines from ‘Bidrohi’ translated in English:

I am the plough on the shoulders of Balarama,

I shall uproot this miserable earth effortlessly and with ease,

And create a new universe of joy and peace.

Weary of struggles, I, the great rebel,

Shall rest in quiet only when I find

The sky and the air free of the piteous groans of the oppressed.

Only when the battle fields are cleared of jingling bloody sabres

Shall I, weary of struggles, rest in quiet,

I the great rebel.

I am the rebel eternal,

I raise my head beyond this world,

High, ever erect and alone!

Avinash Chandra Vattacharya, the Manager of ‘Bijli’ writes -‘the next day Nazrul took four copies of ‘Bijli’ saying, ‘taking it to Guruji’. In the evening Nazrul explained his venture to the house of Rabindranath in detail. ‘I went to his house and started to yell at saying ‘Guruji..Guruji’. From the upstairs Rabindranath asked, ‘what’s wrong with you Kazi? why are you yelling like an ox?’ ‘I am here to kill you Guruji, to kill you. Rabindranath retorted ‘what’s all about killing me, come upstairs and have a sit.’ Nazrul got upstairs and told Tagore that, ‘yes I am here to kill you, now sit down and listen.’ Nazrul started to recite ‘Bidrohi’ from ‘Bijli’ aloud, standing in front of Tagore making vigorous movements of his body. When he was finished Rabindranath found himself in a state of trance and gazed at the face of Nazrul for some indefinite period of time and when he got his senses back he woke up from his chair and took Nazrul to his chests and uttered ‘yes Kazi you are really out to kill me’. 

His other poems include ‘Pralayollas’ and ‘Agnibeena’ in the same year. Nazrul also started a bi-weekly magazine named ‘Dhumketu’ in 1922. Earning the reputation of a revolutionary and accused of sedition, Nazrul was put behind bars by British Government. Responding to this, Nazrul wrote,

‘I have been accused of sedition. That is why I am now confined in the prison. On the one side is the crown, on the other the flames of the comet. One is the king, sceptre in hand; the other Truth worth the mace of justice. To plead for me, the king of all kings, the judge of all judges, the eternal truth the living God… His laws emerged out of the realization of a universal truth about mankind. They are for and by a sovereign God. The king is supported by an infinitesimal creature; I by its eternal and indivisible Creator. I am a poet; I have been sent by God to express the unexpressed, to portray the unportrayed. It is God who is heard through the voice of the poet… My voice is but a medium for Truth, the message of God… I am the instrument of that eternal self-evident truth, an instrument that voices forth the message of the ever-true. I am an instrument of God. The instrument is not unbreakable, but who is there to break God?’.

Nazrul fasted for more than a month against mistreatment of prisoners by British jail superintendent and was eventually released from prison in 1923.

End of First World War resulted in abolition of religious authority of Khalifa in Muslim states. Khilafat Movement was an outcome of Treaty of Sevres in 1920, which enraged and hurt Muslims worldwide. Nazrul became the critic of the movement, terming it as hollow. He also criticised Indian National Congress for not demanding autonomy in an outright manner. He took part in active politics, by joining Bengal’s state unit of Congress, and editing ‘Langal’, the mouthpiece of Sramik Praja Swaraj Dal.

Nazrul was staunch opponent of any type of communalism, feudalism, religious and social orthodoxy, which is quite evident from his marriage to Promila Devi, who belonged to Brahmo Samaj. Despite of facing opposition and criticism from conservative Muslims and Brahmo Samaj for rest of his life, his vibrancy and colorfulness increased steadily.

Nazrul not just liberated Bengali poetry, with respect to poets imitating Gurudev’s style, but also became a pioneer of modern Bengali music. Nazrul was the one to create very first Bengali Ghazal, which became immensely popular amongst common masses. He wrote songs for down-troddens, fraternity between Hindu and Muslims, which was popularised as ‘Mass Music”.

‘O poverty, thou hast made me great.

Thou hast made me honoured like Christ

With his crown of thorns. Thou hast given me

Courage to reveal all. To thee I owe

My insolent, naked eyes and sharp tongue.’

Nazrul intensely worked for emancipation of women. He calls prostitute, ‘mother’, and he goes on to write:

‘And if the son of an unchaste mother is ‘illegitimate’,

so is the son of an unchaste father.’ 

The woman becomes powerful, not when she is allowed to do everything that a man does, but only when she is bestowed respect and recognition for what she does. Her contribution to society should not be neglected, terming her job of homemaker as a mean job.

Man has brought the burning, scorching heat of the sunny day;

Woman has brought peaceful night, soothing breeze and cloud.

Man comes with desert-thirst; woman provides the drink of honey.

Man ploughs the fertile land; woman sows crops in it turning it green.

Man ploughs, woman waters; that earth and water mixed together, brings about a harvest of golden paddy.

His works not just transcend gender bias, but also religious dogma. He worked for restoring brotherhood amongst Hindus and Muslims extensively. The names of his sons were perfect example of his ideology : Krishna Mohammad, Arindam Khaled(bulbul), Kazi Sabyasachi and Kazi Aniruddha. After the death of his son, his creations saw a subtle change from rebellious themes to religious themes, on both Hinduism and Islam.

‘Bodna gaaru te kolakuli korey! Nobo pact er aashnaai! Musholmaaner haatey naai chhuri! Hindur haatey baansh naai!’

In one article entitled Hindu Mussalman published in Ganabani on September 2, 192 he wrote -

‘I can tolerate Hinduism and Muslims but I cannot tolerate the Tikism (Tiki is a tuft of never cut hair kept on the head by certain Hindus to maintain personal Holiness) and beardism. Tiki is not Hinduism. It may be the sign of the pundit. Similarly beard is not Islam, it may be the sign of the mollah. All the hair-pulling have originated from those two tufts of hair. Todays fighting is also between the Pundit and the Mollah: It is not between the Hindus and the Muslims. No prophet has said, ‘’I have come for Hindus I have come for Muslims I have come for Christians.” They have said, “I have come for the humanity for everyone, like light’’. But the devotees of Krishna says, “Krishna is for Hindus”. The followers of Muhammad (Sm) says, “Muhammad (Sm) is for the Muslims”. The Disciple of Christ is for Christian”. Krishna-Muhammad-Christ have become national property. This property is the root of all trouble. Men do not quarrel for light but they quarrel over cattle.’

Nazrul also worked for the then nascent film industry. Misery striked him twice, firstly when her wife got paralysed and secondly when Gurudev died. Within months, he was seriously ill and lost his power of speech. Fighting illness for three long decades, Nazrul finally succumbed to illness in 1976 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Millions of people, across India and Bangladesh mourned in his memory.

Nazrul was conferred upon the status of ‘national poet’ by Bangladesh, and was awarded ‘Padma Bhushan’ in India.

Ebullient Nazrul, though criticised and condemned by some sections of society, was a personality transcending all social, religious and political barriers. Kazi Nazrul Islam said, “Even though I was born in this country (Bengal), in this society, I don’t belong to just this country, this society. I belong to the world.”

Nazrul was face of effervescence, romanticism, self-confidence and above all a ‘Bidrohi’. In his own words:

‘I don’t care any more, if I live or don’t, when gone is this trendy sensation,

 Rabi is shining above our head, and then there are you, the golden generation.

 Those who usurp the morsel of three hundred thirty million people: let our prayer keep brewin’,

 In my blood-ink writing, may it be engraved and sealed their utter ruin.’