Professor Rafiqul Islam speaks on
The revolutionary and secular Nazrul
Kazi Nazrul Islam
Kazi Nazrul Islam, whose birthday we celebrate on May 25, came to the literary spotlight in 1921 with his iconoclastic poem of the unstoppable rebel hero, 'Vidrohi'. Set in a heroic metre and invoking images from both Hindu and Muslim mythology, the poem epitomizes the rebellious side of the poet as well as the romantic, gentle aspect. Apart from poems, however, Kazi Nazrul Islam also wrote editorials, essays, short stories, novels and plays. Professor Rafiqul Islam, at present Pro-Vice Chancellor University of Liberal Arts and one of the foremost authorities on Kazi Nazrul Islam, speaks to Robab Rosan about our national poet
Professor Rafiqul Islam is one of the foremost authorities on Kazi Nazrul Islam in Bangladesh. His debut publication on Nazrul was Nazrul Nirdeshika, a bibliography of the poet, which, apart from publications, also lists Nazrul's recorded songs. Professor Islam's second book on Nazrul was his 1972 biography of the poet, perhaps the first comprehensive biography of Nazrul. This was followed by Kazi Nazrul Islam: Jiban O Kabita (1977), based on his doctoral thesis. The book includes a short biography of the poet as well as a brief discussion of some selected poems.
In 1990, an expanded edition of Professor Islam's Kazi Nazrul Islam: Jibon O Sahitya was published from Kolkata. In this book Professor Islam included a discussion of the poet's novels, stories, essays and plays besides poetry. A subsequent edition of this book, published under the title Kazi Nazrul Islam: Jibon O Srishti, also included discussions of Nazrul's music. Professor Islam's various articles on Nazrul, published in dailies, literary magazines, periodicals and journals, have been anthologized in Nazrul Prasanga, published by the Nazrul Institute.
Professor Islam is at present revising his biography of the poet to cover the last years of the poet's life.
Professor Islam regrets the lack of interest in Nazrul. He points out that much more work should have been done on Nazrul. 'While it is true that during the centennial celebrations in 1999, a number of books were published from Dhaka and Kolkata—many of them providing much new information on the poet—no remarkable work on the poet has been done subsequently.'
About some of his findings, Professor Islam says, 'It was generally accepted that. "Jodi ar banshi na baje" was Nazrul's last lecture, I have discovered that there were two other important essays written by the poet after this one. Nazrul wrote a long poem on the communal riot in Dhaka. I had got one page of the poem, but was later able to get the entire piece.'
'We do not have complete information about his music. We do not know how many songs Nazrul wrote nor do we know all the changes that were made in them, when they were recorded or printed. The poet himself often changed the lines of some of his poems, when he compiled them for books. Changes made by his disciples after his illness amounts to distortion.'
'I have been able to gather much information from both Dhaka and Kolkata for my revised biography of Nazrul. Unfortunately, I have not been able to collect all copies of the newspaper Nava Yug, with which Nazrul was associated. In 1941, Nazrul was the chief editor of the paper. Apart from poems he had also written editorials for the paper. However, we have the complete files of Dhumketu, Langal, and Ganovani.'
About the songs of Nazrul, Professor Islam said that it is not possible to identify all the lyrics of Nazrul, as many of them have been passed off as the work of others. 'However, we have got a lot of information on Nazrul's lyrics and their tunes. A Kolkata scholar, Brahmamohan Thakur, has worked on this subject very seriously and carefully. I should also add that a few songs were considered to be by Nazrul, but aren't. We have identified these lyrics and corrected the misinformation.'
'Many songs of Nazrul have been lost, particularly, the tunes. If we have collected about two and a half thousand lyrics, we have been able to collect at the most a little over fifteen hundred tunes. The tunes of Nazrul's songs collected from the recording companies are authentic as long as Nazrul was well during the recording. In Dhaka, the noted music director Sudhin Das has worked to make notations of Nazrul Sangeet listening to the original records.'
Professor Islam noted that during Nazrul's birth centenary, the Nazrul Institute had published many books, including poetry, novels, essays and notations, as well as a collection of Nazrul's poems in English translation. In Kolkata, the Bangla Academy published Nazrul's works and a biography. In Dhaka, we were unable to publish a complete biography of Nazrul.'
According to Professor Islam, the perspective of West Bengal scholars differs from ours. 'The frame of reference of the biography published from Kolkata is Rabindranath Tagore. Yet I appreciate their work. They have used much information taken from research done in Bangladesh. Unfortunately, in many places they have not acknowledged the researchers.'
'However, they published a biography during the centennial, which we could not. I was chairman of the Nazrul Institute at the time, but was very busy arranging the programmes. I was also associated with the celebration committees in India, particularly with the Bangla Academy and the Sahitya Academy in Kolkata, Vishwabharati in Santiniketan, the conference in Delhi, the North America Nazrul Festival in Florida and the Nazrul centenary celebrations in East London. During this time a Nazrul Centre was set up in East London. With all these commitments I did not have time to work on the biography.'
Professor Rafiqul Islam described Nazrul as the great revolutionary and secular poet of this region who fought with his writings against both colonialism and communalism. 'Nazrul is the greatest non-communal poet in the Bangla language. He wrote for all communities, for Muslims as well as Hindus. Unfortunately, people who profess to be non-communal tend to be silent about Nazrul. If we want to be vocal against communalism or fundamentalism, Nazrul is the most powerful inspiration.'
Professor Islam regretted that Nazrul was being politicised. 'Another tragedy is that we have declared Nazrul our national poet. We have thus made him a poet of the government, a poet of a political party, a poet of bureaucrats. Instead of poets and writers, bureaucrats preside over the functions on Nazrul only because of the positions they occupy not because of the regard they have for the poet. Nazrul always fought against the establishment but now he has been made a poet of the establishment, which is very unfortunate.'
'We had plans to build a mausoleum on the tomb of Nazrul, but we did not do this. In 1929, Nazrul was honoured with a national reception at which the top social and political leaders of both the Hindu and Muslim communities were present. Nazrul was declared the National Poet of the Bengalis. So, Nazrul is not only the National Poet of Bangladesh, he is the National Poet of all Bengalis. All Bengalis should therefore work on the poet. We should not wait for grants from the government.'
Professor Islam noted that as Bangla is limited to the Bengali community, the study of Nazrul is limited – as is the study of Tagore. However, Tagore has benefited by English translations. 'Similarly, good translations can play an important role in promoting Nazrul's literature. But we do not have good translators.' On an optimistic note, Professor Islam added, that some of Nazrul's poems have been translated into several Indian languages, including Hindi, Urdu, Tamil, Oriya, Malayalam, and Assamese. Nazrul has also been translated into Japanese and Russian. Some of his works have also been translated into French and Spanish in Bangladesh.
Professor Islam praised the quality of Nazrul's prose writings. 'Though Nazrul's stories are few, they are powerful and socially relevant. His novels too are well worth studying. Nazrul's essays are powerful critiques of imperialism and communalism. Nazrul's views on politics, social stratification, and human relations are manifested in his essays.'
Professor Islam was critical of the neglect of Nazrul's original plays. 'To mark the anniversaries of Nazrul, the satellite television channels adapt Nazrul's stories into plays. However, they are not producing the original plays written by the poet such as Putuler Biye, Madhumala, Shilpi, Aleya and others. They should first produce the original plays, then the adaptations from stories and novels.' He regretted that while we possess almost all of Nazrul's, plays, a play that Nazrul wrote while jailed in Behrampur, is missing.
The British government kept a close watch on writers – as well as revolutionaries. 'Nazrul's police files were perhaps thicker than those on any other writer in undivided India. Shishir Kar, a researcher based in Kolkata collected the police reports related to Nazrul from the police archives and has written a book, under the title Nishiddha Nazrul. Unfortunately, another book of his, "The British Raj and The Rebel Poet of Bengal,'' was not published by the Nazrul Institute.'
Commenting on the present condition of Nazrul scholarship in Bangladesh, Professor Rafiqul Islam noted that our attitude is revealed by the way we have allowed the houses associated with Nazrul to fall into disuse. The house in Comilla where Nazrul used to live has been demolished. 'Apart from Darirampur, the other places have not been preserved. However, in West Bengal, the places associated with Kazi Nazrul Islam have been preserved. The jail cells where Nazrul stayed have been turned into museums.'
'It is a matter of great satisfaction that a number of young scholars have done important research on Nazrul and obtained M.Phil and Ph.D degrees,' Professor Islam concluded.
Edited by Qwest - 18 years ago
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