Any discussion on Bengali poetry must revolve around the names of
Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam. While the former attained
international recognition through his 1913 Nobel Prize for literature,
the influence of Nazrul in the Bengali psyche is in many senses no
less than that of Tagore.
Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) was born in Churulia village near Asansol. He came to the literary spotlight
at the age of 23 with his
poem of the unstoppable rebel hero, Vidrohi (Rebel, 1922), which is
the uplifting voice of the iconoclast. Set in a heroic
meter and invoking images from
both Hindu and Muslim mythological canons, the rebel
is destructive, unrepentant, hard, but also
unspeakably soft and gentle
("sleep smothered like the flute of Orpheus"):
I am unstoppable, irresponsible, brutal
I am Nataraja, I destroy the universe
With my metered dance.
Like a cyclone, I blow fear into the hearts of men
I crush underfoot all rules and traditions
Fully laden boats I sink, a dark menace:
A torpedo, a floating mine.
My hair dishevelled, I am the untimely storm
Unpredictable. I am the first raindrop
Tenderly I kiss the parched soil.
Rebel Incarnate I have come
From the womb of Mother Universe.
Protest and Incarceration
Other poems in this angry rebellious vein, such as
Pralayollas (Destructive Euphoria) and Kamal Pasha,
found resonance in
a land erupting under the oppression of British rule.
His first book, the hugely popular
Agniveena (Fiery lyre, 1922), led to the popular moniker
"rebel poet" (Vidrohi Kabi). By the end of the year, however,
Nazrul was arrested for writing a thinly veiled political
allegory, and underwent imprisonment for one year.
Nazrul came of age under the shadow of Tagore,
whom he admired, and who was fond of him as well. The morning
after composing Vidrohi, he ran to Tagore's house and read the
poem to the maestro. But Nazrul's
is a forceful independent voice, sometimes the
swaggering rebel, talking in military staccato,
and sometimes the gentle creative poet, lilting cadences
dancing through his song.
In addition to his poetic
corpus, Nazrul, who was a talented musician, also composed more
than
three thousand songs, which constitute a complete genre in Bengali
music today, under the name of nazrul-geeti, and remains
immensely popular, with a large number of artistes and an active
recording industry, both
in West Bengal and Bangladesh.
At the age of eighteen,
Nazrul was a student of class ten in Raniganj (in today's West Bengal),
when he came under the spell of the distant First World War. He
joined the new Bengali regiment and was posted in Karachi.
Although the regiment never faced battle, and was disbanded
in 1920 after cessation of hostilities, the cadence of the
soldier's parades
and marches permeates much of his writing from this time.
Nazrul-Geeti: Oeuvre in Song
After the success of his early poetry, and his increasing stature
in literary and political circles, in the late 1920's Nazrul started composing
his songs to music. Some of this corpus, especially many
love songs, are particularly notable, like this song
which never fails to resonate with anyone who has
experienced the monsoon breaking with its
towering dark clouds:
In this dark cotton cloud rain
The forest has spread out green
Beyond its boundaries
O where are you
In this dark cotton cloud rain. . .
However, here too, his fiery patriotic songs are
notable; the postage stamp pictured above contains the lyrics of his famous song, "chal-chal-chal":
Breaking down the doors of dawn
We shall bring the morning on
Shredding darkness with our song
We shall overcome.
He became associated with the Kallol literary group and also
continued his political activity, running for election
in 1926. For a period, a large
number of his writings were banned.
Other notable
books of poems and songs from this period
include Dolonchampa(1923),
Bisher Bansi (The poisonous flute, 1924),
Bhangar Gan (Songs of break-up, 1924),
Puber Haoya (The east wind 1925) and Bulbul(1928).
Nazrul lived in divisive times. Religious communalism was on the rise,
possibly fuelled by elements in the British administration.
Muslims felt disenfranchised and alienated in the majority
Hindu culture. There were
a number of Hindu-Muslim riots, culminating in reckless carnage
during independence when
the Empire was divided into
three parts on religious lines. Through all this, Nazrul remained
committedly non-communal, writing both Shyama-Sangeet in praise
of Kali, as well as Pakistani style Hamd songs.
He married Pramila Devi, a Hindu lady, and chose Sanskritic names
for his sons.
In later years, his liberal views on religion
came under attack from the Muslim right.
Illness
In 1942, Nazrul fell seriously ill, and despite many attempts at treatment, he gradually lost his voice and memory. He entered a world of increasing isolation, untli 1972, when the newly formed nation of Bangladesh rediscovered him and he was honoured as the national poet. He passed away in 1976. According to a wish expressed in one of his poems, he was laid to rest beside a mosque in the campus of the University of Dhaka.
Today, Nazrul's legacy continues to energize the Bengali people, and his poems are part of the
rites of passage for each generation of Bengali youth. Talk of Nazrul to a blue-blooded Bengali, and you will be invariably rewarded with a few lines from some favourite poem. Unfortunately, not enough talented translators have gathered to his cause, and Nazrul's reputation lives on only within the bounds of his language.
Yet there is a recklessness about him, both in life and in song, that never fails to attract the truant imagination that is the eternal hallmark of youth.
See Complete Works of Kazi Nazrul Islam for a list of all his writings.
External links
