Kazi Nazrul Islam (Bangla: কাজী নজরুল ইসলাম) (b. May 1899, d. August 29, 1976) was a Bengali poet. He is the national poet of Bangladesh, and is revered in West Bengal, India as well. He is also known as Vidrohi Kobi, the rebel poet.

Early life

Kazi Nazrul Islam was born in the village of Churulia 24 Parganas, which is now part of West Bengal, India. His father Kaji Fakir Ahmed was the Imam of the local mosque; his mother was Jaheda Khatun.Nazrul's family was quite poor, and Nazrul was often referred to by the locals as Dukhu Mia (the destitute one). Nazrul left home at an early age and his life was varied for a time. He worked for a while in a bread factory in Asansol, which was also where his literary abilities first came to be noted. Later, at the age of eighteen, whilst a secondary school student in class Ten at Raniganj (in today's West Bengal), Nazrul came under the spell of the distant First World War. He joined the new Bengal Regiment as a habildar (corporal) and was posted in Karachi. Although the regiment never faced battle and was disbanded in 1920 after the cessation of hostilities, the cadence of the soldier's parades and marches permeates much of his writing from this time.

Literary career

Nazrul returned to Kolkata in the 1920s. He exploded into the Bengali literary scene, where his soldier's voice sent shockwaves into the genteel tradition of the times. His Muslim background also set him apart in the Hindu dominated culture. Sometimes the swaggering rebel, talking in military staccato, and sometimes the gentle creative poet, lilting cadences dancing through his song, Nazrul brought in a breath of fresh air.

Nazrul's place in the Bengali literary canon was secured when he published Vidrohi (Rebel) in 1922. Set in a heroic meter, this long poem invokes images from Hindu, Muslim and Greek mythology. Nazrul's rebel is destructive, unrepentant, hard, but also romantic, 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.

Vidrohi sent shockwaves across Bengal. First published in the magazine Bijli, it sold out immediately and several reprints of the issue were printed. Apparently, after writing Vidrohi, Nazrul stormed into the Tagore residence, declaring loudly, "Gurudev, I have come to kill you off" (Gurudev or "Revered Guru", was of course Rabindranth). This poem was followed by others in this angry rebellious vein, such as Pralayollas (Destructive Euphoria) and Kamal Pasha, all of which found resonance in a land that was politically ready to erupt against 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 was imprisoned for a year.

Politics

Nazrul's literature can hardly be separated from his politics. After Nazrul achieved fame as a poet, he started editing a weekly political and literary magazine called Dhumketu (The comet). It launched with a now famous adulation from Rabindranath Ay chole ay re dhumketu, andhare badh agnisetu (O comet, come, create the firebridge in the darkness). Dhumeketu openly opposed British rule in India, and soon enough, it was shut down and its workers, Nazrul foremost, were imprisoned. Over the years, Nazrul was imprisoned several times, and some of his very best literature comes from his experiences in prison:

Ei shikol bhanga chhal, moder ei shikol bhanga chhal
Ei shikol porei shikol toder korbo re bikol
(This, our shackled dance, O our shackled dance
We shall break our shackles by embracing them)

This poem was written when Nazrul was literally kept shackled in Presidency jail. While being prosecuted on various counts, Nazrul denied the help of a lawyer, and instead produced one of his most memorable pieces of prose, the fiery Rajbandir Jobanbandi (Deposition of a political prisoner), which he read to the court. He also once went without food for forty days to protest against the treatment of political prisoners in the prison.

Nazrul was unequivocal in his demand for India's

Meanwhile, in 1924 he was married to Promila Sengupta.

Nazrul-Geeti: Oeuvre in Song

In addition to the body of his poetic work, Nazrul - who was also a talented musician - composed morethan three thousand songs. After the success of his early poetry, and his increasing stature in literary and political circles, Nazrul started setting his words to music from the late 1920s. This music constitutes an entire genre in Bengali music today, under the name of nazrul-geeti. It, remains immensely popular, involving a large number of artistes and an active recording industry both in West Bengal and Bangladesh.Some of his 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. . . (meghamedura-baraShAy, মেঘমেদুর বরষায়)

His fiery patriotic songs are also notable:

Breaking down the doors of dawn
We shall bring the morning on
Shredding darkness with our song
    We shall overcome. .. (Chal-Chal-Chal, চল চল চল)

Nazrul became associated with the Kallol literary group which wasmoving out from the shadow of the Nobel Laureate and poet Rabindranath Tagore. He also continued his political activity, running for electionin 1926. For a period, much of his writing was 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, Muslims felt disenfranchised and alienated in the majorityHindu culture. There were a number of Hindu-Muslim riots, culminating in an upsurge of carnage at the time of the independence of India and Pakistan from British rule in 1947, when the British Empire was divided into three parts along religious lines. Through all this, Nazrul remained committedly non-communal, writing both Shyama-Sangeet in praise of Kali, as well as Islamic Hamd songs.

His wife Pramila Devi was Hindu and he chose Sanskritic names for his sons. In later years, his liberal views on religion came under attack from the Muslim right.

Illness and later life

In 1942 Nazrul fell seriously ill and - despite all efforts at treatment - gradually lost his voice and memory. By then he had become an embittered man, as evidenced in this letter, his last piece of writing (dated July 17, 1942):

Dear Haider, .. I am bed-ridden due to blood pressure. I am writing with great difficulty. My home is filled with worries: illness, debt, creditors; day and night I am struggling. .. My nerves are shattered. For the last six months, I used to visit Mr. Haque daily and spend 5-6 hours like a beggar. .. I am unable to have quality medical help. .. This might be my last letter to you. With only great difficulty, I can utter a few words. I am in pain almost all over my body. I might get money like the poet Ferdowsi on the day of the funeral prayer (janajar namaz). However, I have asked my relatives to refuse that money .. Yours, Nazrul

He entered a world of increasing isolation, until 1972, when the newly formed nation of Bangladesh rediscovered him. He was taken to Dhaka and honoured as the national poet. However, Nazrul's physcial and mental condition never improved, and he died on 29th August,1976. In accordance with a wish expressed in one of his poems, he was laid to rest beside a mosque on 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. Unfortunately, not enough talented translators have gathered to his cause, and Nazrul's reputation lives mainly 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 also

• Complete Works of Kazi Nazrul Islam
• Nazrul entry in

কাজী নজরুল ইসলাম Kazi Nazrul ISLAM Kazi Nazrul Islam