Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed :
Jasim Uddin was born in 1st January 1903. He is a Mollah by family title. Later on he avoided his title Mollah from his name. He took pride in the title of PalliKabi, given by the country men. His pseudonym was Tujambar Ali. He was born in a village Tambulkhana in his maternal house of Faridpur, 10 kilometers away from Faridpur District town. His paternal home was in Gabindapur. And at present it is named asOmbikapur. In 1908, he was admitted in a Pathshala of Ombika Master in Shuvarampur at the age of 5. After some days he left this Pathshala and got his admission in an English School. His father was a tutor in this school. He studied there from class one to class four, under his father’s supervision. In 1913, Jasim Uddin was admitted in class five in Faridpur District School. When he was a student of class nine, non co-operation movements was prevailing in the country. Jasim Uddin left the school and became a member of this non-cooperation movement with many of his fellows. In 1921, Jasim Uddin passed the Matriculation exam obtaining 2nd division from this school. He spent the major part of his education life in this school. This school had significant rule to the development of his liberal and secular attitude. In 1924, he passed the I.A. Exam in 3rd division from Rajendra College. During this time, he got the blessings from Dinesh Chandra Sen and was enrolled as a folk song procuring agent. In 1925, his poem Kabor in English “The Graves” was published in literature magazine “The Kollol”. In 1929, Jasim Uddin passed the B.A. Exam from FaridpurRajandra Collage. He took five years, to pass the B.A. Exam. During this time, he was busy with composition of poems and collection of folk songs and he had his special involvements in social and political affairs. In 1931, Jasim Uddin obtained the M.A. Degree having second class 8th position from Calcutta University. This time he became the follow of Dr. Dinesh Chandra Sen, Dr. Suniti Kumar Chattapadhay and Basanta Kumar Ray.
In 1933, Jasim Uddin was appointed Ramtanu Lahiri research assistant under the guidance of Dr. Dinesh Chandra Sen. He was engaged in line of job upto 1937. Indeed, he got the responsibility earlier when he was a student of Rajendra College. In 1938, he joined as Lecturer in Bengali Department in Dhaka University. He was engaged in teaching in Dhaka University up to 1944. In 1939, he was married to Mamtaz Begum Monimala at the age of 36, when Monimala was 16. In 1944, he gave up the service from Dhaka University as a teacher and joined as an Officer of the then Bengal provincial government Publicity Department and went to Kolkatta, the new work place of Jasim Uddin. In 1947, he joined as an additional song publicity organiser in the publicity Department of the then East Pakistan. In 1954, his lyrics songs named “Ganger Par” (The Bank of River) was published from the then Pakistan Government Press. In 1968, Biswa Bharati University offered him the highest Degree of Honour. In 1969, his historical ballad “Sujon Badier Ghat” has been translated in English by the name “The Gypsy Wharf”. In 1971, he composed a long poem about the father of Nation named as “Bangabandhu”. Again he wrote another poem “Muktijodda” which got its place in his book in “Those Terrible Days” and it was published in 1972 from Nowroj publications. The struggle of armed resistance against Pakistan was depicted in the book. This is a book comprising of 18 poems. In 1974, he delivered his president’s speeches in international literature conference organised by the Bangla Academy. In this book, there are as many as 24 songs and later edited from those were republished from governments information department. In 1959, his book on Drama the Bengali name grammer Maya (in English love of village) has been published from information Department of government. He was a pioneer of nationalism and out and out a socialist.
In his autobiography Jasim Uddin tells much more about village life as he knew it. He swam in the ponds and canals, fishing in the rainy season, watched the sugar cane being made into treacle, and ate his fair share of this tasty sweet. The boy Jasim built a banana palm raft and sailed it one early morning to help himself to a neighbour’s ripe dates. Like his hero Sujon, he knew where the wearer bird made its nest and admired the intricate construction. He knew when and where the best mangoes and plums were ripe. When the traveling theatre, the Jatra, came to town he and his cousin, Nehal Uddin, would sneak off and stay up all night listening to the play. Throughout the year they enjoyed both the Hindu and the Moslem holidays.
When Jasim Uddin was a boy, his family was very poor. His father was the teacher in the village school, a very dedicated man who sometimes earned only seven rupees a month. Later he became the mullah, the religious leader of the Moslem community in the village. In Jasim Uddin’s own words, ‘My father’s uncle, Jahir Uddin Mullah, was the mullah of our village. For some reason or other he left the country to go Malda (a village in West Bengal near Calcutta), and the responsibility for the office of mullah fell on my father. If there were a wedding among the farmers of the village father would receive from one to three rupees. In the estimation of the village, father now held a position of leadership.
The readers both from urban and rural areas have become lively by the happy touch of natural sights, a newly married wife’s feeling, love of a cowboy. He is a very conscious writer. He is pro-life, pro-human. He has made common things uncommon and unpopular things popular. Though he is inspired by the modernism and followers of modern ages he was not a blind follower of those, rather he wanted to focus a different style of art in the area of literature where both the people from town and villages’ high and low will be enlightened. So Bengali literature was in a turning point with the high profiled and highly accepted by the majority people of village people. His individuality gives us delight undoubtedly. He was born and bought up in the villages. He spent a long time with the farmers, specially the poor people of Bangladesh. Those people are always easy people. They have their simplicity of their mind. They do not understand the complicated life. They thought to be happy with what they have. They always try to realize the things from the core of their heart. We find Jasim Uddin as a representative of those common people.
This write-up has been dedicated to Jasim Uddin, a poet of rural Bangladesh. Every year on 1st January we remember the poet with love, respect, joy and happiness. Different cultural organisations celebrate the day highlighting his contributions in the field of literature. He has left us 45 years back but his immortality will never decline in the history of literature. His works and living style will always inspire new generation for achieving success in the midst of poverty and so many struggles in life. He was always the friend of rural people and we must pay our respect to this literary genius.
(Dr. Forqan Uddin Ahmed is Former Deputy Director General Bangladesh Ansar VDP & Writer, Columnist and Researcher)
