Working at the literary society, Nazrul grew close to a rising generation of Muslim writers including Mohammad Mozammel Haq, Afzalul Haq, Kazi Abdul Wadud and Muhammad Shahidullah. He was regular at clubs for Calcutta’s writers, poets and intellectuals like the Gajendar Adda and the Bharatiya Adda. In October 1921, Nazrul went to Santiniketan with Muhammad Shahidullah and met Rabindranath Tagore. Despite many differences, Nazrul looked to Tagore as a mentor and the two remained in close association.
Nazrul catapulted to fame with the publication of Bidrohi in 1922, which remains his most famous work. At the time of publication, no other poem since Tagore’s ‘Shonar tori’ had met with such spontaneous acclaim and criticism for its radical approach. Set in a heroic meter, this long poem invokes images from Hindu, Muslim and Greek mythology. Nazrul won admiration of India’s literary classes by his description of the rebel whose impact is fierce and ruthless even as its spirit is deep :
I am the unutterable grief,
I am the trembling first touch of the virgin,
I am the throbbing tenderness of her first stolen kiss.
I am the fleeting glace of the veiled beloved,
I am her constant surreptitious gaze….
I am the burning volcano in the bosom of the earth,
I am the wild fire of the woods,
I am Hell’s mad terrific sea of wrath!
I ride on the wings of the lightning with joy and profound,
I scatter misery and fear all around,
I bring earth-quakes on this world!
I am the rebel eternal,
I raise my head beyond this world,
High, ever erect and alone! (English translation by Kabir Choudhary)
Published in the ‘Bijli’ magazine, the poem caused a popular sensation. Nazrul stormed into Tagore’s residence, jokingly declaring “Gurudev, I have come to kill you off.” The rebellious language and theme found resonance with public consciousness of the time, which correlated with the Non-cooperation Movement – the first, mass nationalist campaign of civil disobedience against British rule. Nazrul explores a synthesis of different forces in a rebel, destroyer and preserver, expressing rage as well as beauty and sensitivity. Nazrul followed up by writing Pralayollas (Destructive Euphoria), and his first anthology of poems, the Agniveena (Lyre of Fire) in 1922, which enjoyed astounding and far-reaching success. He also published his first volume of short stories, the Byethar Dan (Gift of Sorrow) and Yugbani, an anthology of essays.
Nazrul started a bi-weekly magazine, publishing the first Dhumketu on August 12, 1922. Earning the moniker of the rebel poet, Nazrul also aroused the suspicion of British authorities. A political poem published in Dhumketu in September 1922 led to a police raid on the magazine’s office. Arrested, Nazrul entered a lengthy plea before the judge in the court:
“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 realisation 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?”
On April 14, 1923 he was transferred from the jail in Alipore to Hooghly in Kolkata, he began a 40-day fast to protest mistreatment by the British jail superintendent. Nazrul broke his fast more than a month later and was eventually released from prison in December 1923. Nazrul composed a large number of poems and songs during the period of imprisonment and some of his works were banned in the 1920s by the British authorities.
Kazi Nazrul Islam became a critic of the Khilafat Movement, condemning it as hollow, religious fundamentalism even as thousands of Muslims agitated for it. While explicitly avowing his affinity to Islam, and calling for upholding Islam for its universalistic essence, values and spirit, he believed that some practices and religious conservatism were hurting Indian Muslims as well as the Muslim world, and keeping them backward, intensifying social and sectarian challenges. Nazrul also criticised the Indian National Congress for not embracing outright political independence from the British Empire.
Nevertheless, he became active in encouraging people to agitate against British rule, and joined the Bengal state unit of the Congress. Nazrul also helped organize the Sramik Praja Swaraj Dal, a political party committed to national independence and the service of the peasant masses.
On December 16, 1925 Nazrul started publishing the weekly Langal, with himself as Chief Editor. The Langal was the mouthpiece of the Sramik Praja Swaraj Dal.
Nazrul’s married life with Nargis of Daulatpur, Comilla could not continue from the very beginning for unavoidable reasons. It was during his visit to Comilla in 1921, that Nazrul met a young Hindu woman, Pramila Devi. The two maintained regular correspondence. Falling in love, they married on April 25, 1924.
Pramila belonged to the Brahmo Samaj, which criticized her marriage to a Muslim. Nazrul in turn was condemned by Muslim religious leaders and continued to face criticism for his personal life and professional works. Nazrul’s works condemned social and religious dogma and intolerance. His poems also spoke in philosophical terms of romantic love, and the complete equality of men and women, and criticising the social and religious traditions of the time that ruled otherwise. Nazrul came to identify the spirit of his thoughts and works as inherently rebellious :
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.
(abridged)
-New World Encyclopedia –
