KAZI Nazrul Islam is the national poet of Bangladesh. He is our pride who made the treasure of Bengali literature rich with the poetry of revolt, short stories, novels and essays opening a new horizon away from Rabindra literary era. Nazrul as a poet coming from the Muslim community in British India has penned the ethos of a nation to be free and able to decide their own fate. He was born in West Bengal but grew up in East Bengal and later buried here in Dhaka. The people of independent Bangladesh admire him and held him in high esteem. But unfortunately the attitude of our government does not really reflect the warmth and respect that the mass people have about him. This is a sad reality as a report based on an interview with his two grand children published in a national daily on Friday said.
In that interview both Kazi Anirban and Anindita Kazi expressed their frustration about a kind of apathy and neglect displayed by concerned government authorities towards promoting Nazrul’s writings and publishing his unpublished materials. They did not hide their shock to see that Bangladesh National Museum authorities have kept all the belongings of Nazrul at its store-room. Anirban claimed he has a huge collection of Nazrul’s personal belongings in his possession including Poet’s own hand-written manuscripts of hundreds of songs, notebooks containing staff notations of the songs done by the Poet, Nazrul’s personal letters, copies of his first published books and various other important materials. Anirban claimed he made offer on many occasions to both Cultural Affairs Minister and Nazrul Institute Authorities to hand over these materials to them for proper preservation and also publication of unpublished works. But he got no positive response so far.
Kazi Nazrul is a poet of humanity for all ages whose works highlighted the pity and pride, compassion and sacrifice and peace and war in a colonial society rippled by socio-political conflict and oppression of the poor by wealthy Hindu Zamindars. His lyric has been adopted as the march past song of Bangladesh Army. His own hand written manuscripts are part of our glorious heritage. It is our responsibility to collect those materials and properly preserve them as a testimony of our past.
But it is sad in spite of taking initiative in this regard, it appears that the government or Nazrul Institute Authority is reluctant to receive these materials. Such apathy is surfacing when the West Bengal government has taken the initiative to promote Nazrul’s literature at district level. But in Bangladesh our national poet is neglected even at University level. What a contrast and shame! We must rediscover ourselves.
In that interview both Kazi Anirban and Anindita Kazi expressed their frustration about a kind of apathy and neglect displayed by concerned government authorities towards promoting Nazrul’s writings and publishing his unpublished materials. They did not hide their shock to see that Bangladesh National Museum authorities have kept all the belongings of Nazrul at its store-room. Anirban claimed he has a huge collection of Nazrul’s personal belongings in his possession including Poet’s own hand-written manuscripts of hundreds of songs, notebooks containing staff notations of the songs done by the Poet, Nazrul’s personal letters, copies of his first published books and various other important materials. Anirban claimed he made offer on many occasions to both Cultural Affairs Minister and Nazrul Institute Authorities to hand over these materials to them for proper preservation and also publication of unpublished works. But he got no positive response so far.
Kazi Nazrul is a poet of humanity for all ages whose works highlighted the pity and pride, compassion and sacrifice and peace and war in a colonial society rippled by socio-political conflict and oppression of the poor by wealthy Hindu Zamindars. His lyric has been adopted as the march past song of Bangladesh Army. His own hand written manuscripts are part of our glorious heritage. It is our responsibility to collect those materials and properly preserve them as a testimony of our past.
But it is sad in spite of taking initiative in this regard, it appears that the government or Nazrul Institute Authority is reluctant to receive these materials. Such apathy is surfacing when the West Bengal government has taken the initiative to promote Nazrul’s literature at district level. But in Bangladesh our national poet is neglected even at University level. What a contrast and shame! We must rediscover ourselves.
