Mohammad Rukanuddin :
Professor M. Harunur Rashid has been an able teacher, a successful administrator, a prolific writer and an extraordinary intellectual in one person. I and my fellow classmates found him as a teacher in the Department of English at Jahangirnagar University.
We, so to speak, were awestruck to have him as our teacher. He spellbound us not only by his classroom teaching but also by his way of speaking, his amazing demeanor, and his erudition. He was not a cold intellectual; rather he was a vibrant personality overseeing our every step in the department. If he saw anyone of us having an unshaved face, or anyone having untidy hair, he would point out it. He advised us to be smart, meaning to do the right thing at the right moment. He told us that English is a wide window on the world of knowledge and to achieve the unknown and the unseen we must be ardent and hardworking. Lethargic, passionless, and indolent approach to studies does not bring anything worthwhile in life. He was student friendly in the real sense of the term. Whenever, students needed any reference letters, testimonials from him, or any feedback regarding any academic papers, he would provide it with sincerity.
Once I read in a column written by him in a magazine titled the “Courier”, “The Home Minister knows better about other people’s eyes than his own”. This was during President Ershad’s dictatorial regime. This was an intellectual protest against the lawlessness and anarchy going on then in the country. We found him vocal and vibrant in and out of the university campus.
Professor Rashid, though started his teaching career in a non-government college in 1962, soon switched over to a government college, Islamic Intermediate College (Now Kabi Nazrul College), Dhaka qualifying in the then East Pakistan Junior Education Service. Then he served as Lecturer at Dhaka College, as Assistant Professor at Jinnah College (now Titumir College), as Associate Professor at MC College, Sylhet.
Then resigning his government college job in 1973, he joined as an Associate Professor of English at Chittagong University where subsequently, he was made Professor of English and served there till 1985. Deciding to leave Chittagong, he resigned his job at CU and in the same year joined Jahangirnagar University where he worked till 1998. It is worth mentioning that while he was at Chittagong University, he taught at the University of Annaba, Algeria for one year on lien. After his retirement from Jahangirnagar, he joined North South University where he worked for long eight years.
Being gifted with the art of writing, he worked as an associate editor at a national English daily also. Regarding Professor Rashid’s integrity at work, a journalist in the newspaper, once said that on one occasion he referred to Professor Rashid an applicant’s application for a job at the newspaper mentioning that the applicant was Professor Rashid’s former student. Professor Rashid said to him, “First see whether he is competent for the job he is aspirant for. This is his first identity. Whether he was my student or not is immaterial”.
While serving at university, Professor Rashid served as provost in several halls of Chittagong University and Jahangirnagar University. As an administrator, he was known to his students as a guide and mentor. Many of his students knew that while Professor Rashid was the provost of a hall at Chittagong University, he took care of the students for himself. He personally visited every nook and cranny of the hall even the washrooms, kitchens and dining hall. If he found any student using any sanitary items like basins, water tap wrongly he would correct him then and there with an affectionate tone. He regularly visited the students’ rooms and facilities to know about the well-being of them.
He was born on 28 December 1939 in Assam, undivided India, but because of his father’s transfer he came to Bangladesh with his family settled at Nabinagar, Brahmanbaria where he completed his matriculation and intermediate examinations.
He did his BA honours and MA in English from Dhaka University in 1960 and 1961 respectively. He then on a government scholarship went to Cambridge University, UK and obtained his BA with honours (1966) as well as MA (1970). Ever eager to develop his teaching career, he even went to the East West Centre, Hawaii and completed a training in ESOL during which he visited some of the important language schools of Hawaii and mainland USA.
During his career, Professor Rashid held several important administrative positions in different distinguished organizations. He was the Director General (for four years) as well as the President (for two years) of the Bangla Academy. Bangla Academy got impetus in its activities during Professor Rashid’s administration. The landmarks of his tenure are the publishing of the Bangla Academy English-Bengali Dictionary (edited by Z R Siddiqui) which became an instantaneous best seller, and commissioning and publishing the Bengali to English Dictionary which still remains the best lexicon of its kind. He also published the complete works of literary geniuses like Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah, Kaykobad, Farrukh Ahmed, Muhammad Abdul Hye and our national poet Kazi Nazrul Islam. He did the branding of the Bangla Academy dictionaries with a cover design by Qayyum Chowdhury.
Professor Rashid brought fame and honour for the country being elected the President of World University Service International, Geneva in 1984 at the General Assembly held in Nantes, France. Historical evidence shows besides him, only two persons from South Asia held this prestigious position. One was Dr. Zakir Husain, former President of India and the other one was Dr. I. H. Qureshi, Education Minister of Pakistan. Moreover, he was elected president of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh in 1998 for two years. He was also unanimously elected Chairman of Wild Life Trust of Bangladesh known as Wild Team in 2015 for one year.
Professor Rashid’s activities are so vast that it is difficulty to present them in a little space of a newspaper article. He delivered lectures and presented papers in numerous countries and organizations like, Southern Illinois University, USA (1976), World University Service regional conference, Manila (1985), World Islamic Conference, Casablanca, Morocco (1987), a Cambridge Seminar, UK (1991), Sahitya Academy Seminar, Kolkata (1994) and a seminar at the Royal Commonwealth Society, London (1999) among others.
To his credit, Professor Rashid contributed profusely in the field of literature. He wrote more than 40 books on poetry, translation and Sufism. In addition to these, he has written many articles in many newspapers, magazines and periodicals.
I wish this octogenarian educationist, mentor and multifaceted intellectual a healthy, active and long life.
(The writer is an Assistant Professor of English at Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology).
