National poet not properly evaluated
Kazi Nazrul Islam is our national poet. But sadly he has not been properly evaluated, not given his due in the Bengali literature from the secondary to the university level. The utter negligence has sprang either through sheer ignorance or deliberately in order to banish his works fully from the literary world.
Kazi Nazrul Islam, popularly recognized as a rebel poet, was also a poet of the exploited class. At the same time, he did not forget his identity as a Muslim. There is no need to present him partly. Partly presentation is simply an act of denial.
Poems like Bidrohi, Dhumketu, Manush, Nari, Kuli-Mazur, Aamar Koifiot, Anowar, Chal Chal Chal, Kandari Hnushiar, Sarbohara, Samyabadi, Korbani, Muharram, Omar, Khaled, Shat-el-Arab, Aagomani, Eid Mubarak and Bhor Holo speak of his commitment to fight against injustice and exploitation of man by another.
The poet writes in his poem ‘Aamar Koifiot’:
“Hungry child wants not Swaraj, wants rice, some salt,
Day rolls on, yet the child has not taken meals, burns his empty stomach.”
In the poem, ‘Bidrohi’, Nazrul writes:
“Say hero-
Say erect is my head!
Bends not my head, the Himalayan peak bends down,
Say erect is my head!”
The poet in his poem, ‘Kuli-Mazur’ writes”:
“Saw on that day, in the rail (compartment)-
Since he was a potter, rich man pushed him down (the compartment),
Tears began to stream down,
Will the weak be subjected to repression all over the world!”
Now I am sure that the readers will be able to evaluate him correctly.
Ameer Hamzah
Dhaka
