Eminent scholar Sardar Fazlul Karim has passed away. He died at Dhaka’s Shamarita Hospital around 12.45am on Sunday, his son-in-law Shakeel Akhtar told bdnews24.com. Akhtar who is also a doctor earlier said that the 89-year-old was suffering from “multiple organ failure”. Karim was hospitalised a few days back with cardiac complications but as his condition deteriorated doctors put him under intensive care. Karim is also famed for his many scholarly books on philosophy and translations of Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau and Engels. Born in 1925 in Barisal, he became a lecturer of Philosophy at Dhaka University in 1946 at the age of 21. But he was deemed an enemy by the then Pakistani authorities for his progressive politics. He served more than 10 years in jail in phases during the Pakistan rule. Pakistani authorities also tried to ensure that he did not return to teach at Dhaka University. Even then he was elected a member of Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in 1954 from the prison. He was brought back to teaching at Dhaka University immediately after Bangladesh gained independence in 1972.
