Insights into Nazrul's life and works

It was the time of explosion in British India and anti-British movements were getting in high gear across the sub-continent. Bengal was no exception. As series of events like the Jalianwallah Bag massacre in 1919, Khilafat Movement in 1920 and the Non-Cooperation Movement initiated by M K Gandhi in 1921 created a combined impact on the people of Bengal alongside the rest of India. Thus, it was a turbulent time and people of Bengal were expecting something new in literature reflecting the turbulence and inspiring people to join the anti-colonial movement. Though Rabindranath Tagore was still alive and he had already been awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (1913), he and many other eminent litterateurs seemed unable to fill the vacuum created by the period of turbulence.
Against the backdrop, the arrival of Kazi Nazrul Islam was universally greeted by the Bengali readers. “It was January 6, 1922, Nazrul came out with the epic poem on heroic sentiment that made him overnight hero of the Bengali people. The poem is Bidrohi (The Rebel), the greatest Bengali heroic poem. In an outstanding enthusing language Nazrul urged every Indian in general and every Bengali in particular to encounter the huge British colonial power with a great heroic spirit. He called upon everyone to raise one’s head high, to shun timidity of every kind, and befit one to face the challenge of time with an emboldened spirit.” (P-5, Introducing Kazi Nazrul Islam by Karunamaya Goswami, May, 1999, NY)
Since then, Nazrul had been enthralling the people of Bengal and remained indispensable for them. His literary works are versatile and his life is more than amazing. How a poor boy, through an extreme and passionate struggle, turned a towering figure of Bangla literature is the query that continues to drive people over a century. A life that endured through the versatility of soldier, journalist, musician, poet, politician, singer, composure, yogi and sufi is unparallel in the contemporary world. That’s why many Nazrul exponents and researchers have devoted their efforts to unearthing the versatile life and works of the rebel poet decade after decade and produced a few hundred biographies, if not a thousand. Not all are full-length and adequately researched, and some are full of errors, omissions and emotions. Again, some books focus on a particular side or aspect of the prodigious Nazrul. The exercise goes on till today and will continue in future. As the nation observed the 48th death anniversary of the rebel poet on Tuesday (August 27), and the year also marked the 125th birth anniversary (May 24) of him, the national poet of Bangladesh, this article has tried to review three comprehensive biographies of Nazrul in brief. Two of these are in Bangla and the third one is in English.
TWO
Karunamaya Goswami is renowned for his versatile works on music and literature. His specialisation on Nazrul is also well-recognised. So, it is not surprising that Goswami has written a full-length biography of the rebel poet and it becomes the first comprehensive English biography of Nazrul which was first published in 1996 by Nazrul Institute in Dhaka. Earlier in 1973, Gopal Halder wrote a brief bio titled ‘Kazi Nazrul Islam’. Published by Sahitya Academy in New Delhi, it was a part of a biographical series known as ‘Makers of Indian Literature.’ There are some other short-length English biographies also.
‘Kazi Nazrul Islam: A Biography’, written by Goswami, illustrates the life of the rebel poet along with the characteristics of him as a writer, journalist, political activist, and composer. The author is, however, humble when he asserts: “This biography is almost like a sketch-work. I intended to make it brief. The readers before me are not the people who are well-versed about Bengali literature or the life and works of Kazi Nazrul Islam. They are people whose interest in them is rather initial. My intention in this regard is not to present a summarization of events alone. I have tried to give a brief account of the nature and evolution of the rebel poet. I am aware of the fact that this is the biography of a man whose achievements are integrally and intricately related to the growth of modern Bengali literature and music. I have, therefore, tried to present the story of Nazrul’s life in the context of his works of various dimensions.” (P-38)
Going through the book, one will find that the biographer has widely succeeded in the mission he set for with some limitations or short-comings for obvious reasons. Moreover, Goswami also debunked some myths about the various events of Nazrul’s life, making the biography as more accurate as possible. For instance, he pointed out that some writers stated that Nazrul had gone to Mesopotamia to take part in battles during the First World War. “But this is not a fact and his life as a member of the armed forces had passed nowhere other than Nausera and Karachi.” (P-47) The poet’s stay in Karachi with the Bengal Regiment was critical, however, as his literary life practically began there and the seeds of far- reaching musical consequences were sown, as mentioned by Goswami.
Throughout the book, the author provides English translation of some poems and prose of Nazrul as well as excerpts of memoirs and observations by the poet’s contemporaries like Comrade Muzaffar Ahmad so that readers can connect and contextualise the various phases of life of the rebel poet. It is a daunting task done by Goswami has to do as translating Nazrul into English is not an easy one, especially upholding the spirit and rhythm of poems and musical lyrics.
One key shortcoming of the book is absence of chapters and sections. Instead of dividing the book into a few chapters, the writer goes at a stretch describing various events that took place in the life of Nazrul. So, it becomes difficult for the readers to keep coherence sometimes. Though the book has been reprinted twice, neither the author nor the publisher felt for rearrange it with chapters. Now that the author is no more (Goswami died in 2017), it may be difficult to revise the next edition by dividing the book into a few chapters. Nevertheless, the revision is not impossible and the next reprint must correct all the typos and printing errors.
THREE
To celebrate the birth centenary of Nazrul on May 24 in 1999, the state government of West Bengal in India decided to publish a comprehensive biography of the rebel poet over there. The assignment went to Arun Kumar Basu, an eminent researcher in music and literature. The outcome of his hard work is Nazrul Jiboni (in Bangla) which was formally released in Kolkata on January 2000. A revised edition of the book was published in 2016, making it the magnum opus of the author and also probably the largest biography of Nazrul in terms of volume and diversity.
Divided into 45 chapters with some thought-provoking titles, the 800-plus pages of the book tries to provide a big picture of Nazurl that was, to some extent, absent from many of the previous biographies, some of which were famed also. The chapters are organised chronologically so that readers can get a time series of the poet’s turbulent journey in the literary world only for two decades. During the journey, Nazrul stormed the many traditional and conservative approaches of writing and expressing views and adopted the path of being fast and furious. Basu tries to dive deep into many events and uses many published and some unpublished sources to present the various phases of life and works of the rebel poet.
A strong aspect of Basu’s effort is challenging many inflated and distorted stories about various occurrences of the poet’s troublesome and unstable life. The author presents contradictory statements and incidents and tries to examine those in the light of possibility and reality. Unlike many previous biographers, he doesn’t accept some unclear, misleading and clueless things so far accepted and believed by many.
Mr Basu also illustrates progress of Nazrul’s works in an interesting manner as there are many things no less than fiction or fantasy but proves as facts ultimately. He mentions that when Rabindranath was at his peak in the world of Bengali literature where no one is nearby in any sense, Nazrul arrived like a comet with his uniqueness.
There is no doubt that one needs some patience to go through the biography as it will compel the reader to read, stop, think and reread. Those who have already read several biographies and also construct their own ‘Nazrul’ will be moved and surprised, sometimes, for not finding their ‘Nazrul’ entirely but seeing a Nazrul much larger, multitalented and mysterious.
Basu’s work again proves the long-lasting assertion that life of Nazrul is a complex mixture of exuberance, trouble, sorrow, politics, enigma and mystery. So, it is not an easy task to put all the bits and pieces of the puzzle together, especially when there are some unsolved mysteries. The biography shows in detail that Nazrul had a life of extreme contradictions in all sense. He physically survived 77 years although around the last half or last 34 years was a life of unconscious, mentally unaware and physically inactive man. Thus his active and creative life was limited in first 43 years that witnessed boundless enthusiasm of activism and creation. It was a life of a man who denounced all religious boundaries and communal narrowness without any hesitation with boldness. Again, the man was a victim of religious politics in his later life when he had been passing through an ‘almost dead although living’ phase.
The reader will also not miss the author’s subconscious affection to the rebel poet in the biography that is based on rigorous research and opens another new window to decode Nazrul.
FOUR
If Arun Kumar Basu is softly critical about the life and works of Nazrul, eminent scholar and researcher Golam Murshid is forthright in this matter when he asserts that he has reconstructed the biography of Nazrul. His 550-plus- page Bidrohi Ronoklanto: Nazrul Jiboni (The rebel exhausted in battle: a biography of Nazrul; first published in 2018) is an outcome of his rigorous effort of the reconstruction that brushed aside most of the biographies published so far. According to him: “The poet was a man of unparalleled genius and highly cheerful. But most of his biographies are typed as hero-worshipped and also highly exaggerate in nature. These books do not help us to visualise Nazrul clearly or rightly. So, I used the information of these books with utmost caution. Moreover, I viewed Nazrul as a genius who was ever-changing. At the same time, I also kept it in mind that he was flesh and blood with natural limitations.” (P-9)
Divided into ten main chapters with appropriate titles, Murshid illustrates life and works of the rebel poet quite critically. That’s why he continues to contest the various events, described by different biographers, of Nazrul’s life and tries to identify the accurate things. The readers will find it from the very outset in the book. For instance, he disparagingly examines the established descriptions of Nazrul’s family, his birth and childhood and raises questions on authenticity of many facts. Says Murshid: “How Dukhumia of a remote village became Kazi Nazrul Islam is an unresolved mystery and his biographers could not give any believable explanation of it.” (P-15)
Throughout the book Murshid poses such questions and sometimes gives his own explanation, leaving readers shocked, surprised, amazed and perplexed. In that sense, the biography of Nazrul becomes a big contrast to the many recognised times and events of the rebel poet’s life.
He also sheds light on politics in Bangladesh to declare him as national poet, to award him Ekueshey Padak, keep him in the country until his death and his hurried burial in absence of his family members in a unsympathetic way. It is undoubtedly uncomfortable for many readers and admirers of Nazrul, and some have expressed their dissatisfaction and disapproval of Murshid’s work after the publication of the book. They have argued that the ultimate intention of the author is to undermine Nazrul. It is not possible to endorse the view entirely, especially going through the concluding chapter of the book minutely where the writer says: “Nazrul is not a monolith constructed with a unified, unchangeable and unique material. His characteristics are different in various phases of his life – he is actually a garland of many Nazruls. He is rebel and also a lover. He is unable to pay for rail ticket; again his luxury for motor car is also there. He bestows himself in politics, again he dislikes politics. He is sometimes antagonistic to religion, sometimes devotedly religious.” (P-513)
What is critical is that the author puts extreme efforts to end his mission – preparing a comprehensive and critical biography of Nazrul full of facts with proofs. To what extent Murshid becomes successful in this hectic exercise is a matter of debate, however. Moreover, if someone reads the book keeping Basu’s biography beside, he or she will be perplexed to find a lot of similarities in approaches and analyses. There is no doubt that Basu’s Nazrul Jiboni influenced Murshid’s Bidrohi Ronoklanto although it is a matter of future study to identify the magnitude of the influence.

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