National poet of Bangladesh, Kazi Nazrul Islam was born on 24th May, 1899 (11th Joyshtha, 1306 according to Bangla calendar). His mother was Jaheda Khatun and father Kazi Fakir Ahmed. His father was the imam of a mosque and the caretaker of a mausoleum. Nazrul's family was quite poor, and Nazrul was often referred to by the locals as 'Dukhu Mia' (the destitute one). After his father's death in 1908, Nazrul took up his father's job as caretaker and also served as muazzin of the mosque to support his family. He worked for a while in a tea stall in Asansol, which was also where his literary abilities first came to be noted. He met the police inspector Rafizullah, who took him to his village Shimla, now called Kazir Shimla, in Mymensingh district, Bangladesh, and arranged for his education at the Darirampur High School, in Trishal, in 1914.
In 1915, he moved back to his own village, and joined the Raniganj Searsole Raj School. At the age of eighteen, whilst a student in class ten, he came under the spell of the distant First World War. He joined the 49 Bengal Regiment and was sent as a habildar (corporal) to Karachi. Although the regiment never faced battle and was disbanded in 1920 after the cessation of hostilities, the cadence of the soldier's parades and marches permeates much of his writings from Karachi cantonment.
Nazrul returned to Kolkata in the early 1920s. He exploded into the Bengla literary scene, where his soldier's voice sent shockwaves into the genteel tradition of the times. His Muslim background also set him apart in the Hindu dominated community. He was the first person, who used Arabic and Farsi words in Bangla literature successfully. Sometimes the swaggering rebel, talking in military staccato, and sometimes the gentle creative poet, lilting cadences dancing through his song, Nazrul brought in a breath of fresh air.
Nazrul's literature can hardly be separated from his politics. After Nazrul achieved fame as a poet, he started editing a weekly political and literary magazine called Dhumketu (The comet). It launched with a famous adulation from Rabindranath Ae chole ae re dhumketu, ãdhare badh ôgnishetu (O comet, come, create the firebridge in the darkness). Dhumeketu openly opposed British rule in India, and soon enough, it was shut down and its workers, Nazrul foremost, were imprisoned.
He entered a world of increasing isolation, until 1972, when the newly formed nation of Bangladesh rediscovered him. He was taken to Dhaka and honoured as the national poet. However, Nazrul's physcial and mental condition never improved, and he died on August 29,1976.
[We are continuing our research on Kazi Nazrul Islam and will update the rest of his life very soon].
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