8/12/2019 Feature- Nazruls sojourns in Chittagong

1/1

7Feature Tuesday, March 4, 2014DHAKA TRIBUNE

n Uday Sankar Das

Arebel poet he denitelywas a poet who hadalways spoken for thepolitical freedom of thedowntrodden, but Kazi

Nazrul Islam was also a poet of loveand humanism, a fact we often tendto forget.

Unlike Rabindranath Tagore, he

was not a globe-trotter, but wheneverthe opportunity arose and wheneveran invitation was forthcoming, Nazrulnever failed to go to any part of Bengaland even visited some places morethan once.

Between 1926 and 1933, Nazrulvisited the south-eastern, naturalbeauty-laden port city of Chittagongthree times.

Nazrul became friendly with thechief whip of Deshbandhu Chittaran- jan DasSwaraj Party and SubhasBoses close friend, Hemanta KumarSarkar, who hailed from Krishnanagar.Nazrul was gradually getting moredirectly involved with the variouspolitical activities while he was inKrishnanagar, and at the end of July,1926 he went to Chittagong with He-manta Kumar and stayed there till therst week of August.

Although they initially put up atthe District Bungalow, at the request

and insistence of renowned literarypersonality Habibullah Bahar, Nazrul,for the rest of his visit, stayed atBahars maternal grandfather KhanBahadur Abdul Azizs house in thecitys Tamakumundi area. Althoughthe Khan Bahadur had recently died,the hospitality extended to Nazrul inAziz Manjil was extremely cordial.

Nazruls ever-smiling face, hisvibrant personality, his songs, reci-tations and his style of talking with

people around him, and above all hismannerism, greatly helped in liftingthe shadow of grief from his host shouse.

Eminent litterateurs of Chittagongused to call on the poet and prominentcitizens together with representativesof various institutions accorded hima number of receptions. Among thosewho had taken the initiatives to holdthese receptions for Nazrul werePrincipal Kamaluddin, Mahim Chan-dra Das, Khan Shaheb Abdus Sattar,Rai Bahadur Kamini Das, HabibullahChowdhury and Abdul KhaliqueChowdhury.

People from all walks of life andfrom both the Muslim and Hindu com-munities attended these receptions inhuge numbers; the enthusiasm shownby the young generation was over-whelming.

Despite Nazruls busy schedule

of attending receptions and lecturemeetings, he never refrained fromwriting; some of his prominent poemsin his anthology of poems and songsSindhu Hillolwere penned duringthis visit to Chittagong. Noted amongthese poems are Anamika,GoponPuja,Sindhu(Parts 1 and 2), Bang-la-r Azizand Karnaphuli.Thesewere written between 27th July and 1stAugust.

It was on 31st July, 1926 that Nazrul,during his stay at Aziz Manjil in Chit-tagongs Tamakumundi, dedicatedSindhu Hillolto Bahar and Nahar(Habibullah Bahar and his sister Sham-sunnahar Mahmud). In the dedication,which began as follows I give thesewritings to Bahar and Nahar,Nazrulwrote a poem to them, and signed atthe bottom as: Nazrul Islam, Tamaku-mundi, Chattagram, 31-7-26.

The rst two lines of that poem toBahar and Naharin the dedication

read:

Who is the better of you t wo,Bahar, you bring owers to the gar-den, Nahar, you bring light

On 1st August, Nazrul, accompa-nied by Habibullah Bahar and a fewpolitical activists and teachers, leftChittagong for Feni to address a polit-ical rally. The rally was held at FenisIslamia High School ground. While ad-

dressing the huge crowd, Nazrul madea fervent appeal to the people to riseagainst all sorts of oppression from theruling class. He asked the people totake a very strong position against thelocal and foreign rulers.

At the request of the citiz ens of Feniwho assembled to listen to Nazrul, thepoet rendered a few patriotic songs Kara-r Oi Louho Kapat,Oth reChaashiand Durgamo Giri KantaroMoru. At the end, the crowd insistedon his reciting his epic poem Rebel.Nazrul, with a smiling face, dulyobliged by reciting a part of that poem. This gesture was greatly appreciatedon that day by the people of Feni.

But, a sudden torrential downpourdisrupted the proceedings and themeeting had to be hurriedly ca lled off.

Nazrul then returned to Chittagong,and after staying there for three daysleft for Kolkata on his way to Kr-

ishnanagar on 4th August, 1926. The poet however promised his ar-

dent followers and fans that he wouldbe visiting Chittagong again and wouldstay for a longer period.

Kazi Nazrul Islam did keep hispromise and his second visit to Chit-tagong was more eventful and lastedlonger than the rst.

Early in January 1929, he visitedChittagong and again was guest ofHabibullah Bahar and his sister Sham-sunnahar Mahmud. In her book, Naz-rul-ke Jaemon Dekhechhi(The wayI have seen Nazrul), Shamsunnaharwrote, At the end of 19 26 and duringthe early part of 1929, Nazrul came toChittaging twice. The sweet resultsof these trips were some of the poetsgreatest poems which were includedin Sindhu Hillol and Chakrabak.

During this visit, Nazrul went to thegrave of Khan Bahadur Abdul Aziz topay his respects, and also attended an

anniversary programme held in thememory of Poet Nabin Chandra Sen. The Bulbul Society of Chittagong alsoaccorded Nazrul a reception.

The day following his arrival,Nazrul attended the 30th foundinganniversary of Muslim EducationSociety held at the Victoria Islami Hos-tel. In his speech, the poet ferventlyappealed to establish a cordial andharmonious relationship betweenthe Muslims and the Hindus, and im-pressed upon the necessity of both thecommunities to be aware about eachothers religious treatise and culture. This speech was later published in themagazine Bulbulunder the headlineThe practice of Muslim culture.

Kattali Union Club accorded Nazrula grand reception which was attendedby thousands of people from boththe Muslim and Hindu communities. This meeting was chaired by MoulanaAzizur Rahman, a former superinten-

dent of Darul Union Madrasa and thefounder of the rst Muslim-ownedprinting press Islamabad Press.

Nazrul delivered an in-depthspeech on education and civilisation,heard in rapt attention by the hugeaudience at whose request, the poetalso rendered a song.

During this almost-a-month-longvisit, Nazrul also went sightseeingwith Bahar and Nahar. He went on aboat cruise on River Karnaphuli and tothe various picturesque hilly sites, metthe youth of the city and also visitedSitakunda, going to the hi lltops there.

The days when Nazrul did notattend any public function or meeting,the Tamakumundi residence wherehe stayed was turned into a venueof literary discourse attended bylitterateurs, political leaders, culturalactivists and also the youth of the city. These discussions would often go ontill late at night.

Nazrul penned quite a numberof popular songs and poems whileresiding at Tamakumundi, includingthe introductory poem Ogo O Chakra-bakiof his anthology of poems andsongs Chakrabak.

Other notable writings during thissojourn in Chittagong included a songof sampan o majhi bhai,folk songki hoibo lal boithaa baiyaaand abhatiyali song tomai kuuley tuuleybandhu.For Chakrabak, he alsowrote Badal Raater Paakhi,StabdhaRaateya nd Sheet-er Sindhu.

The last poem was re-named Sind-hu Fourth Wave.Paying respect topoet Nabin Chandra Sen, an illustriousson of Chittagong, Nazrul penned apoem Nabinchandraduring thisvisit.

Towards the end of January, 1929Nazrul was a guest of the Alam Broth-ers, as they were known, members ofa literary-passionate family hailing

from the village of Fatehabad, in the

outskirts of the city.Of the four brothers, Shamsul Alam,

Mahbub ul Alam, Didarul Alam andWahidul Alam, there is a similarity be-tween the second-named and Nazrul,in that they both fought for the Britishduring the First World War and laterbecame renowned litterateurs.

The Alam family was hosts toNazrul on 25th and 26th January, 1929. The district administration of Chit-tagong had recently put up a memorialin honour of this visit in the village.

Both Nazrul and Mahbub ul Alamhad to face severe criticism for goingto war with the British, and Nazrul didgive a reply to this cri ticism later.

The real highlight of this visit wasNazruls trip to the tiny island of Sand-wip in the Bay of Bengal, where hewent to visit a small village. There liedthe ancestral home of his close friendMuzaffar Ahmed, who later became

a reputed communist leader of WestBengal. Muzaffar in his memoirs onNazrul wrote:

I do not think he went to Sand-wip on his own initiative. Two of mynephews used to study in Intermedi-ate Class in Chittagong College at thetime. In 1927, Nazrul was introducedto one of them (Abdul Muktadir). NowI have come to know that Nazrul wentto Sandwip at Muktadirs initiative.

On 28th January, 1929 Muktadir andone of his friends, Salimullah Chowd-hury accompanied Nazrul to Sandwipwhere he was put up in the govern-ment bungalow. On the followingday, the people of the island accordedNazrul a civic reception at the localKargil High School ground.

The meeting was chaired by Pras-anna Kumar Moktaar and the address

of honour and welcome on behalf ofthe islanders was read by Moham-mad Waliullah. In his speech, Nazrulheaped praise on the courage and hos-pitality of the people of Sandwip. Hewas fascinated by its natural beauty,he added. Nazrul also rendered a fewsongs and recited a part of his poemRebel.

In that meeting, a resolution waspassed criticising the baseless slanderthat was leveled against Nazrul.

Nazrul also visited MuzaffarAhmeds ancestral house in thevillage of Musagram in Sandwip,where he was born. Muzaffar laterwrote, I do not know why Sandwipwas liked by Nazrul. After returningto Kolkata, he expressed his desire togo to Sandwip once more, of course,if I went along with him. But that didnever happen as very soon after thatMuzaffar was arrested and sent toMeerut Jail.

Although Nazrul also could notvisit Sandwip again, he did return toChittagong once more; his third andnal visit to the land of another greatrevolutionary, Masterda Surya Senwas in May, 1933 when he came toattend the Chittagong District LiteraryConference held at Raozan as the chiefguest.

Among others, Professor AbulFazal, Mahbub ul Alam, WahidulAlam and Habibullah Bahar took partin the conference. The editor of TheMusalman, Mujibur Rahman andMohammed Modabber also came fromKolkata.

This conference was a huge successwith an estimated ten thousandpeople coming to join the varioussessions. Local leaders like MoulviNurul Afsar Chowdhury, Nurul HudaChowdhury, Abul Kashem (who laterbecame a Sub-Judge) and AhmedKabir Chowdhury played a prominent

role in organising this conference, the

reception committee of which washeaded by Dr Mohammed EnamulHaque.

On his way to the conference inRaozan, the poet made a stopover forlunch at Gohira at Ahmed Sagir Chow-dhurys village home. He also inspect-ed Gohira High School and instantlywrote a song praising the school Youhave built this clay Tajmahal here(Tomra gorechho ekhaaney ei maati-r Tajmahal).

In the conference, chaired by AbdulKarim Shahittya Bisharad, Nazrul wasagain openly criticised for going to warwith the British against the Muslimsby the editor of weekly Mohammadi,Nazir Ahmed Chowdhury. Nazrul,in his speech, did give a reply to thiscriticism.

Wahidul Alam, the youngest of theAlam brothers, in his book PrithibirPothik(World Traveller) dealt with

the poets reply in details and quotedhim saying, Youve heard the allega-tion brought against us that we foughtfor the British against the Muslims.But I want to say that when we wentto the war we were full of youthfulenergy, and not being able to con-tain the vibrant energy of the youth,we jumped into the war, not caringfor which party we were ghting, oragainst whom.

This last visit of Nazrul to Chit-tagong was very short and in less thana decade, he was affected by a diseasethat took away his voice and his mem-ory. For 34 long years, he had to suffera life of silence, which was equallyunbearable to millions of Bengalis.

The poet of love and humanismalso had this remorse in life, whichcould be easily deciphered from this

writing: I have not come to be a poet,I have not come to be a leader. I cameto give love, I came to get love. Be-cause I have not had that love, I departin quiet pique from this love-lorn,insipid world forever. l

Uday Sankar Das is a senior journalist whoworked for BBC World Service Radio inLondon and is presently based in Chittagong.

Weary of struggles, I, the great rebel,Shall rest in quiet only when I nd The sky and the air free of the piteous groans ofthe oppressed.Only when the battle elds are cleared of jinglingbloody sabresShall, I, weary of struggles, rest in quiet,I, the great rebel.

Rebel by Kazi Nazrul Islam(Translation: Kabir Chowdhury)

Nazruls sojourns in Chittagong

I have not come to be a poet, I have not come to

be a leader. I came to give love, I came to get love.Because I have not had that love, I depart in quietpique from this love-lorn, insipid world forever.

Nazrul during one of his visits to Chittagong PHOTO: COURTESY