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The Rebel Poet (inspiration
for adf's song 'Rebel Warrior')
Throughout the 1920s, Kagi Nazrul Islam was one of
the cultural pillars of the Indian Independence movement.
Through his poetry, songs, novels, plays and political
and journalistic writing as well as political activities,
he expressed protest against slavery, communalism, feudalism
and colonialism. This earned him the wrath of the British
authorities, who often hindered his activities and even
threw him in jail, but gained him the love of those
from all communities and classes whose struggles he
highlighted and whose spirits he lifted.
He was born on 24th May 1899 into an extremely poor,
Muslim working class family in the village of Churulia
in West Bengal, north-east India. His father died when
he was only nine and as a consequence of the need to
provide for his family, he had a severely interrupted
education.
At the age of ten he was teaching in his local school
and later worked in a bakery. His nickname of “Dukhu”
(“sorrow”) at this time reflected the hardship
he had to experience. He also worked in a mosque where
he learnt the principles and practices of Islam.
Whilst still a teenager, Nazrul joined a local folk-drama
group. This was where he first learnt to, and started
composing his own poetry and songs. He was exposed to
the music of the Bauls - travelling Sufi minstrels.
Sufis, though a sect of Islam, explored their spirituality
and relationship with God through music, often reaching
a trance–like state through their playing. They
also expressed a humanist philosophy, bemoaning the
divisions between Hindus and Muslims and questioning
the established order of caste and class.
The young Nazrul both lived in a religiously mixed
community and attended festivals frequented by Hindus,
Muslims and Buddhists. All this had a profound effect
on him and later on, made him one of the staunchest
fighters against communalism (conflict based upon religious
bigotry and intolerance.)
At the age of seventeen, Nazrul joined the 49th Bengali
Regiment of the (British) Indian army. He wanted to
show that Bengalis were capable of fighting. Punjabis
and Rajputs already had a martial reputation, but Bengalis
were known only as terrorists! Whilst posted in Karachi
(now in Pakistan) he subscribed to inspirational literary
journals like “Shogat” and “Prabasi”.
His first published pieces were written whilst still
a soldier.
On being demobbed in 1920, he rushed to Calcutta to
join the staff of Shogat. Calcutta, the capital of West
Bengal was both a cultural centre and a hotbed of opposition
to British rule in India. Nazrul mixed with students
and intellectuals in bookshops and cafes and enthusiastically
entered into discussions on literature, art and politics.
His growing political awareness endowed him with an
‘all India’ mentality and a sense of patriotism.
In 1921, Nazrul wrote the poem “Bidrohi”
or “The Rebel.” It made him an ‘overnight’
sensation. Not only did it herald a new type of dynamic
and more aggressive poetry, a challenge to the great
Tagore who had held sway and been imitated for decades,
but it was a political and metaphorical call to arms
- of Indians against the British and the underclass
against their oppressors. No one had done anything like
this before. The poem reached further than just the
Hindu and Muslim intellectuals who showered him with
plaudits.
Nazrul joined the “Swadeshi” (self-rule)
Movement that involved the boycotting of British goods
and non co-operation with the authorities. He started
writing patriotic and marching songs of which there
was hitherto no tradition in Bengali music. The political
leader, Subhas Chandra Bose, who advocated violent as
well as non-violent struggle said people would be singing
Nazrul’s songs when they went to war against the
British.
The increasing political nature of his poetry and journalism,
some of which advocated armed insurrection, did not
escape the notice of the police. In 1922, the offices
of his recently established magazine “Dhumketu”
(“The Comet”) was raided and materials seized.
Some of his books were banned and he was jailed for
‘sedition.’ Within prison, he protested at
his mistreatment there by going on a hunger strike that
he maintained for forty days. He only terminated it
when Tagore persuaded him that the people outside needed
him alive. He was released in December 1923.
The following year, Nazrul married a Hindu woman -
Pramila Devi. This lead to much criticism from outraged
fundamentalists from both religious communities, including
in magazines he had written for. But he counter-criticised
both mullahs (Muslim religious leaders) and high caste
Hindus for their bigotry. Others too from both sides,
came to his aid.
He became more involved in direct political activity,
attending rallies and meetings and joining the Bengal
Provisional Congress Committee. He also helped form
a workers’ and peasants’ party. His songs
started to reflect a greater awareness of class issues,
with songs not only about patriotism, but also dealing
with equality and social justice.
By 1927, he had an extensive body of songs promoting
Hindu- Muslim unity. Nazrul was, at the same time, developing
the Bengali version of the “ghazal” - a type
of song inspired initially by Persian poetry and sung
hitherto only in Urdu and dealing primarily with personal
love and yearning. He had succeeded in creating inclusive
and accessible music, for the masses. It can truly be
said that he was writing songs of ‘love and revolution.’
Throughout the 1930s, Nazrul’s second active decade,
his work was dominated by his song writing. He was very
innovative, drawing upon Indian classical, folk and
middle-eastern traditions and dragged Bengali music
into the 20th century. His music was extensively recorded
by gramophone companies and his songs performed by many
artistes. Nazrul himself diversified into broadcasting,
musical directing, play writing and even acting.
By the end of the decade communal tensions had risen,
aided and abetted by the British (classic ‘divide
and rule’) and Nazrul wrote several articles against
“Partition.” Even though India had not existed
as an official entity before, he was passionately against
the division of ‘British’ India into the Islamic
state of Pakistan and Hindu state of India when independence
might eventually be achieved.
In 1940 Nazrul’s family received a tragic blow
when his wife, Pramila was afflicted with paralysis
from the waist downwards. They had already suffered
the loss of their second son.
In 1941 he became the chief editor of “Nabajug”
(“New Age”) magazine. It is ironic that just
as Nazrul had re-entered the journalistic arena that
perhaps the ultimate tragedy struck. In July 1942, whilst
conducting a children’s radio broadcast, he suddenly
became silent. He never spoke again. He had suffered
a complete mental collapse. Though sound of body, no
one could tell what he was taking in mentally for he
gave no indication. No examination or treatment could
reveal the cause of what had happened or reverse the
condition.
Partition and the ensuing bloodbath in which millions
of Hindus and Muslims died in religious violence would
have undoubtedly caused him extreme grief had he been
mentally aware. His beloved Bengal had once again been
split into two (the British had done this before) with
West Bengal remaining in India and East Bengal becoming
East Pakistan, separated from West Pakistan by several
thousand miles.
Throughout the fifties Nazrul faded into obscurity,
living with Pramila on a meagre pension.
After yet more bloody conflict, East Pakistan in 1971
became the independent state of Bangladesh (“Land
of Bengal”) and Nazrul was brought over to live
there and given the honour of National Poet of Bangladesh.
Whether Nazrul would have accepted leaving India in
his right mind is a matter of conjecture. He would have
no doubt been a thorn in the side of Bangladesh’s
subsequent military government. Indeed, he would have
been extremely critical of both India’s and Pakistan’s
regimes.
The ordinary people of Bangladesh regarded him with
much affection. When he passed away in 1976, he was
given full state honours and hundreds of thousands filed
passed his coffin.
He left an enormous body of music and literature, both
religious and secular. (As a Muslim, he was the composer
of the largest number of Hindu devotional songs.)
At a time where Indian statesmen once again stir up
religious intolerance to satisfy their own political
ends and the Indian and Pakistani governments are on
the verge of threatening each other with nuclear weapons,
his message of Hindu-Muslim fraternity remain as relevant
as ever.
For the people of West Bengal and Bangladesh most affected
by the soul destroying weather conditions that annually
wreak fresh havoc and by corrupt and incompetent local
and national governments, it is arguably his most revolutionary
songs and poetry that carry the most resonance. The
poem “Bidrohi” is as popular today as it ever
was. For people in rural areas especially, Nazrul’s
life story has passed into modern folklore and he is
afforded a status similar to that of Bob Marley in Jamaica.
For those people, Nazrul never stopped speaking and
his messages of hope, humanity and unity will continue
to affect their lives in a positive way.
The song “Rebel Warrior” by Asian Dub Foundation
is inspired by the poem “Bidrohi” (indeed
some of the lyrics are a rough translation from that
poem) and by his revolutionary spirit as an archetypal
cultural activist.
Dr Das
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