literature

André Malraux supported our Liberation War
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André Malraux supported our Liberation War

THE PEOPLE of Bangladesh should forever remember André-Georges Malraux, an intellectual giant and humanist of the twentieth century, for his outstanding contribution towards the Liberation War of Bangladesh. André Malraux was given honorary citizenship by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, then Prime Minister of Bangladesh, during his visit from 23 – 24 April, 1973.

The French philosopher, novelist, warrior and statesman was also received by President Justice Abu Sayeed Chowdhury, who in praise of Malraux’s humanitarian role said that “Malraux’s love for humanity and cherished ideals never admitted any geographical barrier and his bold voice was heard across the world whenever human dignity was in danger.” Chief of Protocol Arshad-Uz-Zaman, a linguist, organized his trip to Chittagong and Rajshahi.

A civic reception was organized in Chittagong while the Rajshahi University coferred Doctorate of Literature on Malraux. This writer accompanied André Malraux to Chittagong in a helicopter on 21 April. Apart from according civic reception André Malraux had the pleasure of opening art gallery of the Chittagong University where French speaking renowned artist Rashid Choudhury was a professor.
Civic reception was conducted by Dr Mahmud Shah Qureshi, a Professor of Bengali at Chittagong University who was fluent in French. André Malraux had a cruise in Kaptai Lake on a house boat of industrialist and former Minister of Pakistan for industry A. K. Khan, who gave a lunch in his honor on the boat.

Andre Malraux aboard a helicopter in
Chittagong with writer of the article.

On his return to Dacca André Malraux also met a cross section of people from civic society, including freedom fighters who were wounded during the war of liberation. André Malraux met them at Suhrawardy Hospital where he became emotional. This writer also accompanied him to the hospital. André Malraux was also treated to lunch by Foreign Minister Dr.Kamal Hossain at his official residence on 22 Aprilwhere among others, writer-poet Abu Zafar Mohammad Obaidullah Khan, then Joint Secretary, was present.

Bangladesh was his second homeland
In his Rajshahi trip my colleague Esrajul Alam and Akramul Qader (who became Bangladesh Ambassador to the US in 2011 after retirement having served as Ambassador to Thailand and South Africa) accompanied him. In Rajshahi, at a special convocation André Malraux said, “On your own tombs there are perhaps souvenir of the words justice and liberty with which the generals of the revolution had put Europe to flame.” During conversation with this writer Malraux described Bangladesh as his second homeland.

Malraux favoured guerilla war
Monsieur André Malraux in a letter to esteemed Indian leader Jay Prakash Narayan, a Gandhite and revolutionary politician said, “What matters is the military organization of Bangladesh. Either it will accept pitched battles with Pakistan and will be wiped out or it will organize its guerillas and Pakistan will be defeated”. This letter was in response to an invitation to attend international conference on Bangladesh held in New Delhi from 16-17 September of 1971.

Malraux also wrote a letter to President Richard Nixon immediately after Pakistan army massacred the innocent people in Bangladesh to exercise his good offices on Pakistan to stop genocidal killings. Apart from this, Malraux proposed formation of an international brigade to fight for the cause of oppressed people in erstwhile East Pakistan but did not materialized as he was successful in forming such International Brigade during Spanish civil war in 1930 along with European intellectuals and ordinary people as well.

Literary and political career
Novelist, art historian, and statesman who became an active supporter of Gen. Charles de Gaulle and, after de Gaulle was elected president in 1958, (1901 – 1976) served for 10 years as France’s minister of cultural affairs. His major works include the novel La Condition humaine (1933;Man’s Fate); Les Voix du silence (1951; The Voices of Silence), a history and philosophy of world art; as well as Le Musée imaginaire de la sculpture mondiale(1952–54; Museum Without Walls).

As a story goes Novel: Georges by Alexandre Dumas and Macbeth of Shakespeare influenced his mind. As a bohemian Malraux was seen in cinema, theater halls, exhibitions and museums and developed a fascination for music. He also had the privilege of meeting renowned artistes like Picasso, Braque, Mark Siegal with whom he built up friendship over the years. Malraux had a name for entertaining his friends in a restaurant where discussion on arts, music, cinema and politics dominated. Malraux was also contributor to such newspaper which were branded as left-leaning, but incidentally he did not subscribe to views of those newspapers. Politically he was non-committal while absorbed philosophical thinking and giving aesthetic solutions to problems. Gradually he developed friendship with celebrated writes of his time.
André Malraux has had difficult time during his visit along with fiancé Clara Goldschmidt, a Jewish by birth, to Florence in Italy to see rich cultural heritage from where Clara Goldschmidt sent a message to her mother that she was betrothed.
In Saigon Malraux brought a newspaper along with Paul Monin, a lawyer, to denounce colonial attitude of French government. While editing newspaper Malraux wrote a number of articles on occidental culture and left Saigon on 30 December of 1925. During second world war Malraux joined French army and fought in the battle field but captured twice by the enemy. Incidentally, Malraux escaped from the hands of the enemy. He was awarded the French military decoration” Croix de guerre” for his heroic act involving combat operation against enemy.

Malraux’s mistreatment in jail by the French colonial authorities turned him into a fervent anticolonialist and an advocate of social change. While in Southeast Asia he organized the Young Annam League (the precursor of theViet Minh, or Viet Nam League for Independence), became a leading writer and pamphleteer, and founded a newspaper, L’Indochine Enchaînée (“Indochina in Chains”). Crossing to China, he apparently participated in several Chinese revolutionary incidents and may possibly have met Mikhail Borodin, the Russian communist adviser to Sun Yat-sen and then to Chiang Kai-shek.

Malraux was to return to East Asia several times. In 1929 he made important discoveries of Greco-Buddhist art in Afghanistan and Iran. In 1934 he flew over the Rub al-Khali in Arabia and discovered what may have been the site of theQueen of Sheba’s legendary city. Though he was captivated Paris with his exceptional intelligence, lyrical prose, astonishing memory, and breadth of knowledge, it was not generally appreciated that his true life was elsewhere than in the literary salons or on the committee of La Nouvelle Revue Française or at literary congresses.

As fascism, in the shape of Nazism, rose in the 1930s, Malraux recognized its threat and presided over committees pressing for the liberation of the international communists Ernst Thälmann and Georgi Dimitrov from their imprisonment under the Nazis. He simultaneously eschewed a rigid Marxism, participated in the Ligue Nationale Contre l’Antisémitisme (National League Against Anti-Semitism), and in 1935—before the world in general had learned that concentration camps existed—published Le Temps du mépris (Days of Wrath), a short novel describing the brutal imprisonment of a communist by the Nazis. At the same time, he began to write his Psychologie de l’art (3 vol., 1947–50; The Psychology of Art), an activity that bore a relationship to his other interests, for to Malraux aesthetic ideas, like the philosophy of action expressed in his own novels, would always be part of man’s eternal questioning of destiny and his response to it.

Upon the outbreak of the Spanish Civil War in 1936, Malraux went to Spain, joined the Republican forces, and organized for them an international air squadron, becoming its colonel. After flying numerous aerial missions at the front, he visited the United States in order to collect money for medical assistance to Spain. His novel L’Espoir (Man’s Hope), based on his experiences in Spain, was published in 1937. A motion-picture version of L’Espoir that Malraux produced and directed in Barcelona in 1938 was not shown in France until after the country’s liberation at the end of World War II.

His first novel that appeared in 1928 was “Conquerors” followed by another novel: “The Royal way” in 1930.In fact both novels depicted his experiences in Cambodia. In 1933 Malraux was honored with Prix Goncourt for his masterpiece novel: La Condition Humaine. French President General De Gaulle appointed him as Minister for Information in 1945 and he became Minister for Cultural affair in 1958.
Malraux during his long charismatic chequered career associated himself with the field of literature, war, adventure, politics, cinematorgraphy and came into contact with noted personalities like Gorki, Einstein, Mao Tse Dong, Léopold Sedar Senghor—-President and Poet of Senegal and Pandit Nehru.
The world lost a humanist and an intellectual giant at his death at the age of 73 on November 23 of 1976. At his death the Government of Bangladesh commented: “The death of Monsieur Malraux removed from the world scene a literary giant, a humanist par excellence, who championed and fought for the cause of the oppressed. We in Bangladesh will always cherish his memory; his clarion call in defense of our war of Independence was heard around the globe.”

This writer suggests that a road be dedicated in his name where Pakistan’s vanquished army surrendered on 16 December of 1971.

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Poet-journalist Kazi Nazrul Islam

The people of the sub-continent, particularly Bangladesh, owe much to legendary revolutionary poet Kazi Nazrul Islam towards liberation of the sub-continent from the clutches of the British by relentless struggle through his powerful writings. Had the sub-continent not been liberated from the British the scope of establishing Bangladesh would remain a dream. Kazi Nazrul Islam was the only poet who travelled to nook and corner of East Bengal before India was partitioned in 1947. Nazrul married a woman by the name Pramila of Comilla. Nazrul also studied in Darirampur High School in Trishal of Mymensingh of East Bengal before joining the British army in Karachi in 1917. This school has been turned into Jatiya Kabi Kazi Nazrul Islam University in honour of this legendary poet.

After serving the British army during the World War I, Kazi Nazrul Islam established himself as a journalist in Calcutta. He assailed the British Raj in India and preached revolution through his poetic works, such as Bidrohi (The Rebel) and Shikol Bhangar Gaan (The Song of Breaking Chains) as well as publication of the Dhumketu (The Comet). Nazrul published a bi-weekly magazine: Dhumketu in 1922. As its editor he wrote against the oppression and injustice of the British rulers. The magazine practically evoked sharp reaction from the British. While attracting a considerable readership, Nazrul was prosecuted on a sedition charge. He did not defend himself, but gave a long statement explaining his position, which was later published under the title Rajbandir Jabanbandi (Confessions of the Royal Prisoner). The statement is a piece of excellent literature. One is tempted to quote here: “I am on trial for sedition. The Royal Crown is pitted against the Comet’s flame. The accuser is King, scepter in hand; the accused is truth, justice in hand. The King is supported by his salaried servants; My Support is ever-awake God, who is truth eternal, and the King of Kings and the judge of judges. The King’s voice, however, is but a bubble, but mine is a limitless ocean, for I am Poet sent by God to express unexpected truths and to give shape to shapeless creation…..India is now in bondage. This is undiluted truth. But under the present administration, it is sedition to call a slave a slave and to describe wrong a wrong. Can such administration last long? Am I guilty simply because the anguished call of captive truth found expression in my voice? But mine is but the agonized cry of the oppressed universal soul. This cry cannot be suppressed by coercing me. It will ring again somebody else’s throat.” Indeed, the quality of the efforts that Nazrul put in to bring out a standard bi-weekly can be gauged from the memoirs of renowned writer Achintya Kumar Sengupta, who wrote: ‘on Saturday evenings, we would, like many others, wait at Jagubabu’s market for the hawker to come with his bundle of Dhumketu. As soon as he reached scramble started to reach for the paper, perhaps we thought the editorial pen had dipped in blood and not in ink. What a language? They were not written to be read alone or read once.” This reflects how powerful pen he used to hold.

While in jail Nazrul went on hunger strike. He resisted the requests of many friends to give up hunger strike. Poet Rabindranath Tagore whom Nazrul Islam treated as Guru, sent a telegram to Nazrul in jail, saying; ‘give up the hunger strike; our literature claims you.’ Nazrul Islam finally broke the hunger strike and got released from the jail on completion of one year term.

The next journalistic venture of Nazrul Islam was the publication of a weekly entitled Langal (The Plough) in 1925. This weekly projected the viewpoints of the Labor Swaraj Group of the Indian National Congress. This group was committed to the independence of India on the theory of equality of all men and women in political, social and economic terms. As many as 16 issues of this weekly were brought out. Langal was later changed into Gana-vanee (The Voice of the Masses). When Nazrul was editing the paper communal riots were order of the day in 1926. He wrote editorials voicing against religious fanaticism and underscoring the need of communal harmony in the country.

Kazi Nazrul Islam joined a daily newspaper called Nava Jug (New Age) of the distinguished lawyer-politician A K Fazlul Huq as its joint editor with Comrade Muzaffar Ahmad as Editor. Nazrul Islam proved his worth and competence in writing editorial columns as well as in copy-editing news and features. The style of the newspaper was new and the paper enjoyed considerable popularity. Founder of Krishak Praja Party A K Fazlul Huq, who was a practicing lawyer, founded the newspaper to project his image, while Nazrul Islam and Comrade Muzaffar Ahmad tended to disseminate the ideology and the message of the social revolution. Therefore, the owner of the newspaper and its editors were pole apart in their purposes. True, the cause of the toiling peasants and workers was editorially endorsed and projected. As was expected, the views of the newspaper incurred the displeasure of the British government. The newspaper ceased publication following decision of the British to forfeit the security deposit. The decision of the British government reflected a colonial trend of silencing the free press.

A K Fazlul Huq was persuaded to deposit a large amount of money to resume the publication as demanded by the administration, but Nazrul Islam refused to stay with the newspaper as his ideology and views were no longer in harmony with the desire of A K Fazlul Huq. Fazlul Huq resumed the publication of Navo Jug in 1935. Kazi Nazrul Islam had no option but to join the newspaper as its Chief Editor because he was passing through financial crisis and mental agony caused by the death of his beloved son: Bulbul, apart from partial paralysis  of his wife: Pramila Nazrul.

With virtually no experience and education in journalism, Kazi Nazrul Islam had left an indelible mark in journalism, while espousing the ethos of a people-centred, secular and anti-establishment journalism in this part of the world. My article on Nazrul and anti-establishment journalism was included in the book on Nazrul Islam published from Halle in Germany in 1998. This was first publication on Nazrul from Germany. The book was edited by Professor Dr Hans Harder who obtained Ph D on Bankim Chandra Chattopadhay’s  Shrimad Bhagavad Geeta. He speaks Bengali and writes as well. When Poet Rabindranath Tagore was in  the midst of popularity  in Bengali literature Kazi Nazrul Islam was accorded civic reception for his courageous stand against the British at Albert Hall of Calcutta on December 15 of 1929. Acharya Profullo Chandra Roy presided over and the keynote speaker was another revolutionary leader of Bengal Subhash Chandra Bose. The chairman of the reception committee was S Wajed Ali, another Bengali writer of repute, nana of Rokanuzzaman Khan, Dada Bhai of Kachi-Kanchar Mela. Liberation of the British India from the clutches of the British owes to Subhash Chandra Bose and Kazi Nazrul Islam, among others.

Published in the December 19, 2015 Financial Express.