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.