Can you tell me which poet of India has a postage stamp issued on him while he was alive? Not only this, three countries including Pakistan have issued postage stamps on that poet. Nazrul Islam is such a poet who has received this good fortune.
Pakistan had issued a postage stamp on Nazrul Islam’s 69th birthday in 1968 when he was alive. From this, we can guess his popularity. Till then, no postage stamp was issued on him in India, whereas in 1960, he was awarded Padma Bhushan along with Balkrishna Sharma Navin and Shiv Pujan Sahay. Not only Hindi, no writer of any Indian language has had a postage stamp issued on him while he was alive.
Bangladesh also later issued a postage stamp on his first death anniversary in 1977. Then a postage stamp was also issued on his birth centenary in 1998. A year later, the Government of India issued a postage stamp on his birth centenary in 1999.
Nazrul Islam was the national poet of Bangladesh. Just as the Hindi poet Maithili Sharan Gupt is called the national poet, he is also called the national poet of Bangladesh. Maithili Sharan Gupt was called the national poet by Gandhiji, but Nazrul was given the status of national poet by the government of Bangladesh. He was the poet of the cultural renaissance of undivided India. Like Tagore.
The 125th birth anniversary of Nazrul Islam, who was born on 24 May 1899 in a poor Sunni Muslim family in Churulia village of Burdwan district, is being celebrated. His birth centenary was celebrated by the Government of India. At that time, Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the Prime Minister. Nazrul was a contemporary of Hindi poet Suryakant Tripathi Nirala. He studied in a madrasa but was progressive in his thoughts. He fell in love with Promila, a Hindu Bengali girl from Brahmo Samaj and despite social opposition, he married outside his religion.
Promila was about 9 years younger than Nazrul. She was born on 10 June 1908. She was married on 25 April 1924 when she was about 16 years old. After marriage, they had a son named Bulbul but he died in 1929. This deeply shocked Promila Devi. Later, she had two more sons. In 1939, she became paralyzed below the waist, for whose treatment Nazrul Islam sold the rights of all his books and gramophone records for Rs 400.
Nazrul Islam freedom fighter
Nazrul Islam was a soldier of the freedom struggle. When the Congress declared a nationwide strike, he was in Comilla. He participated in the strike in Comilla (a city in Bangladesh) and took part in the procession. Nazrul kept singing songs on the way with a harmonium hanging around his neck. He came to Comilla again in 1922 and stayed there for a few days. There he fell in love with Promila, the sister of Virendra Kumar Sen Gupta. He also wrote a poem called ‘Vijayini’ on this love, which was written with the inspiration of Promila.
A famous and controversial marriage
While living in Comilla, he started editing the Bengali daily ‘Sevak’. When he got married, the people of Brahmo Samaj protested a lot. Promila was less than 18 years old and civil marriage was not possible at this age. Promila’s mother Girbala Devi left Comilla and came to Kolkata and made all the arrangements for the marriage while Virendra Kumar Sengupta opposed it. The government lawyer of Hooghly got this marriage done. His daughter has mentioned this marriage in her novel. From this, we can guess how famous and controversial this marriage would have been.
After marriage, Premila was named Asha Lata. Actually, Nazrul Islam was a secular person. There was no fanaticism in his nationalism, rather he loved all religions. He was a humanist as well as a rebel. He went to jail many times during the freedom struggle. He wrote poems, plays, novels and ghazals. He wrote nearly four thousand songs. Like Rabindra Sangeet, Nazrul’s songs are also popular among the people.
Promila Devi died in 1962 while Nazrul lived till 1976. But his life was also painful due to illness and mental ill health.
In the freedom struggle, Nazrul Islam was tried for treason. He was on strike in jail for 40 days and his books were also banned. But he did not bow down. He kept fighting to liberate the country. After the formation of Bangladesh, he was given citizenship there but after his death he was buried in Dhaka University. His tomb is there. He was against Hindu-Muslim politics. He was also against bearded Muslims and hypocritical Hindus with tufts of hair. Nazrul’s nationalism was based on the alleviation of the sufferings of the people.
Tags: Hindi Literature, hindi poetry
FIRST PUBLISHED : May 24, 2024, 20:51 IST