Abul Fazal

Long before his only visit to Chittagong in mid-June 1907, Rabindranath Tagore had had contacts with the literary figures and members of civil society in the city. As a matter of fact, when Tagore was in his teens – he was only 16 at the time – he met the famous poet of Chittagong, Nabin Chandra Sen, during the Hindu Mela in 1877.
After reading Nabin Chandra Das' Bangla translation of part one of Kalidas' Raghubangsha, Tagore in a letter to Das in June 1892, sent this compliment:
I have had great pleasure reading your translation of Ragubangsha. Such lively and beautiful translation of Sanskrit poetry is hard to come by. In majority cases, the language of the translation of such poems becomes clumsy and unintelligible. The substance and beauty of the original book has been retained in its entirety as much as possible in your translation.
Tagore was so pleased after reading the second part of Raghubangsha that he wrote a lengthy review of this work in Sadhana in 1895.
Shashanka Mohon Sen was another prominent literary figure of Chittagong. After reading Sen's Sindhu Sangeet, Tagore's brief comment was, "In this book, one can see a natural compassion and poetic talent".
When Tagore visited Chittagong in 1907, he did not miss the opportunity of meeting the eminent writers and members of civil society. After politely declining an invitation to dinner by the ICS judge of the city and sending his nephew Surendranath to the judge's residence, he had a lengthy meeting on the evening of 17 June 1907.
A great scholar of Chittagong, Professor Jogesh Chandra Shingha, while recalling the events of Tagore's visit to Chittagong wrote in a letter to researcher Pratap Mukherjee that Professor Rajani Kanta Sen , a teacher of Chittagong College, who was also a noted litterateur, had invited Tagore and all the leading literary personalities from all communities of Chittagong to his house on the first day of the poet's visit. The main agenda was a discussion about the formation of the Chattagram Shahityo Parishad (Chittagong Literary Society).
The meeting was held at Professor Sen's house 'Parade', and among the poets, authors, litterateurs and eminent citizens of Chittagong present, were Abdul Karim Shahityo Bisharad, Nabin Chandra Sen, Purna Chandra Chowdhury, Moulana Moniruzzaman Islamabadi, Jatra Mohon Sen, Ram Chandra Barua, Harish Chandra Datta, Abdur Rahman Dobhash, Mahim Chandra Guha, Kazem Ali and Braja Kumar Sen (grandfather of Professor Anupam Sen, a reputed social scientist and the present vice chancellor of Premier University).
Tagore was very pleased that this meeting was held in a very peaceful and congenial atmosphere, because the formation of a literary society was the main reason of his visit to Chittagong.
Tagore was also fascinated by and interested in many events happening in Chittagong. These included the various activities initiated by Nalini Kanta Sen, and also the initiatives that he had heard and read of in Jamini Kanta Sen's books. Tagore was also very keen to know how the people of Chittagong could form their own Bengal Navigation Company and also run two steamers by overpowering the mighty British company, Messrs M David Company.
Tagore had formed, only a couple of years before his visit to Chittagong, an insurance company with some of his relatives and friends by the name of The Hindustan Co-operative Insurance Society, for the benefit of the poor people of the community. An abbreviated but much more multi-faceted form of this insurance company, called Marriage Provident Fund, was formed in Chittagong and Tagore showed keen interest in how it worked in practice.
After his brief sojourn in Chittagong in mid-June 1907, Tagore expressed his satisfaction at the turn of events both there and in Barisal, and mentioned in his letters that 'in both the places I had encouraged the appropriate people to establish branches of Literary Society'.
However, it took just over four years to form the branch in Chittagong. To be precise, the society in Chittagong was formed on 15 August 1911 with poet Nabin Chandra Das as its founder president and Bipin Chandra Guha as the secretary. The 221-member committee comprised ten Muslims, including Kazem Ali and Abdul Karim, and also a number of Christians and Buddhists.
An illustrious son of Chittagong and a renowned litterateur, Professor Abul Fazal was only four years old when Tagore visited Chittagong in 1907. But in his autobiography Rekhachitro, Abul Fazal has written that when Tagore visited Dhaka University in 1926, he was a student volunteer, and heard with rapt attention the poet's speech at Curzon Hall. Abul Fazal also admitted to sneaking into a private gathering in Dhaka, where Tagore was a guest, just to have a closer glimpse of the poet he adored.
By the time he was in his thirties, Abul Fazal had gained name and fame in the Bangla literary arena and a number of his books had already been published. In his writings, Abul Fazal endeavoured to depict the everyday life of the then Muslim society in East Bengal, including its usage of Arabic and Parsi words.
Abul Fazal wanted to have Tagore's opinion on the usage of such words in Bangla literature.
On 31 August 1940, Fazal wrote a letter from Chittagong to the Nobel laureate on the subject, enclosing three of his already published books – 'Chouchir', 'Maatir Prithibi' and 'Bichitra Kawtha'.
Abul Fazal wrote in his letter, "An effort has been made to portray some pictures of the society and the family lives of the Muslims living in the eastern side of Bengal. As a result, it has not been possible to exclude many words and expressions used in their everyday lives, which are not yet prevalent in our literature".
He added, "I believe, if one has to paint a picture of Muslim society, Bangla language has to accept many such uncustomary words".
Citing quite a few examples of such Arabic and Parsi words in the day-to-day lives of ordinary people, Abul Fazal in the last paragraph wrote, "I would be benefited if I could get some of your comments on this subject……………..".
Tagore sent a reply post-haste. Writing on a letterhead of Vishwa Bharati, Santiniketan, on 6 September 1940, he at the outset mentioned his failing eyesight and his doctor's advice 'to give rest to his eyes'.
"You have said correctly about the use of language. There is no effectiveness in a language if the difference in customs and the traits of psychology are not complied with", wrote Tagore.
He, however, emphasised the limit to the flexibility of any language which should not be exceeded.
Tagore also said that there were quite a good number of Arabic and Parsi words in the Bangla language, and these have rightfully established their places.
As regards the Muslim writers' contribution to Bangla literature, Tagore in that letter commented:
The powerful Muslim writers have not adequately described the Muslim way of life in Bangla literature. This inadequacy, irrespective of any community, is a failure of the entire literature………. If the words regularly used in Muslim society enter the language spontaneously, no damage would be inflicted on literature, rather it would be strengthened. There are examples of this in the history of the evolution of the Bangla language.
Despite his failing eyesight, Tagore in that short span of time could read the story 'Chouchir' and expressed the hope that writers like him would be able to fill the vacuum of sufficient knowledge of Muslim society in Bengal.
Tagore, however, warned that in this endeavour, if there was hard-heartedness due to a stubborn attitude, then there would be a detrimental fallout.
In the last sentence of his reply, complimenting Abul Fazal on his writing, Tagore wrote, "From what little I have been able to see, I have felt that there is smooth flow in your writing".
It was therefore befitting that when, despite so much opposition and resistance, when Tagore's birth centenary was celebrated at a week-long programme in the compound of St Placid's School, Chittagong, it was Abul Fazal who delivered the presidential speech, delving deep into the thoughts and philosophy of this great poet.
(This is the second and concluding part of the article, the first segment of which appeared last week).

Uday Sankar Das is a senior journalist who has served at BBC Bengali Service in London.
He now lives in Chittagong.