In revolt

Photo: Lifestyle Archive

11 August 1922, will forever be revered as the day when the right seeking freedom from oppression found new meaning through the publication of “Dhumketu” -- a biweekly, Bengali paper, edited by a twenty-year-old poet, Kazi Nazrul Islam.
The format was short, a four page production which later on expanded to an eight page publication. The new magazine received considerable accolades from a stalwart of Bengali contemporary literature, Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay, who himself contributed to the future editions of Dhumketu. It can be mentioned that Chattopadhyay's “Pather Dabi” was already banned by the colonial rulers.
The Amrita Bazar Patrika also praised the launching of the paper. However, the biggest recognition came from Rabndranath Tagore and his comments were turned into an epigraph for Dhumketu. He wrote:
“Come, Ye Comet
Come to build a bridge of fire
Across the dark
Hoist up your flag of victory
On the top of the castle
Of ominous Time.”
In his radical writings Nazrul depicted the people's desire for liberation, turning it into an uproar. To rouse the people against the oppressive force of foreign rule, Nazrul made tactful use of revolutionary poetry on the concept of 'self-rule' in his magazine. Thus, within a short span of time the popularity of “Dhumketu” or the comet soared high.
Although not proscribed, the elite youth population was often harassed when found with Dhumketu or any of the few write-ups of Nazrul that were not banned. The idea of a paper dedicated to the sole agenda of inciting the hidden desire of the people for freedom shook the foundations of the government. Only a year later, on 23 January, 1923 Kazi Nazrul Islam was arrested from Comilla on charges of sedition; found guilty he was jailed for a one-year-term of rigorous imprisonment.
The issue following his arrest was made an ode to Nazrul. After his imprisonment the comet reappeared under the editorship of Biren Sen Gupta and Amaresh Kanji Lal but lost its prominence and faded away from the scene of popular literary circles.
Under the astute editorship of Nazrul Dhumketu made it into the literary scene with mainly the 20 page Muharram issue of August 1922, Agamani issue of December 1922 and quite interestingly a twelve-page Diwali issue in October 1922, which showed the secular nature of Nazrul's ideology and poetic discourse.
The Muharram issue included many photographs, including one of khudiram basu. Nazrul's revolutionary poem, 'Anandamayir Agamane', was published in the Agamani issue, to which the government reacted by imposing a ban on the paper and by arresting Nazrul.
According to Sisir Kar who in his book “British Raj and the Rebel Poet Nazrul” cites comments made in British Government files: "The Dhumketu was started in August, 1922 under the editorship of Kazi Nazrul Islam, an ex Havildar of the Bengali Regiment and a poet of considerable ability… we do not understand swaraj or the like; for different men interpret that differently." Nazrul's work is indeed open to interpretation. His entire life he preached the message of unity and equality of human beings. For him the identity of being a human transcended his identity as an Indian.
Today, after 90 odd years of publication of “Dhumketu” we find its relevance in society shining as bright as it did in 1923. We have a lot to achieve. We too must identify ourselves as human beings and recite: “I sing for equality. There is none above humanity, nothing higher.”

Photo: Lifestyle Archive

 

I am irrepressible, imperious and brutal
I am the dancing lord of the great upheaval.
I am the cyclone, the devastation tremendous
I am terrible fear and the curse of the universe
I am turbulent, I crash everything
Wild I am, I trample under my feet all rules and binding
I obey no law, but mine
I cause the loaded boats to capsize
I am torpedo, I am the dreadful floating mine.
I am the God Dhurjati-
The ill timed hair disheveled typhoon of disaster,
I am The Rebel, the rebellious son of the global mother.

Reference: Banglapedia; British Raj and the Rebel Poet Nazrul by Sisir Kar.