Nazrul Jeeboni
Rafikul Islam
Nazrul Institute

Nazrul Jeeboni (in Bangla) is a lifetime's work by Professor Rafikul Islam, who is well known for his contribution in the field of research on Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam. It is a chronological treatise on the life history of the poet and includes various chapters of his life and explains the background during the creation of each and every literary piece that the author could collect with authority and dependable evidence.
In doing so, the author embarks upon a lifetime's journey of reading almost everything that has ever been written on poet Kazi Nazrul Islam. This includes works by Poet's friend Comrade Muzaffar Ahmad, his companion and legendary singer Abbasuddin Ahmed, biographers Abdul Kadir, Ziyad Ali and closest friend Shailajananda Mukherjee. The first edition of this book was published in 1972. Since then the author has been able to bring in some valuable additions and brought out the new comprehensive edition in year 2012.
The author has spent many years of his life making the first Nazrul bibliography for which he spent time in Kolkata, Sylhet and many other libraries, the totality of these journeys appear in the new volume. The beauty of the book is that it uses exact texts from the write-ups of other writers, researchers, journals, magazines, notes and comments, thus adding first hand experience for those who have not read the above-mentioned references. Moreover, with the quotation of exact texts, the style of each author has a self explanatory effect on the reader, the Bangla language evolving from a very Sanskritized writing style to modern Bangla writing, including change in spellings.
This increases the volume of the book and makes the reader go through eighteen chapters of Nazrul's life, some of which could be shortened.
However, the book is rich on its own merit, the reason being that, although it is illustrated with generous quotes from other people's books, Professor Rafikul Islam adds his own notes, comments, insights and conclusions, including his unique adjectives to describe all the events in Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam's life. This part is sometimes critically absent from the books written by many authors whose research compilation is perfect, but their personal contribution to the subject is inundated by quotable quotes, or frankly speaking, completely absent.
My attention has been drawn to the presentation of some key features of Nazrul's early life, his birth, growing years, his family life which have been mentioned here and some clarifications have been made with adequate research techniques. As a Fulbright scholar, Prof Islam went to Cornell University, USA, for his masters degree but he was promise-bound to Prof Abdul Hye (of the Bangla department) that he would return to Dhaka University to work on Nazrul for his PhD. Learning 'research methodology at Cornell University paid dividends. How many of us keep our promises and come back to serve the nation and work on the life history of Kazi Nazrul Islam? I am reminded of the poem by Sunil Gongopadhay --- keu kotha rakheni.
The beginning of poet Kazi Nazrul Islam's arrival into this world is marked with some debates. The poet himself had mentioned in places that he was born in April, when there was a huge storm and his birthday was a few days before that of Rabindranath Tagore. Professor Islam clears this confusion by observing that while the poet was alive and well, 25 May was observed as his birthday. Hence, this should be the correct date.
Professor Rafikul Islam writes that Kazi Nazrul Islam's family arrived in Churulia, West Bengal, from another part of India, i.e., Hajipur in Patna. The Kazi title was bestowed on them by the British government; and looking at seven generations earlier the poet's great great grandfather's name was found to be engraved in pots and pitchers as 'Kazi Khebaratullah'. The poet was not born to an impoverished family, as is the common belief. His father still owned more than forty bighas of land when the poet was born. He was fond of gambling and subsequently lost all his property to this game. Nazrul's mother Zaheda was well known as a charitable person. As Nazrul reached the age for primary schooling, his father passed away and the family had also lost its wealth.
Under such circumstances there was obviously a struggle for existence but Nazrul was never the imam of the mosque near his homestead (hardly a mosque actually). Nazrul had a very sweet lilting voice and sometimes when the imam was absent or indisposed, Nazrul or Khepatara would be asked to recite the azaan. Neither was his father Kazi the khadim of the mosque; he was too busy looking after his property and also playing cards (pasha). Even after his father's death, Nazrul's mother retained the strict discipline of the household and Nazrul never joined the letto group, nor did he stay out night after night at theatrical events. He wrote well and was asked to write letto songs. In fact, he wrote not only for his own village but also for the letto groups of the neighbouring villages!
Professor Islam clears up the mystery surrounding the marriage of Kazi Nazrul Islam with young Nargis, whose original name was Syeda Khatun. She was the niece of Ali Akbar Khan, who coached her to become a worthy mate of Kazi Nazrul Islam. Female education was not commonplace in Syeda Khatun's family. There were some altercations regarding the amount of the mohurana. Additionally, the bride's family set a condition that even after her marriage Nargis would not leave her homestead and Nazrul would have to stay back in Daulatpur forever. The author clears some doubts about the date of a letter written to Ali Akbar by the poet on 23 June 1921, which was wrongly dated 23 July. In this letter the poet humbly apologizes for walking out of the wedding without consummating the marriage. His self professed 'bohemian' self does not mean that he should be insulted!
In the chapter on Kamal Pasha and Mustafa Kamal, the author presents details of the historical background of Turkey and the political history surrounding the participation of the Indian army in the war. That helps the reader in the interpretation of the poems written on Turkish themes. Throughout the book, the author gives the political history of India and the conditions and settings under which the poet wrote his various pieces.
The book has a chapter on Rabindranath Tagore and Kazi Nazrul Islam. The vivacious Nazrul enters Tagore's Shantiniketan premises with his customary 'De gorur ga dhuiye' (Give the cow a bath), a very funny salutation, almost to the point of rudeness. This is at a time when Tagore is the reigning poet of Bengal and his international fame is at its peak. Yet Nazrul and only he, had the gall to tell Rabindranath Tagore that the Muslims have a different way of forming the words in Bangla, they carry the Arabic/Persian heritage. He also points out that while Tagore wears a full length attire with a cap, it is acceptable. But when a Muslim does so, everyone becomes critical!
In summary, the book offers an in-depth view of Nazrul's life and his works which can be considered a textbook for those aspiring to be Nazrul researchers. I once had the opportunity to ask writer Sunil Gongopadhay why he had named his book 'Ordhek Jeebon' (Half a Life). He replied, 'One can never divulge the entire life, it is always half that one writes about'. I feel that if Nazrul himself was to write his own life history, he would also do the same, whereas in Prof. Islam's work, I would say it encompasses almost eighty percent!

Dr. Nashid Kamal, reputed Nazrul exponent, is an academic and translator.