Essay: Benisons & Damnations Marking Nazrul’s life by Mozid Mahmud

In this literary essay Mozid Mahmud talks about the life of Nazrul, who was a poet of the masses, a public poet and therefore part of public property.

As a poet, blessings, and curses came in one bag for Nazrul. The Hindu Brahmin and Muslim cleric, the foreign King, and local servants all worked united against him in this matter. There is no other precedent among the Bengali people where someone had been so condemned and acclaimed just for writing poetry. Like the Greek Prometheus, who had to endure an eagle eating out his regenerating liver every day as punishment for stealing fire for the humans, Nazrul, too, had brought fire to his downtrodden people – a boy from the bread ship standing up to the colonial lords, inviting their curses and wrath. 

Nazrul’s active life ended about a hundred years ago. But there has been little change in how his literature is treated. Moreover, we can see all sorts of politics being played to reject or accept him. It has become difficult to gauge the real response to Nazrul. Those who had opposed him during his peak years readily claimed his brilliance after his silence had set. On the other hand, there were many who welcomed his language before but now remained skeptical of his judgements.