He has largely and exclusively remained a Bengali poet, being discussed only by scholars of Bangla literature. But in spite of all that, subcontinental Anglophone scholars have paid little or no attention to him and his works. One comes across numerous streets, schools, colleges and universities being named after Nazrul in both Bangladesh and the Indian side of Bengal, his books of poems being regularly cited and sold in large numbers and his wonderful songs, giving birth to a new genre called Nazrul Geeti, remaining equally popular in both the countries. Nazrul therefore, makes a unique case of “two nations and a poet” and that explains his immense popularity on both sides of the international border even today.
Later he was conferred the status of the national poet of Bangladesh. His abrupt and tragic illness completely robbed him of his creative abilities and although the Indian government did its best for his prolonged medical treatment, Nazrul was taken away by his family members to Bangladesh in 1972 and the then Bangladesh government conferred him honorary citizenship and ultimately, he breathed his last at Dhaka in 1976.
Nazrul suffered a sudden cerebral attack and completely lost his power to speak and write in the year 1942.
Eliot needs no introduction, popularly put, he is a world literary megastar, but for readers beyond the Indian sub-continent, Nazrul is not that well known, even though he is the national poet of Bangladesh and enjoys the unique position of being equally popular both in Bangladesh and the Indian side of Bengal as he spent his entire literary career in undivided India and post-1947, continued to live in Calcutta. Two seminal texts of early twentieth century literature, namely, The Waste Land written by British poet T S Eliot and Bidrohi (The Rebel) by Kazi Nazrul Islam, both published in 1922, both recognized as landmark poetic marvels because of their radically transformative “modern” content, texture and style, something that took their respective literary cultures by storm, are marking their centenaries in 2021.
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