Kazi Nazrul Islam’s words helped generations find inner strength to fight hunger, injustice

One hundred and twenty five years ago on May 25, 2024, a ‘rebel poet’ was born in undivided Bengal who would go on to create about 4,000 songs and several stories to remind his warring and impoverished country folks of the power of humanity to tide over hunger, poverty and disintegration of society. 

Kazi Nazrul Islam, who left behind a literary legacy of profound and evocative portrayals of social malaise, was no stranger to poverty. He often had to drop out of school either because he couldn’t pay the fees or to find work to support his family financially, especially after he lost his father at the age of nine. He did various odd jobs, working as a muezzin (one who calls to prayer) at the local mosque and later at a bakery and tea stall to feed his family. 

His portrayal of hunger was, thus, very real. In his novel Mrityukshuda (Hunger for Death), the protagonist, Hiranmoyee and her family endure an acute food crisis that makes them do desperate acts with tragic outcomes. In the following passage from the novel, he captures the physical and emotional torment caused by hunger: 

Hiranmoyee looked at her children, their eyes hollow, their bodies frail from the relentless grip of hunger. Every morsel of food seemed like a distant dream, an elusive hope slipping through their fingers.

Nazrul’s poems have powerful imagery of poverty. “Hunger is a dreadful thing / It makes men mad / They kill, they rob, they turn into monsters. / When hunger comes / Man becomes more beast than human,”  he wrote in the poem Bhookh (Hunger).

But he also possessed an indomitable spirit to overcome all the hardships of the material world, and this is the overarching theme of his complete body of work. His personal attempts to emerge victorious in the face of poverty and oppression, rather than wallowing in it, is reflected in his hopeful and fierce poems, along with deep empathy for the sufferers.  

He was writing at a time when the country was in the exploitative grip of the British colonial rulers and Bengal, especially, was going through its most difficult period of droughts and famines that snatched away millions of lives.

His pitch for his fellow citizens to use the inner strength to fight the oppressive circumstances is reflected in his poems from the time. In Daridro (Poverty), Nazrul declares that poverty has not weakened him but has instead given him strength and resilience. He wrote:

O Poverty, thou hath made me great. 

Thou hath made me honoured like Christ 

With his crown of thorns. Thou hath given me 

Courage to reveal all. To thee I owe 

My insolent naked eyes and sharp tongue. 

Thy curse has turned my violin to a sword.

In this pursuit, he has often employed allegories from nature, drawing parallels between the natural world and the human spirit, emphasising the strength and perseverance inherent in both.

In Bidrohi (The Rebel), one of his most famous poems, he invokes natural elements to symbolise his defiance against oppression:

I am the tempest, I am the cyclone, 

I shatter the bonds of injustice. 

I am the dance of destruction, 

I am the fury of the storm.

His mass music and poems were widely used during the Indian independence movement and Bangladesh liberation war.

Although primarily remembered as a poet and for his vast range of musical compositions called ‘Nazrul Geeti’, journalism was a vital part of his life, that established his commitment to social justice and political activism. He used the printed dailies to voice his vehement opposition to British colonial rule and to advocate for the rights of the oppressed. 

He was the editor of two magazines Dhumketu (The Comet) and Langal (The Plough), which became platforms for fearless critique of the injustices of the time. His journalistic work often came under the scanner of the British rulers. He was imprisoned multiple times for his fiery rhetoric and the publications he was associated with were heavily censored and some shut down.

The film Chattagram Astragar Loonthan immortalised his song Karar Ei Louhokopat which he wrote in 1922 following the arrest of Chittaranjan Das. A scene from the film: 

Throughout his body of work, there is a focus on farmers, who despite their hard work, remain exploited by the rich. “The greedy merchant and the profiteer have surrounded us, and are sucking our blood like leeches. They are robbing us of the food from our plates,” he wrote in the heartfelt verses of Krishaner Gaan (The Song of the Peasants). 

Many of his poems were but rallying cries for resistance against the forces of imperialism and commercial exploitation of farmers. He repeatedly displayed his ability to become one with the farmers and the rural oppressed in his writings, making them evocative and honest. Through songs, he wanted to help the agricultural communities find the strength to push back and unite against injustice. In Chashar Gaan (The Song of Farmers), he wrote:

The cutting edge of plough with which 

We produce crops on the bosom of the desert, 

Still today we possess. 

With it we will resist the soldiers of the king.

The chilling calmness in his poems calling for farmers’ uprising is, perhaps, drawn from his idyllic visions and experiences of village life. “In the quiet villages of Bengal, life flows like a gentle stream. The fields are lush with golden crops, and the air is filled with the scent of blossoms,” he wrote in Gram Banglar Gaan (Song of Rural Bengal).

While laying bare the struggles of the rural folk, Nazrul’s work also celebrates the simplicity and beauty of rural life. His poems often evoke the charm of the countryside, portraying it as a place of harmony and contentment. In the poem Palli Chitra (Rural Paintings), he wrote:

The village is a canvas, 

Painted with the colours of life. 

The farmer ploughs his field, 

The potter shapes his clay, 

Each moment a stroke of art, 

In this vibrant rural play.

The poet used elements from nature often in his work and sometimes as allegory for human suffering and spirit of revolution. Photograph: Moheen Reeyad, Tile mural, Nazrul Square, DC Hill (01), CC BY-SA 4.0

Nazrul also called for fair treatment and equality within Indian society — his writings often criticised its rigid caste, religious and gender divisions. For him, human dignity was above all. In his poem Manush (Human Being), he puts across this sentiment eloquently: “I sing of equality. There is nothing greater than a human being, Nothing nobler! Caste, Creed, religion — there is no difference. Throughout all ages, all places, We are all manifestations of our common humanity.”

He witnessed the people around him turning against each other on grounds of religion, and like a scene that is redolent of the present time, brandishing religious texts to indulge in utterly immoral practices and neglecting human suffering. In the same poem, he critiqued this hollow religiosity:

Who are they — hating human beings 

Yet kissing the Quran, the Vedas, the Bible? 

Snatch away those books from them. 

The hypocrites pretend to worship those books 

By killing human beings.

He was also a fervent advocate for women’s rights and gender equality. In his essays and articles, he called for the abolition of practices like child marriage, dowry and purdah (seclusion of women). 

“Women must be given the same rights as men. Only then can we build a society that is just and progressive. Depriving women of their rights is depriving half of humanity of its potential,” he argued in his essay Narir Adhikar (Rights of Women).

Nazrul’s poems also highlighted the strength, resilience and inherent dignity of women. In his poem Nari (Woman), he expressed his reverence for women, emphasising their crucial role in society: “I sing of equality, where there is no male or female”

In Vidrohi, Nazrul identifies women with powerful natural forces and mythological figures, celebrating their strength and heroism:

I am the eternal feminine,

I am Saraswati, I am Savitri,

I am the purest form of knowledge,

I am the fire of creation.

Like Hiranmoyee in Mrityukshuda, many of Nazrul’s other literary works also feature women in a wide array of roles, depicting them as more than just passive recipients of fate. He portrayed women as warriors, leaders, mothers and intellectuals, thereby challenging the traditional, one-dimensional portrayals of women in literature.