Birthday of Kazi Nazrul Islam in Tripura Date in the current year: May 25, 2024

Kazil Nazrul Islam, popularly known as simply Nazrul, was born on May 25, 1899 in the Bengali village of Churulia, situated in the present-day state of West Bengal. His father was a qadi (a Sharia judge), as well as the imam and caretaker of the local mosque.

Nazrul received religious primary education and began working as the caretaker and muezzin at the mosque at the age of 10, following his father’s death. Shortly after, Nazrul joined a touring theatre company run by his uncle. While traveling with the company, he learned to write songs, poems, and plays.

In 1910, Nazrul left the troupe to continue his education. Upon turning 18, he enlisted in the British Indian Army, where he served in the 49th Bengal Regiment. It was during his time in the army that Nazrul wrote his first poetry and prose. He left the army in 1920 and settled in Calcutta (now Kolkata), working as a journalist.

In 1922, Nazrul published his first collection of poems. It included his most famous poem titled “Bidrohi” (“The Rebel”), which called for rebellion against all forms of oppression. Nazrul’s works received acclaim from both critics and readers, but their revolutionary themes didn’t sit well with the British colonial government. Because of this, Nazrul was arrested in early 1923 and charged with sedition; he spent the remainder of the year in prison.

During and after his time in prison, Nazrul continued to write revolutionary poems. Over the next two decades, he was known as the “rebel poet” due to his involvement with the Indian independence movement.

In the early 1940s, Nazrul’s mental health rapidly began to deteriorate, and he was admitted to a psychiatric hospital. In 1953, Austrian psychiatrist Hans Hoff diagnosed Nazrul with frontotemporal dementia (Pick’s disease). Since his condition was deemed incurable, Nazrul left Vienna for Calcutta, where he lived in intensive medical care for the next two decades.

In 1972, the government of newly independent Bangladesh invited Nazrul to life in Dhaka. Four years later, the poet became a Bangladeshi citizen. Sadly, he succumbed to his mental and physical health problems mere months later. Nazrul was buried beside a mosque on the University of Dhaka campus. His funeral was attended by tens of thousands of people; the government of Bangladesh declared a two-day national mourning period, and the parliament of India honored Nazrul’s memory with a minute of silence.

Nazrul is regarded as the national poet of Bangladesh. He is also greatly respected in the Indian state of Tripura, where Nazrul’s birthday (Nazrul Jayanti) is an official holiday. It is marked by flower-laying ceremonies, poetry recitals, musical concerts, and other events honoring Nazrul’s legacy, which includes numerous poems, short stories, novels, plays, essays, and about 4,000 songs.