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Conversation

A Centurian Still Battling for a Progressive and True Literature
*****A pioneer, in the true sense of the word, of progressive journalism in Bengal, MOHAMMAD NASIRUDDIN has fought more than his fair share of battles against religious bigotry and superstitions. A sprightly 104, going on to 105, Nasiruddin has lived through British colonial times, break-up of Bengal, Pakistani rule over East Bengal and the emergence of independent, sovereign Bangladesh. His literary journal Shaugat, a sensation at the time of its launch in the early part of the century, not only hammered at all the medieval-type superstitions with which the Muslim Bengali society was shrouded, it also gave rise to some of the finest poets and authors produced by the Muslim Bengali community this century. Kazi Nazrul Islam, Abul Mansur Ahmed, Abul Kalam Shamsuddin, Begum Sufia Kamal to name but a few. Even Rabindra Nath Tagore was impressed enough to write a poem especially for Shaugat. Recently, Nasiruddin spoke at length to The Daily Star Executive Editor Mahfuz Anam and Assistant Editor Sabir Mustafa about his life and times': *****
****Then PC Roy asked Nazrul to perform a few patriotic songs But Nazrul replied. "Sir, does the groom sing and dance at his own wedding?" At that, Subash Bose slapped him on the back and said, "Sit! You've got to sing!"****
****Sufi a Kamal had a tremendous affection for Nazrul. Once she heard that some people had insulted Nazrul pretty badly in Dhaka. Then she wrote to me, pleading with me to help him. She ended her letter by saying that, "If Ra bindr a Nath dies, then another Rabindra Nath will be born; but if Nazrul dies, there will not be another Nazrul".****
AILY STAR «>S You / 1 have weathered away a L-S century or more and witnessed all that has happened from the days of pre-partUton India to the emergence of independent Bangladesh Could you tell us something about the time when you first started your career tn Journalism by publishing Shaugat? .
MOHAMAD NASIRUDDIN (MN): 1 was born and brought up in a declining period for Bengalee Muslims. They had the least Involvement in literary and cultural fields. But I had a knack for literature from-my early childhood and Shaugat my literary magazine was a fruit of my childhood Inspiration.
In my growing years I saw the painful existence of super stitlons and bigotry throughout our society. One of the reasons why I wanted to bring out a literary magazine was to try and to illuminate the darkness in which our people lived at that time.
Literary practice was neglected in those days. A very few Muslim writers used to write But it was a constant source of pain to me that the Muslims of Bengal had no literary publication. All the publication was controlled by the enlightened Hindus of Bengal. They also prompted me to publish ShaugaL
My financial condition at that time was quite well as I was a representative of a leading insurance company But 1 gave up my Job in the Insurance company which provided me a handsome livelihood and left Chandpur for Calcutta to publish ShaugaL
When I came to Calcutta I found that there were hardly any Bengalee Muslim businessman. academician or writer who could patronise my endeavour. I found myself In deep trouble. But still I did not give up hope.
Desperately. I kept on looking for a person who had a leading role in the Muslim society In Calcutta and who could also back me up In this venture. One of my well-wishers Informed me of such a person His name was Barrister A Rasul
When I went to him and told him what I wanted to do. he praised my courage and de termination, because he thought it to be a desperate attempt for me to publish an illustrated literary magazine tn Bengali by Muslim writers in Calcutta.
He encouraged me by saying that a 'literary magazine such as yours should have been published at least 50 years back then our society would have benefited from It aa II surely will be by yours'
Barrister Rasul promised me all sorts of cooperation which was a lot to me at that time Chen I started to look for Muslim writers
Il was really hard to (Ind great writers among Muslims who could be compared to their Hindu counterparts, such as Sat lend rs Nath Dutta and others But I began to searh and made a hat of the posslblr wrtters who could contribute to my magazine Some of these srriters sent their pieces but I found that many of these pieces were not really suitable for a progressive y>umal whic h I had in mind
So I decided to go to some Hindu writers and ask for writ Ing. But I went only to those who were not communal and did not feel disgraced by con tribuUug to a magazine pub bshed by Muslims
I went to Rai Bahadur Jaiaddur Sen who at first seemed unwilling to accept my presence but later offered me to have a seal before him. I told him t hai I had a It king lor the paper Bharat Varsha founded by him and also that I had an intention of bringing out a literary magazine mainly
Muslim writers of our society
After he heard me he con fessed his disgust over the communal disharmony in India and sho said that Indians oould never win freedom until they learnt to work side by side He told me that he mostly wrote travel stories but he at once promised me that he would contribute a story to my magazine which he did in a short while and it inspired
Then I informed about the famous historian Brojendra Nath Bandapeddhaya so 1 went to him He regretted that there was no publications by the Muslims and inspired me by saying that he would also contribute without any hono rarturn at any kind
Then I went to the eminent poet Sattendra Nath Dutta The poet regretted that his eyesight — greduaHy be traying Mm and for this he had stopped writing poems But he told me that he had done some translations from "Persian poems, from which he could send me one in a day or two.
Then he sent me a translation of a Persian poem by Zebunessa. Along with the pieces I received from the Muslim writers such as Kaikobad and Ismail Hussain Shiraji the storage of materials seemed enough to publish a magazine.
But then came the difficult task of naming the paper Muslims had a partiality to wards Arabic names, whereas. Hindus had theirs toward Sanskrit and each seemed to annoy the other by their typi fled names of publication I had to be on the lookout for a name that was suitable for both I Ik-communities. Then I decided to name it Shaugat' which meant a gift or present. Il was obviously a literary gift to Its readers
Then we faced the difficult task of finding an artist. Muslims thought it a sacrilegious matter to be practicing art. But Shahadat Hossain helped me find an artist who did our cover and inside lllus-
tratio ns
I should remind you that publishing pictures of any sort Was restricted In that time The task of finding a press (or our publication proved just as difficult but soon we managed to find the only modern art press of the lime In north Cafeutta
But when we approached them to publish our magazine they refused, saytng that Muslim papers used Arabic or Persians side by side with Bengali In brackets, and they did not have Arabic plates But wl»rn 1 assured them that It would totally be a Bengali pub hcatton they agreed to print tt.
When Shaugat came oul al last the reaction was a mixed one. The Mullah section of the society at once boycotted the magazine on Die grounds that tt was progressive and had Illustrations But it waa jubi lantly accepted and welcomed by the younger generation
DS: You have mentiloned the names of a number of great literary figures who were to voiced with the early days of Shaugat. !Md you ever have an occasion to meet Rabindra Nath Tagore?
MN. 1 decided to give Rabindra Nath Tagore a copy of that first Issue Shaugat So 1 went to Jqrashako in Calcutta. While I was going up the stairs. I was struck by a sense of fear and awe I panicked and started to run back down the stairs to get out I did not have the audacity to go before the great poet with my hurrible
But then. somebody stopped me on the stairs and asked where I wu going I said I had come to see Rabindra Nath The man then pointed to an upstairs verandah and toid me to go there
Rabindra Noth waa sitting in a chlor on the verandan and when I went near him he In structed me to sit and asked me what paper I had in my hand.
I handed over the copy of Shaugat to him and said that tt was our first literary endcav our. At a stretch he read the two poems by Sat tendra Nath Dutta and Kumud Ranjan and looked at a few other pages. Then he said that, had he not actually seen and read that magazine. he could never have believed that such a refined journal could have come out from the Muslim section of our
1 then humbly requested him to contribute to Shaugat at which he said that lie had given all his writings to the Vtswa Bharati and told me to collect from them I told him that I could not afford to pay Viswa Bharati’s royalty, and went home quite disappointed
Two days later. I received an envelope through the mall which contained a letter of co couragement from Tagore and a poem written specially for Shaugat It was simply unbe lievable. The name of the poem that he sent was Pather Shathl’. The great poet seemed to travel with us In our literary endeavour through his poem. I was simply overjoyed.
We published thousand copies of Its first issue, very few of which was left unsold But in the later Issue I found ll hard to find Muslim writers who were akin to the modern concepts of literature and thinking
So gradually the number of readers became limited And I was In heavy debt For this I had to gp back to my Insurance job
After a while I gained enough mental and finant lai strength to start afresh Then 1 came in direct touch with a host of young Muslim writers such as Mohammad Wajed All. Abul Mansur Ahmed. Abul Ka lam Shamsuddln Shahadat Hossain. Quazl Motahar Hossein. Abdul Wadud. Abul Fazal. Abdul Quader and de elded to form Shaugat Shahltya Mulish
DS: One of the major contrthu lions of Shaugat tons to bang the Rebel Kael Naxrul Mam. to the limelight Can you tell us something about the man?
MN Nazrul Islam the great rebel poet was primarily a miscast tn both Hindu and Muslim societies alike To the Hindus he was another Mullah and to the Muslims he was a Kaier, So he found life and career very difficult in Calcutta
1 published his first poem tn Shaugat. One day a poet named Motnuddln Informed me that Nazrul was tn a wretched condition, and had just enough mental and financial support to keep him alive.
Then I sent Motnuddln to Nazrul who was suffering from malaria. I brought him to my place and insisted that he should have a consistent job at Shaugat which would provide him enough to keep him and his family going. I told him that he would have to lead or preside over‘the Shaugat Majllsh along with his other colleagues to which he gladly consented
The 'Shaugat Majllsh soon turned Into an Ideal place for ado parley and rendezvous of tire poets. Nazrul used to sing there Music of course was a forbidden thing at ihai time. By this time Nazrul had be come a prominent figure both tn music and poetry
I recommended that We should give Nazrul a National Reception. Reaction to that suggestion was a mixed one Some people (especially Muslims) seemed overjoyed at tire fact that a Muslim poet was to be accorded a reception and on the other hand some among
the Hindu section of the ma I-ely seemed displeased al the fact that a Muslim poet only at the age of 2« was to r. ■ rive sue h a wide coverage
Dilip Kumar Hoy son of 11 L Roy got tn touch with me and asked me l<> slop thia on Ilie ground that ft would ruin Nazrul s career I really did not understand why such a large number of people were pondering over tlie subjer t with such importance
As a result I came up with an idea of introducing a column called Nazrul Islam Tills column also inc luded the pub He opinion of both side about Nazrul * proposed reception in the weekly Shaugat. We collected public opinion for a year Almost everyone saw no harm in this reception, even many students of Madrasah a felt that this great poet should be a, corded a national recep Uon. only some Muslim fundamentalists and communal Hindus opposed the idea
Forming an Advisory Board with A K Fazlul Haque Principal of Calc utta Madrasah Shamsul Alam, Hedayet Hussain we decided to accord a reception to Nazrul at the Muslim Institute Hall. We booked rhe Hall and paid for M
But when we entered the premises we found that It was occupied by Madrasah stu dent* When I went there I found that Nazir Ahmed Chowdhury, editor of the monthly, Mohammadi. was was giving a speech. They were opposing this reception on the ground that Nazrul was an atheist
I asked Nazir to spare us the floor Some of our men in sisted that we should use force to get in. But I opposed the idea, and suggested that we should go in and convince them to leave, which they later on did.
Advocate Khan Bahadur Asaduzzaman presided over the meeting and asked con sent of the people present at the meeting over the issue of a reception. Almost everyone voted tn the positive.
At this meeting a committee was formed with both Hindu and Muslims, in which I was the Secretary. Shaugat office became the Committee office and the reception of Nazrul was held at the Albert Hall. Calcutta
On the day of the reccp tion. the auditorium even the streets became over crowded Sir P C Roy and Subhash Chandra Bose arrived. In his speech P C Roy said that wr would march forward in our ■lruMle tor independence, tinging songs of Nazrul
Then he asked Nazrul Io perform a lew patriotic songs. Bui Nazrul replied "Sir. does (he groom sing and dance at hl* own wedding?" At that. Subash Bose slapped him on the hack and said "Siti You ve gut to sing!"
Nazrul was then Joined by . Umma Kanchan Bhattacharya, and they sang a tew songs to KFlher
DS. Do you think that the ut 11 mate atm with which you published Shaugat which was to remove s uper stttion and narrow-mindedness fmn the Bengali Muslim society, was fulflUed?
MN: My ultimate objective was to point out the social short comings I did not care arhat people thought of me I was even more Inspired when I was confronted or attacked After being attacked I always started with a new seal.
I do not believe that any society can prosper If it to sunk tn superstition. Independence of thinking, positive thinking, superstition free intellect to a prerequisite for the progress of a nation
1 decided to publish an sromen's edition of Shaugat to bring out Muslim female writ ere and unveil their darkness It was one of its sort at that time.
Many female Hindu writers such as Asha Puma Devi contributed In 'Mahila Shaugat'. Again I had to face severe public opposition. But I believed that a society where male and female alike could not think progressively was doomed to
So I continued my crusade. Mahila Shaugat' was published at a time when ft was considered a sin if the handwritings of a woman were seen by a male reader. But we published their writings along with their photos in Mahila Shaugat. It was simply unimaginable by any standard.
Suffer Kamal, a young maiden at that time, wrote in Mahila Shaugat'. There's a story to that
Sufia used to write poems at home but she never sent them for publication for fear of what people might say. One day. one her relatives — Karu was her name. I think — came to me and said that her auntie had this writing pad full of poems. I asked her to bring the book to me. 1 told Kant that she wouldn't be committing a sin even if she stole the book for me!
When Karu brought the book I found the poems wen-written in erratic lines, with no commas or periods. But once punctuations were done and the lines arranged properly they turned out to be very good poems indeed.
Basantl was the title I gave to Sufia's first poem published in Shaugat And Sufia Kamal became a poet.
She had a tremendous affection for Nazrul. Once she heard that some people had insulted Nazrul pretty badly In Dhaka. Then she wrote to me. pleading with me to help him. She ended her letter by saying that, "If Rabindra Nath dies, then another Rabindra Nath will be born: but If Nazrul dies, there will not be another Nazrul".
I felt ashamed to know that while such a young girl like Sufia as so concerned about Nazrul. we were doing nothing io help him.
For about 10 years, what ever she wrote, she sent to the Shaugat. The first time she came to Shaugat office, she was wearing a "burkha", but 1 told her that somehow poetry and burkha did not go hand tn hand. Sufia Kamal then said she would wear the burkha up Io the Shaugat office, then take il off once inside.
My only satisfaction is that I was able to make room for those writers who deserved it. There was not a single promising writer tn my time who was denied a chance in Shaugat and thus the journal played a vital role in patronizing writers all the time.
DS Through Shaugat you managed to patronise writers and in a sense It cultivated writers. What is the reason behind the fact that in tnde pendent Bangladesh there Is not a single paper that can play a pioneering role tn this con neetton?
MN When I came to Dhaka in 1950 and I was completely taken by surprise Io find how dominating the use of Urdu, rather tahn Bengali. was here. Even shopkeepers spoke to me In Urdu which completely baffled me
I was leaving a tough lime finding enough writers to get Shaugat off the ground again Somehow. I managed to start the Begum nutaivinr — a publi cation exclusively far women.
Soon afterwards. young Bengali poets of the time like Hasan llaftzur Rahman. Abdul Gani Hajari. Qast Motahar Hossain and others came to me and said they wanted to •Tile but had no plac e They proposed that I should take the initiative tn uniting the writers of the region as 1 did in Calcutta.
1 readily accepted the offer and let them use the Begum office as their meeting place. In here also came renowned poets of today such as Shamsur Rahman. Syed Shamsul Haq.
Any such female writers' organisation as the 'Lekhika Shangha did not exist then. Nowadays there are numerous organisations as these, but in my time it was unthinkable.
Practice of music and songs were prohibited in those times. But 1 saw no harm in it. So I look around for female vocalists. Laila Arjumand Banu along with two of her sisters volunteered in this effort. There was no stage for performing. but we managed to convert some wooden Chauki into performing stages and Incredibly enough In a short time 1 also found some women who were eager to dance. Laila Hasan. Ferduasi who were little girls at the time sang in those Majlishs'. Anjana Shaba used to dance there. This is how we revolutionized female participation in cultural fields In Dhaka. At least it was a trend setter which made the way much easier for the coming generation.
DS : You have lined through British times. Pakistani rule and now we are living tn independent. free Bangladesh. I low do you compare these three ages tn terms of cultural or lit erary freedoms and practices?
MN : It ts my belief that, whatever the British might have done In the political arena, they never tried to suppress the development of our own culture or literature. If we wrote against their political Interests, then they threw us Into Jails But they didn’t Interfere with our literary movements So. although the actual number of writers and poets was small at the time, they did write quite freely then.
During the Pakistan era. I noticed that people were paying more attention to how to make a nans' and win awards than to developing a progres sive culture. There were all these slogan-type writing praising Pakistan In order lo mow ahead, and get what ever there waa to get.
Alter independence, again we saw various groupings Uteratures started leaning towards different political camps. When Ershad came to power, although he used to respect me a great deal, I couldn t approve of a number of things he started doing He started his own grouping with that Kavita Kendro or some thing like that, and pushed writers and poets along the same old path, while others started campatgning against Since the fall of Ershad. all those good writers who became part of ■ his camp are now boycotted by the others. They can’t show their faces in public and I don’t know where they are. In future, there might be another change and writers and poets who are active now may get pushed into the background. But this kind of changing of places Is not desirable In the field of literature. 1 only know that writers and poets should never bow to pressure and should only write what is true.
DS : You have battled all your life against superstitions and bigotry. Do you think that writers and poets of today are doing enough to fight bigotry tn the way you did In your time?
MN : In our time, we did not have many highly-educated writers. We had to work with limited resources. But the things they produced at the time like Abul Mansur Ahmed's Hujure Kebla" In Shaugat.
worked like swords against bigotry. Abul Kalam Shamsuddtn and others wrote powerful columns, but only Shaugat published them, others didn't or couldn't.
Today’s writers are well-educated and they are much stronger today than their counterparts of yesteryears. But today s writers are not at all vocal against all the superstitions and ignorance that exist in society. They are more interested in experimenting with the style of their writings, putting more ornaments on them etc.
Now. we had a president who regularly went to Atroshi or some other place to pray: then others sal around mazaars of grave-sites and worshipped If leaders of the country get up these kind of things, then what would the ordinary people do? Nowadays many peo plc sell their cattie. goats etc. to go to various orsh or Waaz MahfUs without really knowing what these things are all about. They think they will be blessed if they go to these things.
The situation Is such that, even the educated section of society, instead of fighting against these things, is actually encouraging them. This is very sad.
OS: Finally Mr. Nasiruddin. are you personally content With all that you have done, and with what you are still doing at the age of 104?
MN: it gives me an ecstatic pleasure to see the gradual growth of intellectuals and writers tn our country. And because of my undying interest in literature and literary pur suits. I try to attend all the cultural and literary functions that I am invited to. even at this agri
I am proud to say that I have set a trend in something. In which all others, be It our countrymen or foreigners are lacking far behind. From 1976 I have been giving awards to writers, poets journalist peo plc who roam in the cultural arena at my own expense each Gar The nominees are sected irrespective of any colour, race or party affiliations. I have been continuing this endeavour for the last 16 years and I am proud of tt and I have formed a Trust which will enable to operate the system even In my absence.
Let alone the people who were shot and killed In the language Movement 1 have made path much easier for the host of writers who wanted to write and publish their script in Bangla through my magazine I thtnk this was my positive contribution to the Language Movement and the cause of language I formed a literary society called Purba Pakistan Shahttya Sangshad from which came out some illustrious writers of today such as Shamsur Rahman. Hasan llaflzur Rahman, Alauddln Al Asad. Fateh Lohanl Faale Lohant who were young and progressive writers of the time
Abul Mansur Ahmed was a brllhant satirist of his Uns tt amazed me to see hie Insight Into the faults and shortcomings of our society. with which he venomously dealt In Ihgure Kebla. Ayna. Asmani Parda and various other books.
Social satires as forceful as those are hardly noticeable In the writers of the present time. But there should always be someone like him Io point out our wrongs
DS. Thank you Mr. Nasiruddin. for your time.