At the Music Blog: Suzana Ansar Singing Revolutionary Poetry from Bangladesh
Posted by Richard S. on November 19, 2007
Over at the music blog, I’ve gotten into the work of the Bengali singer Susana Ansar, and I found some particularly interesting information regarding a poet whose works she covers, Kazi Nazrul Islam. You’ll have to go to the music blog if you want to see a YouTube of Suzana singing, but I thought I’d copy the text over here:
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More Suzana Ansar for you… This apparently is a Nazrul song. “Nazrul” refers to the work of the revolutionary poet Kazi Nazrul Islam, who is also known as the national poet of Bangladesh.
Wikipedia has some very interesting info about Kazi Nazrul Islam:
Kazi Nazrul Islam (Bengali: কাজী নজরুল ইসলাম) (25 May 1899-29 August 1976) was a Bengali poet, musician, revolutionary, and philosopher who pioneered poetic works espousing intense spiritual rebellion against orthodoxy and oppression. His poetry and nationalist activism earned him the popular title of Bidrohi Kobi (Rebel Poet)…
Nazrul’s writings explore themes such as love, freedom, and revolution; he opposed all bigotry, including religious and gender…
While explicitly avowing his affinity to Islam, and calling for upholding Islam for its universalistic essence, values and spirit, he believed that medieval Islamic practices and religious conservatism were hurting Indian Muslims as well as the Muslim world, and keeping them backward, intensifying social and sectarian challenges…
Nazrul is hailed for his sincere conviction in the liberation of women. His poems explored the independence of a woman’s mind and the ability to perform diverse roles in society.
