 | Kazi Nazrul Islam: Encyclopedia II - Kazi Nazrul Islam - Nazrul-Geeti: Oeuvre in Song
Kazi Nazrul Islam - Nazrul-Geeti: Oeuvre in Song
In addition to the body of his poetic work, Nazrul - who was also a talented musician - composed more than three thousand songs. After the success of his early poetry, and his increasing stature in literary and political circles, Nazrul started setting his words to music from the late 1920s onwards. This music constitutes an entire genre in Bengali music today, under the name of nazrul-geeti, remaining immensely popular, involving with a large number of artistes and an active recording industry, both in West Bengal and Bangladesh.
In this dark cotton cloud rain
The forest has spread out green
Beyond its boundaries
O where are you
In this dark cotton cloud rain. . .
His fiery patriotic songs are also notable:
Breaking down the doors of dawn
We shall bring the morning on
Shredding darkness with our song
We shall overcome.
(From Chal-Chal-Chal)
Nazrul became associated with the Kallol literary group and also continued his political activity, running for election in 1926. For a period, a large number of his writings were banned. Other notable books of poems and songs from this period include Dolonchampa(1923), Bisher Bansi (The poisonous flute, 1924), Bhangar Gan (Songs of break-up, 1924), Puber Haoya (The east wind 1925) and Bulbul(1928).
Nazrul lived in divisive times. Religious communalism was on the rise, Muslims felt disenfranchised and alienated in the majority Hindu culture. There were a number of Hindu-Muslim riots, culminating in an upsurge of carnage at the time of the independence of India and Pakistan from British rule in 1947, when the British Empire was divided into three parts along religious lines. Through all this, Nazrul remained committedly non-communal, writing both Shyama-Sangeet in praise of Kali, as well as Islamic Hamd songs.
His wife Pramila Devi was Hindu and he chose Sanskritic names for his sons.
In later years, his liberal views on religion came under attack from the Muslim right.
Other related archives1899, 1920s, 1942, 1947, 1972, 1976, 24 Parganas, Asansol, Bangla, Bangladesh, Bangladeshi poets, Bengal, Bengali, Bengali musicians, Bengali writers, British, British Empire, Complete Works of Kazi Nazrul Islam, Gandhi, Guru, Hindu, Imam, India, Indian poets, Kali, Kallol, Kolkata, Muslim, Nataraja, National poets, Nobel Laureate, Pakistan, People of Kolkata, Rabindranath Tagore, Sanskritic, Swaraj, Tagore, University of Dhaka, West Bengal, mosque, national poet
 Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Nazrul-Geeti: Oeuvre in Song", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki |
