Portal:Bangladesh/Selected biography archive/2008
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[edit] Archive of Selected Biography items
[edit] July 2008
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). Accomplishing a large body of acclaimed works through his life, Nazrul is officially recognised as the national poet of Bangladesh and commemorated in India.
Born in a poor Muslim family, Nazrul received religious education and worked as a muezzin at a local mosque. He learned of poetry, drama, and literature while working with theatrical groups. After serving in the British Indian Army, Nazrul established himself as a journalist in Kolkata (then Calcutta). He assailed the British Raj in India and preached revolution through his poetic works, such as "Bidrohi" ("The Rebel") and "Bhangar Gaan" ("The Song of Destruction"), as well as his publication "Dhumketu" ("The Comet"). His impassioned activism in the Indian independence movement often led to his imprisonment by British authorities. While in prison, Nazrul wrote the "Rajbandir Jabanbandi" ("Deposition of a Political Prisoner") and condemned Islamic fundamentalism, orthodox traditions and bigotry in society. Exploring the life and conditions of the downtrodden masses of India, Nazrul agitated fiercely for their emancipation.
Nazrul's writings explore themes such as love, freedom, and revolution; he opposed all bigotry, including religious and gender. Throughout his career, Nazrul wrote short stories, novels, and essays but is best-known for his poems, in which he pioneered new forms such as Bengali ghazals. Nazrul wrote and composed music for his nearly 3,000 songs, collectively known as Nazrul geeti (Nazrul songs), which are widely popular today. At the age of 43 (in 1942) he began suffering from an unknown disease, losing his voice and memory. What was later diagnosed as Pick's Disease, caused Nazrul's health to decline steadily and forced him to live in isolation for many years. Invited by the Government of Bangladesh, Nazrul and his family moved to Dhaka in 1972, where he died four years later. (more...)
[edit] June 2008
Bagha Jatin (Bengali: বাঘা যতীন), born Jatindranath Mukherjee (Jotindrônath Mukhopaddhæe) was a Bengali Indian revolutionary philosopher against British rule. Jatin was born on 7 December 1879 in Kayagram, a village in the Kushtia subdivision of Nadia district in present day Bangladesh. Jatin spent his early life at in his ancestral home at Jhenaidah and in his maternal home at Kushtia. He moved to Calcutta after passing the Entrance examination. Several sources mention Jatin as being among the founders of the Anushilan Samiti in 1900. The Samiti activities subsequently spread to many of the districts of Bengal flourished particularly at Kushtia, where Jatindra Nath was the leader. In 1906 Jatin servived an attack by a Bengal Tiger and managed to kill the tiger with only a dagger. This act of heroism made him famous.
A few years later Jatin became the principal leader of the Yugantar party that was the central association of revolutionaries in Bengal. Having personally met the German Crown-Prince in Calcutta shortly before the World War I, he had obtained the promise of arms and ammunition from Germany; as such, he was responsible for the planned German Plot during World War I. Another of his original contributions was the indoctrination of the Indian soldiers in various regiments in favour of an insurrection. Bagha Jatin was injured by police bullets near Chashakhand in Balasore. He died in Balasore hospital on 10 September 1915. (more)
[edit] May 2008
Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (Bangla: শেখ মুজিবর রহমান) (March 17, 1920 – Sheikh Mujibur Rahman (Bangla: শেখ মুজিবুর রহমান Shekh Mujibur Rôhman) (March 17, 1920 – August 15, 1975) was a Bengali political leader in East Pakistan and the founding leader of Bangladesh. He headed the Awami League, served as the first President of Bangladesh and later became its Prime Minister. He is popularly referred to as Sheikh Mujib, and with the honorary title of Bangabandhu (বঙ্গবন্ধু Bôngobondhu, "Friend of Bengal"). His eldest daughter Sheikh Hasina Wajed is the present leader of the Awami League and a former prime minister of Bangladesh.
A student political leader, Mujib rose in East Pakistani politics and within the ranks of the Awami League as a charismatic and forceful orator. An advocate of socialism, Mujib became popular for his leadership against the ethnic and institutional discrimination of Bengalis. He demanded increased provincial autonomy, and became a fierce opponent of the military rule of Ayub Khan. At the heightening of sectional tensions, Mujib outlined a 6-point autonomy plan, which was seen as separatism in West Pakistan. He was tried in 1968 for allegedly conspiring with the Indian government but was not found guilty. Despite leading his party to a major victory in the 1970 elections, Mujib was not invited to form the government.
After talks broke down with President Yahya Khan and West Pakistani politician Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Mujib was arrested and a guerrilla war erupted between government forces and Bengali nationalists aided by India. An all out war between the Pakistan Army and Bangladesh-India Joint Forces led to the establishment of Bangladesh, and after his release Mujib assumed office as a provisional president, and later prime minister. Even as a constitution was adopted, proclaiming socialism and a secular democracy, Mujib struggled to address the challenges of intense poverty and unemployment, coupled with rampant corruption. Amidst rising popular agitation, he banned other political parties and declared himself president for life in 1975. After only seven months, Mujib was assassinated along with his family by a group of army officers. (more...)
[edit] April 2008
Atiśa Dipankara Shrijnana (Bangla: অতীশ দীপঙ্কর শ্রীজ্ঞান) (982-1054 CE) was a Buddhist teacher from the Bengal region of old Indian territory who, along with Konchog Gyalpo and Marpa, was one of the major figures in the establishment of the Sarma lineages in Tibet after the repression of Buddhism by King Langdarma (Glang Darma).
The great Buddhist monk and scholar Atisha is most commonly said to have taken birth in the year 980 in Bikrampur, the northeastern region of Bengal (in modern day Bangladesh). Atisha was ordained into the Mahasamghika lineage at the age of twenty-eight by the Abbot Shilarakshita and studied almost all Buddhist and non-Buddhist schools of his time, including teachings from Vishnu, Shiva, Tantric Hinduism and other beliefs. Famous for his skills in teaching, debate and philosophy, Atisha was appointed to the position of steward, or abbot, at the venerable Buddhist college Vikramasila, established by the King Dharmapala of Bengal. When the Tibet king invited Atisha to visit Tibet to help revitalize Buddhism after its decline following ninth-century persecutions, Atisha accepted the offer. Atisha's arrival in Tibet was one of the seminal events of the "Second Diffusion" of Buddhism and his impact on the practice of Buddhism in the region was enormous.
Atisha remains an important figure in the Tibetan Buddhist tradition for several reasons. First, he refined, systematized, and compiled an innovative and thorough approach to bodhichitta known as "mind training" (Tib. lojong), in such texts as A Lamp for the Path to Enlightenment, and established the primacy of bodhichitta to the Mahayana tradition in Tibet. Second, after King Langdarma’s intolerant reign, the monastic Buddhist tradition of Tibet had been nearly wiped out. Atisha’s closest disciple, Dromtönpa, is considered the founder of the Kadam school, which later evolved into the Gelug, one of the four main school of Tibetan Buddhism. Finally, Atisha mobilized his influence in India towards the goal of reforming the impurities and redirecting the development of Buddhism there, in the native country of the Shakayumi Buddha. For these reasons and more, Atisha remains a central figure in the history and religious study of Buddhism. (more)
[edit] March 2008
Rabindranath Tagore (7 May 1861 – 7 August 1941) was a Bengali poet, Brahmo Samaj (syncretic Hindu monotheist) philosopher, visual artist, playwright, composer, and novelist whose works reshaped Bengali literature and music in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. A cultural icon of Bengal and India, he became Asia's first Nobel laureate when he won the 1913 Nobel Prize in Literature.
A Pirali Bengali Brahmin from Calcutta (Kolkata), India, Tagore first wrote poems at age eight. He published his first substantial poetry — under the pseudonym Bhanushingho ("Sun Lion") — in 1877 and wrote his first short stories and dramas at age sixteen. His home schooling, life in Shilaidaha, and travels made Tagore a nonconformist and pragmatist ; however, growing disillusionment with the British Raj caused Tagore to back the Indian Independence Movement and befriend Mahatma Gandhi. Despite losing virtually his entire family and his sorrow at witnessing Bengal's decline, his life's work — Visva-Bharati University — endured.
Tagore's works included Gitanjali (Song Offerings), Gora (Fair-Faced), and Ghare-Baire (The Home and the World), while his verse, short stories, and novels — many defined by rhythmic lyricism, colloquial language, meditative naturalism, and philosophical contemplation — received worldwide acclaim. Tagore was also a cultural reformer and polymath who modernised Bangla art by rejecting strictures binding it to classical Indian forms. Two songs from his rabindrasangeet canon are now the national anthems of Bangladesh and India: the Amar Shonar Bangla and the Jana Gana Mana.
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[edit] February 2008
Sher-e-Bangla (Urdu phrase meaning 'The Tiger of Bengal') Abul Kashem Fazlul Huq (Bengali: আবুল কাশেম ফজলুল হক) (26 October 1873—27 April 1962) was a well-known Bengali statesman in the first half of the 20th century. He held different political posts including those of the Mayor of Calcutta (1935), Chief Minister of undivided Bengal (1937-1943) and East Bengal (1954), Home Minister of Pakistan (1955) and Governor of East Pakistan (1956-58).
Huq entered the Bengal Legislative Council in 1913 as an elected member from the Dhaka (Dacca) Division. For 1913-1916 Huq served as the Secretary of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League and Joint Secretary of the All India Muslim League. Then he served as the President of the All India Muslim League from 1916 to 1921. He played an instrumental role in formulating the Lucknow Pact of 1916 between the Congress and the Muslim League. In 1917 Huq became Joint Secretary of the Indian National Congress and in 1918-1919 he served this organisation as its General Secretary.
In 1935, with the Congress' support, Fazlul Huq was chosen and elected first muslim mayor of Calcutta. Prior to 1937 election, Fazlul Huq reorganized the defunct Proja-Shamiti and renamed it as Krishak Praja Party (KPP). Later that year Sher-e-Bangla joined Muslim League and subsequently become the chairman of the Bengal headquarter of the party. Afterwards he acted as the Chief Minister (also called Premier) of undivided Bengal between 1937 to 1943. Fazlul Huq drafted and moved the Lahore Resolution on 23 March, 1940. According to this resolution, North-eastern and Eastern parts of India happened to be formed as sovereign states. It established Muslim League's demand for a homeland for Muslims, that ultimately resulted in the nation of Pakistan. However after 1942 Huq actually opposed the Two-Nation Theory and tried to mobilise non-Muslim League Muslim leaders against Partition of India. (more...)
[edit] January 2008
Sir Jagadish Chandra Bose (Bengali: জগদীশ চন্দ্র বসু Jôgodish Chôndro Boshu) (November 30, 1858 – November 23, 1937) was a Bengali physicist and science fiction writer, who pioneered the investigation of radio and microwave optics, made extremely significant contributions to plant science, and laid the foundations of experimental science in the Indian subcontinent. He is considered the father of radio science, and is also considered the father of Bengali science fiction. He was the first from the Indian subcontinent to get a US patent, in 1904.
Born in Bengal province of British India, Bose completed graduation from St. Xavier's College, Calcutta. Then he went to the University of London to study medicine, but couldn't complete his study due to health problems. He returned to India and joined the Presidency College, Kolkata as a Professor of Physics. There, in spite of racial discrimination, and lack of funding and equipment, Bose carried on his scientific research. He made remarkable progress in his research of remote wireless signaling and was the first to use semiconductor junction to detect radio signals. However, instead of trying to gain commercial benefit from this invention Bose made his inventions public in order to allow others to develop on his research. Subsequently he made some pioneering discoveries in plant physiology. He used his own invention crescograph to measure plant response to various stimuli, and thereby scientifically proved parallelism between animal and plant tissues. Although Bose filed for patent for one of his inventions due to peer pressure his reluctance to any form of patenting was well known. Now about 70 years of after his death he is being credited for many of his contributions to modern science. (more...)
