Mohammad Rafiq

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mohammad Rafiq
Born	1943 Baitpur, Bagerhat, Bangladesh
Occupation	poet, Associate Professor

Mohammad Rafiq (Bangla: মোহাম্মদ রফিক) (b.1943) is a prominent Bangladeshi poet.

1 Early life
2 Bangladesh and Autocrate Regime
3 Later life and honour
4 Influence on later poets
5 Chronology
6 Works
7 Notes
8 See also
9 External links

[edit] Early life

Rafiq was born in 1943 in the village of Baitpur, Bagerhat, Bangladesh (then East Pakistan). In his youth, his country was going through a political instability. During his student years at Dhaka University he was a political activitist and was arrested and jailed twice. Pakistani martial law court sentenced him ten years of hard labour. He later was released earlier to complete his university studies. During the independence war of Bangladesh Mohammad Rafiq served as a Sector-1 officer and motivated the freedom fighters. Later he worked with the Radio Centre of Independent Bengal (স্বাধীন বাংলা বেতার কেন্দ্র).

[edit] Bangladesh and Autocrate Regime

"Through Mohammad Rafiq's dozen volumes of poetry, Bengali readers have witnessed not only the evolution of a distinctive personal vision and style but also a reflection of the changing fortunes of a homeland—all against a backdrop of folk tradition (a typically Bengali mix of Hindu and Muslim lore) and timeless images of water and sky, sun and rain, clouds and dust. This is not to say that Rafiq's poems tend to be predominantly "political" (other poets of Bangladesh more regularly respond to specific events and issues). Rather, an awareness Bangladesh's freedom struggle, the time of idealism and hope after independence, and the long dark period of military rule after the assassination of the new nation’s first democratically elected leader, Sheikh Mujib Rahman, should help readers from less turbulent parts of the world understand the potentially explosive impact of a particular literary work and the extraordinary risks that a writer may take in writing and publishing it. When Hossain Muhammad Ershad—a dictator who fancied himself a poet—seized power in 1982, the people of Bangladesh had to endure crushing repression from his regime and from the growing forces of communalism."^[1]

During the dictatorship of Hossain Muhammad Ershad, Rafiq wrote Khola Kabita (Open Poem) and it was published as a leaflet and was circulated throughout the country. It was the first voice raised against the unlawful military autocracy. It become very popular among the student activists and they performed the poem as drama and song. Later on, he was summoned and interrogated before a military board of inquiry. A warrant for arresting him was also issued. By this time, Mohammad Rafiq escaped and began to live in hiding.

[edit] Later life and honour

Mohammad Rafiq worked as a teacher at Chittagong Government College and at Dhaka College. At present he is working as an Associate Professor at the Department of English, Jahangirnagar University. He was awarded Alaol Literary Award in 1981 and Bangla Academy Awardin 1987.