Munier Choudhury
| Munier Chowdhury মুনীর চৌধুরী | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | November 25, 1925 |
| Died | December 14, 1971 (aged 46) |
| Education | MA (linguistics) |
| Alma mater |
Aligarh Muslim University Dhaka University Harvard University |
| Notable award(s) | Bangla Academy Award (1962) |
| Spouse(s) | Lily Chowdhury |
| Children |
Ahmed Munier Ashfaq Munier Asif Munier |
| Relative(s) |
Ferdousi Mazumder (sister) Kabir Chowdhury (brother) |
Munier Chowdhury (Bengali: মুনীর চৌধুরী; 27 November 1925 – 14 December 1971), born in 1925 at Manikganj, Dhaka, hailed from Noakhali,[1][2] was a Bangladeshi educationist, playwright, literary critic and political dissident.
Education
Chowdhury graduated from Dhaka Collegiate School in 1941. He attended Aligarh Muslim University and later studied English literature for his Bachelors degree (with honors, 1946) and Masters (1947) at the Dhaka University. In 1954, he completed a second Masters degree, summa cum laude, in Bengali. He was passionately devoted to Bangla language and culture, and courted imprisonment in 1952 for his participation in the Bangla language movement, where he had, along with some others, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as his prisonmate. While in jail he assiduously studied Bangla language and literature, appeared at the MA examination in Bangla from inside the jail and came out first in the first class.[3] In 1958, he obtained another Masters in Linguistics from Harvard University.
Career in education
Munier Chowdhury started his career in teaching at Brojolal College in Khulna and worked there between 1947 and 1950. Later he worked for some time at the Jagannath College in Dhaka in 1950. After that, he joined the Dhaka University in 1950 and taught both in English and Bengali language departments between 1950 and 1971. He became Reader in 1962 and Professor in 1970 and the Dean of the faculty of arts in 1971.[2] Educated in the universities of Aligarh, Dhaka and Harvard, he first carved a name as a fine teacher of English literature. On his release from imprisonment, he started teaching Bangla at the University of Dhaka, later becoming the Chairman of the Department and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts, which posts he held till his death in 1971. Students flocked to his class, many from other departments,[4] as he lectured in his inimitable fashion on Meer Mosharraf Hossain, Bankimchandra and Rabindranath, among others. To this day he is fondly remembered as an extraordinary teacher who was able to kindle in his students a genuine love for great literatures.[3]
Political movements
Munier Chowdhury actively participated in the Language Movement of 1952, and was imprisoned by the Pakistan government. He wrote his famous symbolic drama, Kabar (The Grave) in Bengali during his imprisonment. 'Kabar' is a shadow of Irwin Shaw's 'Bury the Dead' written in English. He also fought against any type of cultural repression during the late 1950s and 1960s. In 1967, he protested the Pakistan government's ban on Tagore songs on radio and television. In the late 1960s there was a movement in Pakistan to replace the Bengali language alphabet with the Arabic alphabet. As a linguist and writer, Munier Chowdhury protested this move to undermine the native language of East Pakistan. He actively participated in the non-cooperation movement during the early part of 1971 and renounced his award Sitara-e-Imtiaz (awarded by Pakistan Govt in 1966).
Important works
- Kabar (The grave), 1952 – a one act play about the Language Movement [4]
- Raktakta Prantar (The bloody meadow), 1959 – play about the Third Battle of Panipat [4]
- Mir-Manas, 1965 – literary critique of Mir Mosharraf Hossain's literature
- Munier Optima, 1965 – a Bengali keyboard layout design [4]
- Ektala-Dotala (First ever Bengali drama telecast on TV), 1965 [4]
- Dandakaranya, 1966
- Chithi (The letter), 1966
- Palashi Barrack O Anyanya, 1969
- Tulanamulak Samalochana (Comparative critique), 1969
- Bangla Gadyariti (Bengali literary style), 1970
Awards
- Bangla Academy Prize, 1962
- Daud Prize, 1965
- Sitara-e-Imtiaz, 1966, awarded by Govt. of Pakistan
Death
After the Pakistani army crackdown in 1971 in the Dhaka University area from which Munier Chowdhury luckily escaped like many, he moved to his parents' house, near Hatirpool. He became a totally dejected and broken man. Many of his student-like well-wishers requested him to come to the liberated areas. But unfortunately Munier Choudhury couldn't mentally adjust to the idea of fleeing from his beloved motherland. He preferred to stay back and surrendered to his 'fate'.[1][2]
On 14 December 1971 Munier Chowdhury, along with a large number of Bengali intellectuals, educators, doctors and engineers, were kidnapped from their houses and later tortured and executed by the Pakistan Army and its Bengali collaborators Al-Badr, Al-Shams, only 2 days before the end of the Bangladesh War. His dead body could not be identified.[1][2]
A witness who survived the killing had narrated how he recognized Munier as he screamed while his fingers were chopped off. "Have mercy" that is all Munier had said. As this was being done the butcher said, "write your famous essays on Rabindranath Tagore." This happened in the renowned Physical Training College. That was the last that anyone saw of him.[5]
On 3 November 2013, Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, a Muslim leader based in London, and Ashrafuz Zaman Khan, based in the US, were sentenced in absentia after the court found that they were involved in the abduction and murders of 18 people – nine Dhaka University teachers including Munier Chowdhury, six journalists and three physicians – in December 1971.[6]
Personal life
Munier Chowdhury is survived by his wife Lily Chowdhury and three sons Ahmed Munier, Ashfaq Munier and Asif Munier. Ahmed Munier works as the Chief Mission Support for the United Nations Integrated Peacebuilding Office in Sierra Leone (UNIPSIL). Ashfaq Munier (known as Mishuk Munier) was a media specialist. He died in a tragic road accident in Dhaka on August 13, 2011 at the age of 52. Asif Munier is a human rights activist in the country and was a founder member of Projonmo Ekattor, a human rights group in Bangladesh, which initiated the building of the Rayer Bazar Smriti Shoudho (Rayer Bazar Memorial) in Dhaka. This memorial was built on the barren land on which the Pakistani army dumped the bodies of the intellectuals after murdering them. Projonmo Ekattor also campaigns for the trial of war criminals of 1971. Asif Munier also runs his own theatre group, Bongorongo, through which he stages his fathers plays regularly.
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Profiles of martyred intellectuals". Daily Star. Mukto-mona. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 "Profiles of martyred intellectuals". The Daily Star. 14 December 2006. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Chowdhury, Kabir (14 December 2003). "Remembering Munier Chowdhury". The New Age. Muktadhara. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Chowdhury, Shamsher (14 December 2006). "A tribute to Munier Choudhury". The Daily Star. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
- ↑ Akhtar, Shameem (14 December 2013). "A tribute to our martyred intellectuals". The Daily Star. Retrieved 31 December 2013.
- ↑ Chowdhury, Syed Tashfin (3 November 2013). "UK Muslim leader Chowdhury Mueen Uddin sentenced to death in Bangladesh". The Independent. Retrieved 7 November 2013.
External links
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