काज़ी नज़रुल इस्लाम

Kazi Nazrul Islam was born on 24 May 1899 in the village of Churulia in Asansol, Burdwan district of the Bengal Presidency, into a Bengali Muslim family. After his father's death in 1908, the ten-year-old Nazrul took on work as a mosque caretaker and later a muezzin to support his family, before joining a travelling folk theatre troupe where he learned acting, songwriting, and playwriting. In 1917 he enlisted in the British Indian Army, serving with the 49th Bengal Regiment in Karachi and rising to havildar, and began composing poetry and prose while stationed there.

After his 1920 discharge, Nazrul settled in Calcutta as a journalist and poet, achieving major recognition in 1922 with his poem "Bidrohi" (The Rebel), which won him renown as the "Bidrohi Kobi" (Rebel Poet) of the Indian independence movement. He wrote an estimated 4,000 songs, collectively known as Nazrul Geeti, many recorded by the Gramophone Company of India, and pioneered Bengali ghazal compositions by introducing Persian and Urdu poetic forms into Bengali literature. His nationalist writings, including in his magazine Dhumketu, led to his imprisonment on sedition charges in 1923.

Nazrul worked as a music director and lyricist for several Bengali film productions, including Vidyapati, Patalpuri, and Gora, and directed Dhruba, becoming the first Muslim director of a Bengali film; nearly fifty of his songs had been used across various films by 1945. In 1942 he contracted Pick's disease, a rare neurodegenerative condition that progressively robbed him of speech and cognition. Brought to the newly independent Bangladesh in 1972 and granted citizenship in 1976, he was honoured as that nation's national poet. He died in Dhaka on 29 August 1976 and was buried beside the central mosque of Dhaka University. His honours include India's Padma Bhushan (1960) and Bangladesh's Ekushey Padak and Independence Award (1977).