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Finally, Kazi Nazrul Islam has received state recognition as the national poet of Bangladesh. A notification has been published declaring him the ‘national poet’ of Bangladesh since his arrival in Bangladesh on May 4, 1972. Khabar BSS

A notification signed by Md. Ataur Rahman, Secretary of the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, on the orders of the President, states that poet Kazi Nazrul Islam has been declared the national poet of Bangladesh as per the proposal approved in a meeting of the Advisory Council last December and it has been published in the form of a gazette for everyone’s information.

Incidentally, the proposal to publish a notification declaring poet Kazi Nazrul Islam as a national poet was approved in the meeting of the Advisory Council held on December 5.

The status of poet Kazi Nazrul Islam as a national poet is already an established fact and is also recognized at the state level. The people of Bangladesh have been expecting a government notification declaring the poet as a national poet since the date of his arrival in Dhaka. The Advisory Council approved the proposal in accordance with this expectation.

Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam was brought to Dhaka from Kolkata with his family on 24 May 1972 by the government initiative and was allotted house 330-B on Road No. 28 (Old) in Dhanmondi for his residence.

Then in January 1976, the Bangladesh government granted the poet Bangladeshi citizenship. On 21 February of the same year, he was awarded the Ekushey Padak. The Ekushey Padak is considered the second civilian honorary medal of Bangladesh.

In 1974, the Dhaka University authorities decided to confer the honorary D. Litt degree on Kazi Nazrul Islam along with other people in recognition of his special contribution to Bengali literature and culture. The decision to confer this degree was taken at a convocation ceremony at the University’s Student-Teachers’ Auditorium (TSC) on 9 December 1974. Nazrul could not be brought to the ceremony due to illness. Later, on 25 January 1975, the Chancellor of Dhaka University, then President Mohammadullah Nazrul, conferred the D. Litt. Dhaka University Vice Chancellor Professor Abdul Matin Chowdhury also read a letter of commendation to Nazrul.

Poet Nazrul passed away on 29 August 1976. Nazrul wrote in one of his songs, “Bury me next to the mosque, brother, so that I can hear the muezzin’s call to prayer even from the grave.” Respecting this wish, the poet was buried with full state honors next to the Dhaka University Central Mosque.

More than 10,000 people attended his funeral prayer. After the funeral prayer, President Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem, Major General Ziaur Rahman, Real Admiral MH Khan, Air Vice Marshal AG Mahmud, Major General Dastagir carried Nazrul’s body, wrapped in the national flag, from Suhrawardy Maidan to the University Mosque premises. Two days of state mourning were observed in Bangladesh to mark his death.

Later, the Kabi Nazrul Institute Act, 2018 was issued, addressing him as the National Poet.

On December 10, 1929, at Albert Hall in Kolkata, undivided India, the entire Bengali nation recognized poet Kazi Nazrul Islam as the ‘National Hero’ and ‘National Poet’ in the presence of many eminent personalities including Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose, scientist Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy, S, Wazed Ali, Dinesh Chandra Das.

Later, in the messages given on the occasion of the Liberation War of Bangladesh and the celebration of the poet’s birth anniversary in independent Bangladesh, the President, Prime Minister and Chief Advisors also called the poet ‘National Poet’. But although he is recognized as the National Poet of Bangladesh in all respects, no gazette has been officially issued before declaring poet Kazi Nazrul Islam as the National Poet.

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