Humayun Azad and the Contemporary Relevance of His Writings for the Bangladeshi Youth

Because of his strong commitment to a search for truth and for fearlessly expressing his convictions through his words, Humayun Azad (1947–2004), a revolutionary writer from Bangladesh was an inspirational figure to many even if he has been treated as disposable by the Bangladeshi establishment. For his contributions to Bengali literature, he did receive the Bangla Academy Prize in 1986. Internationally, he worked with the University of Edinburgh, the University of Leeds and PEN International in Germany to translate renowned European authors into Bangla and vice versa.

For many young people in Bangladesh, Azad’s charged words and expressions were a crash course in learning how to argue effectively to defend one’s convictions. There has also been criticism that he was too rigid in the way he sought dialogue on everything and anything. Both of these things are not new. What is new is the problem facing Bangladesh today that the act of writing is no longer safe as it once was. If you dare to speak with conviction, you may face insurmountable ‘dangers’. Humayun Azad chose to accept these hazards and write candidly in the midst of all of these perils.

He was attacked by religious fanatics on 27 February 2004. But, he survived. He died later.

Ananya was based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In 2014, he shifted to Germany as he was getting death threats from religious fundamentalists in Bangladesh for his blogging, and other writings.

1. Asmaul: Can you briefly recap Humayun Azad’s poetic/activist journey? How shall we position him vis-à-vis his contemporaries and his poetic predecessors? Was he influenced by any particular poetic tradition within Bangladesh or broader South Asia and beyond? How shall we read his work and life against the classics, such as Tagore, Kazi Nazrul or others?

Ananya Azad: While we all know that Humayun Azad began his literary career with poetry after graduating from university, his first essay ‘Ghorhi Bole Tik Tik’ [The Clock Goes Tik Tik] was published in Daily Ittefaq’s children’s page when he was in the ninth grade. Humayun Azad’s first collection of poems was written between 1968 and 1972. Oulokik Istimar [Unearthly Steamer], his debut book of poetry, was published in 1973. The majority of the poems in this collection were written in classical art form, and they spoke about Bangladeshi nationalism of the 1960s and the country’s liberation struggle. His poems focused on the ubiquitous sorrow, bitterness, hatred, love and other emotions, which marked the mood of the 1960s’ Bangladesh. A poem in this collection, ‘Blood Bank’, is filled with nationalist emotions and was regularly carried on the national radio during the liberation war in 1971, motivating the freedom fighters to keep up with the struggle for Independence.

If one looked at the repertoire of his poems, they speak about history and tradition, offer religious and political critiques, oppose capitalistic exploitation and explore nuances of love and despair. He was candid and wrote with a deep sense of realism that can be called modernist. His poetry went beyond the aesthetics of beauty and offered a critique of the society and the state that he was part of. He sought a deep transformation and stirred radical (if varied) sensibilities among his readers. The rhythm of his poetry resonated well, especially with the young readers seeking their own truths.

His opinions on Bengali poetry were radical. He edited a book titled Rabindranath Thakurer Prodhan Kobita [The Eminent Poems of Rabindranath Tagore] in 1997. He wrote a whole book on Shamsur Rahman, another well-known Bangladeshi poet. But he also cut these two leading figures with his blade of criticism. He argued that Rabindranath’s romanticism is unimportant. He claimed that Rabindranath simply used Bengali poetry to present Western romanticism. Most of Rabindranath’s poems, he said, were composed for naïve readers. He went as far as to claim and argue that Buddhadeb Basu and Vishnu Dey wrote finer poetry than Tagore.

Humayun Azad began to speak and write on the Bangladeshi current affairs in the news media in the late 1980s. His opposition to the military government was the starting point of his political literature.

2. Asmaul: To a great extent, Humayun Azad’s writings including poems, newspaper columns, essays and novels have the voice of dissent and resistance regarding the critique of religious fanaticism, advocacy for feminism and dissemination of democracy, critiquing the Bangladeshi state and power in the late 1990s and the early 2000s. Could you please elaborate on which spheres his stance on resistance was highlighted?

Ananya Azad: He changed his name on 28 September 1988. From Humayun Kabir, he became Humayun Azad (Or, Humayun the Free One). He believed that Kabir will not accompany Humayun but Azad will. He chose a name that he felt was suitable for the strand of writing he was embarking on. He did not restrict his radical stance within his literary work but carried it in his personal life. He bravely wrote about the hypocrisies and inconsistencies within the Bangladeshi society. By doing this, he caught the attention of the public, and his literary work gathered a large readership for its call for secularism, hostility to the military government, feminist discourse and unapologetic frankness on sexuality. His writings drew on the audacious and radical stance he took on religion and politics.

Pak Sar Jamin Sad Bad [Blessed Be the Sacred Land], an extensively debated novel he wrote in February 2004, talks about religious fundamentalism. The novel is based on a group that aided the invaders during Bangladesh’s 1971 war of independence. He dedicated this novel to the year 1971. The novel takes its title from the national anthem of Pakistan, and he used it as a provocative trope to criticise the anti-independence elements within Bangladesh. This provoked retaliation from a number of religious fundamentalist groups who conspired against him and eventually assaulted him later in the same year.

3. Asmaul: How will you read the relevance of his ideals in connection with Bangladesh’s current situation, some two decades after his assassination?

Ananya Azad: If we deeply read Humayun Azad’s writings, we see that he was content in the moment he lived. We even see that his strong stance internalising anti-establishment, anti-tradition, anti-classism and anti-discrimination, anti-politics and anti-religion draws on the philosophy of expressionism. In the ideology of expressionism, sentimentality has no place even if the movement evolved in response to dehumanising effects of modernisation, and Humayun Azad has stated repeatedly in interviews that he does not accept sentimentality, even if the people of the country do. During his adolescence and youth, he experienced numerous situations, such as the language movement of 1952, the military coups, the six-point movement, spearheaded by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the mass uprising of 1969, and innumerable other historic events including of course the liberation war of 1971. These life experiences might have led to his expressionist outlook. Azad’s take on expressionist philosophy became even more prominent almost two decades after his death.

In terms of the current condition of Bangladesh, the country has advanced economically and has come a long way from its previous stages of growth. However, when it comes to human development, progressiveness and secularism and humanitarian values, I believe the country has made little progress, and that religious extremism and intolerance remain on the rise. My own life is an example of this. I had to flee my own country because of the persistent danger I felt and a number of attacks I faced from the Islamic radicals.

4. Asmaul: What role did Humayun Azad play in the imagination of Bengali nationalism, in your opinion? How do you see his poetic and activist legacy carried forward by the new generation of poets and activists? Or do you think that he has been somewhat forgotten or peripheralised by the state or the literary institutions representing the establishment?

Ananya Azad: Humayun Azad, near the end of his life, stated that ‘nationalism’ was a nearly vacuous topic and that ‘nationalism’ had become a controversial substance in Bangladesh used only for political purposes. He emphasised humanism. Humayun Azad’s politics was a politics of thought, a politics of creating a non-discriminatory, free-thinking society, a politics of freedom of expression, a politics of liberating women from slavery and a politics of sophistication free of fanaticism. He claimed that while the Soviet Union may disintegrate, the dream of human liberty will never die.

I would say that Humayun’s Azad works and ideals, whether they were about literature, politics, or society, included universality. His works are being kept alive by his unique life ideas. People in Bangladesh, without a doubt, read his works, quote him and allude to him. Many of his writings still inform political debates in the country.