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Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) came into prominence in the 1920s as the 'Rebel Poet', startling the Indian literary world with his radical ideas and defiant utterances. A historic dissenter, he attacked a number of orthodoxies of the time with his fiery verses and convention-shattering practices. The Dissent of Nazrul Islam presents the rebel self of the poet through the dialectics that developed between him and the authoritarian formations he confronted. This volume focuses primarily on Nazrul's dissent against the British colonial government in India, the Gandhian non-violent means of nationalist struggle, Islamic fundamentalism and Hindu cultural chauvinism, as well as the hegemony of Rabindranath Tagore in the world of Bengali literature. Mitra reveals the nature, purpose, and consequences of Nazrul's historic disobedience. He surveys the literary, political, socio-cultural, and intellectual circumstances that shaped the Rebel Poet's ideas and actions. Exploring Nazrul's exchanges with his space, time, and environs, Mitra illustrates how these opened alternate ways of thought and writing.
Periodicals, Readers and the Making of a Modern Literary Culture is a study of literary periodicals and the Bengali public sphere at the turn of the twentieth century, the variety of interests and concerns that animated this domain and how literary relations were seen to constitute new social solidarities.
Intimation of Revolution studies the rise of Bengali nationalism in East Pakistan in the 1950s and 60s by showcasing the interactions between global politics and local social and economic developments. It argues that the revolution of 1969 and the national liberation struggle of 1971 were informed by the 'global sixties' that transformed the political landscape of Pakistan and facilitated the birth of Bangladesh. Departing from the typical understanding of the Bangladesh as a product of Indo-Pakistani diplomatic and military rivalry, it narrates how Bengali nationalists resisted the processes of internal colonization by the Pakistani military bureaucratic regime to fashion their own nation. It details how this process of resistance and nation-formation drew on contemporaneous decolonization movements in Asia, Africa, and Latin America while also being shaped by the Cold War rivalries between the USA, USSR, and China.
Analysing an extensive range of texts and publications across multiple genres, formats and literary lineages, Reclaiming Karbala studies the emergence and formation of a viable Muslim identity in Bengal over the late-19th century through the 1940s. Beginning with an explanation of the tenets of the battle of Karbala, this multi-layered study explores what it means to be Muslim, as well as the nuanced relationship between religion, linguistic identity and literary modernity that marks both Bengaliness and Muslimness in the region.This book is an intervention into the literature on regional Islam in Bengal, offering a complex perspective on the polemic on religion and language in the formation of a jatiya Bengali Muslim identity in a multilingual context. This book, by placing this polemic in the context of intra-Islamic reformist conflict, shows how all these rival reformist groups unanimously negated the Karbala-centric commemorative ritual of Muharram and Shī‘ī intercessory piety to secure a pro-Caliphate sensibility as the core value of the Bengali Muslim public sphere.
Zusammenfassung: "An insightful study of the spiritual quest undertaken by an impressive array of South Asian intellectuals who reappraised the very meaning of religion. Far from being a mode of inward-looking cultural defense, Soumen Mukherjee convincingly interprets mysticism and spirituality as a cosmopolitan pursuit by creative thinkers delving into devotional traditions of India's past while responding to global challenges of the early twentieth century." -- Sugata Bose, Gardiner Professor of Oceanic History and Affairs, Harvard University "A detailed and erudite study of the way in which mysticism and spirituality came to dominate Indian forms of selfhood and self-making from the first...
Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) is widely remembered as the fiery iconoclast who fought against the structures of oppression and orthodoxy. The iconic ‘rebel poet’ of Bengal, Nazrul continues to be loved for his songs and poetry. But what of his prose, his journalism, and his politics? Selected Essays reveals to us the extraordinary versatility of Nazrul as an essayist. Addressing subjects as diverse as social reform, politics, communal harmony, environmental concerns, education, aesthetics, ethics, and philosophy, this rich collection showcases Nazrul’s dynamic vision and unique use of language as an instrument of change. The essays chart his evolving consciousness as a thinker, writer and activist, offering vivid glimpses of the ethos of his times, his relationships with leading figures such as Tagore and Gandhi, and his active engagement with social, political and cultural processes. These new translations bring Nazrul’s powerful voice to life, all its vibrant immediacy.
This is the first cultural and literary history of India and the First World War, with archival research from Europe and South Asia.
Books on ancient Indian history are based partly on borrowed imagination and partly on distorted facts.They conceal boldly and reveal ceptically.But quite contrarily this work provides a novel conduit,honestly postulated,to the study of Vedic and Harappan civilizations which no student and scholar of the subject can fail to notice.
Contributed articles on the writing of political history of ancient India.
This book explains how Hindus think about divinity in its feminine aspect, as the supreme creative energy of the cosmos. That energy is a single abstract idea but manifests itself in many forms, each imagined as a goddess with particular powers and functions.