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Dr. Humayun Azad (1947-2004) Humayun Azad (Rari Khal,Vikrampur, Bangladesh, 28 April 1947 - Munich, Germany, 11 August 2004) was a prolific Bangladeshi author and scholar. He wrote more than 70 books including 10 novels, 7 collections of poetry, 7 books of comparative literature and 2 books for children. Azad received the prestigious Bangla Academy Award (1996) and the Shishu Academy Award for his contributions in both adult and children literature. Dr. Azad got his doctorate degree in linguistics in 1976 at the University of Edinburgh. He later served as a professor of Bangla at the University of Dhaka and in his early career produced pioneering works on Bangla linguistics, notably Bangla semantics. He was regarded as the most important living linguist of the one-thousand-year-old Bangla language. Later in his career, especially during General Ershad's rule, he became well-known as a liberal socio-political critic as he wrote biting commentaries against the dictatorship in local magazines. His commentaries continued throughout the 1990s and were later published as books as they grew in numbers. A freethinker and an atheist, he fearlessly and openly criticized in his works the extremism in religions, including Islam, the major religion in Bangladesh. Dr. Azad also published the first comprehensive book in Bangla on the subject of women called Naari (Bangla for "Woman") in 1992. In this monumental tome, Azad painstakingly compiled the feminist ideas of the west that underlie the feminist contributions of the subcontinent's socio-political reformers and exposed the anti-women stance of some legendary Bengali writers including Rabindranath Tagore. The work, critical of the patriarchal and male-chauvinistic attitude of religions towards women, attracted negative reaction from conservative censors and the Bangladeshi Government banned the book in 1995. The ban was eventually lifted in 2000, following a legal battle Azad won in the High Court. On February 27, 2004, he was the victim of a vicious assassination attempt by unidentified assailants in broad daylight on the campus of the University of Dhaka. As he was returning to his Fuller Road residence from the yearly book fair held at the Bangla Academy premises, the assailants stopped him on the road and hacked at his neck and face with machetes and later used bombs to disperse the crowd who tried to rescue him. He subsequently fell into a life-threatening coma for four days, but eventually survived after receiving intensive treatment at the Combined Military Hospital in Dhaka. He then went to Singapore for further treatment of his critically damaged face. The incident created a huge backlash among the progressive liberals in the society and the public in general who were apalled at the lack of secuity that made this attack on one of the most renowned scholars in the country possible. The students of the university were especially agitated at this heinous crime against their beloved teacher on their very own campus and marched processions in protest. The assassination attempt took place following the publication of his novel Pak Sar Jamin Saad Baad, a story based on religious groups in Bangladesh who collaborated with the Pakistani army during the 1971 independence war. In it he tried to expose the attitudes and activities of the Islamists and the nationalists in Bangladesh. He simulated a scenario that vividly portrayed fanatic and barbaric nature of these groups. Afterwards, Dr. Azad expressed that he had suffered severe mental trauma since the attack, but he also vowed to continue writing against the rise of Islamists in Bangladesh. Islamists in Bangladesh, on the other hand, condemned the assassination attempt but simultaneously claimed that the novel injured the sentiments of the majority. They demanded that the novel be banned and a blasphemy law be passed so that no such book could be published in the future, a reaction not too dissimilar to their treatment of his earlier Naari. On August 11, 2004, Dr. Azad was found dead in his apartment in Munich, Germany, where he had moved just a week prior to conduct research on the nineteenth century German romantic poet Heinrich Heine. Azad's family in Bangladesh refused to acknowledge the German police force's primary conclusions, which indicated a natural death. A
summary of his work as a teacher and a writer with a few references: Poetry: 1973
Alaukik Istimar (The Unearthly Steamer) Novels and Short Stories: 1994
Chappanno Hajar Bargamail (Fifty Six Thousand Square Miles) 1973 Rabindraprabandha/Rastra
O Shamajchinta (Socio-Political Thought in Rabindranath's Essays)
1983
Pronominalization in Bengali Juvenile Literature 1985
Phuler Gandhe Ghum Ase Na (The Scent of the Flowers does not let
Me Sleep) The Islamists had been against him for the last twenty years for his views on religion. His books Amar Abishwas (My Unbelief), and recently published novel Pak Sar Jamin Sad Bad (The Blessed Sacred Land) that depicted the atrocities of the Islamist fundaments in Bangladesh angered them profusely and they decided to offer a fatwa to kill him on the charge of apostasy. They attempted to kill him on February 27, 2004, but Dr Azad had survived the deadly attack after remaining in coma for four days. Fundamentalist were all along active, they wanted to kill him and eliminate his family too. Dr. Azad revealed his anxiety in his open letter to the Prime Minister, leader of the main opposition, and compatriots. Professor Azad was a beacon of both hope and light in the dreadful time for a nation that is probably undergoing the worst period since the history of its birth in 1971. Crucial question now is: with that ray of light being extinguished, whatever little hope we saw in the horizon; will it now wither away? Our answer is a straight 'No!' for a pessimistic tone would NOT be the right tribute to this brave hero. Readers could recall- fearing loss of his life, recently, we, on behalf of Mukto-Mona, contacted Dr. Azad and asked- if he needed any kind of asylum for himself and his family outside Bangladesh. "No! I am not an escapist! I cannot yield to mediocre mullah's pressure. I will not leave my country to their advantage." Such was his courage! Such was his determination. While on one hand, he was having a tough time dealing with sick and mad gang of mullahs; nevertheless, on the other hand, he fearlessly continued criticizing mullahs with such candid statements as "with Saudi Arab's money Jamayat is conducting terror across the country", "Mosques, the holy places of worships, are being converted into an industry of producing religious fanatics." Dr
Azad was a popular teacher from the very beginning, and his students
consider him the best teacher they ever had. Dr Azad was a fluent
speaker; he spoke his own inimitable Bangla, which made him immensely
popular. There was almost an uprise of students and the public
in Bangladesh in the aftermath of his attack by the Islamist on
February 27, 2004. Mukto-Mona had several mail exchanges with Dr.
Azad in recent times and the above information was composed based
on those exchanges. :: Added 21082005 @ 1005 GMT |
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