Alam Khorshed

Alam Khorshed was born in Chittagong, and upon finishing his Higher Secondary studies at the Fauzdarhat Cadet College in 1978, he entered the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology at Dhaka. He earned his Bachelor's in Mechanical Engineering in 1983, and later obtained a Master's degree from the City University of New York, New York. Alam Khorshed currently resides in Montreal, Quebec. Although trained as an engineer, his real passion has always been in literature, film, politics, and feminism. During his student days, he has been involved in little magazines, short stories, and theater as well as in the film-club movement in Dhaka. He is also the editor of a number of books, notably one with his own translation of classic Latin American stories (Jaadu Baastabataar Galpa), and another on feminist stories written by women writers from Bangladesh (Naribaadi Galpa: co-edited with Lopa Tasneem). His most recent publication is a collection of his own writings on Feminsim.

Alam Khorshed writes in Bangla, English, as well as French, and his most recent achievement is the establishment of a literary organization focused on Bangalee women's issues in Montreal, Sultana'r Shwapna (“Sultana's Dream” — named after a fantasy by Begum Rokeya, one of the earliest feminists in nineteenth century Bengal).

[Moderator’s Note: this was written a couple of years back for a different forum. We are posting it for Uttorshuri’s readership, as it may be relevant to some of the discussions here.]

Today is 25 Baishakh 1409 of the Bangla calendar: the 141st birth anniversary of Rabindranath Thakur, the foremost icon of Bengali literature and culture who single-handedly transformed our language into its today’s modern and mature form by virtue of his extraordinary creative genius. A true cosmopolitan in spirit and a firm believer of universal humanism, he toiled hard to promote and propagate the Bengali language and literature in the world stage, which eventually led to his winning the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. Much has been written about his unfathomable contribution to Bengali literature but not enough light has been shed on many other remarkable facets of this myriad-minded visionary. One such less talked about characteristic of this towering personality was his social and political awareness, which we will try to address here briefly.

§   Rabi Thakur wholeheartedly believed in the unity of the Hindu and Muslim communities and often publicly took a stand in favour of the then downtrodden Muslim community. He actively took part in the movement against the partition of Bengal in 1905 and composed the theme song of that historical movement, “Banglar maaTi, Banglar jal”. He was also the initiator of the symbolic ritual of “Raakhibandhan” between the members of the two communities. But later on he had the moral courage to denounce and discard this apparently noble movement (against Bengal Partition) for its increasingly communal nature and oppressive role on the poor Muslim traders and farmers, as depicted in his novel “Ghare Baaire” (and later filmed by Satyajit Ray). Years later, he vehemently protested against the proposal for making “Bande Mataram” the national anthem of India for its communal overtone as well as for its being potentially offensive to the Muslim community of India.

§   Rabi Thakur was not an adherent of the narrow nationalist ideology and opposed it all along, both in the national and international arenas, for the fear of its potential danger of becoming divisive and chauvinistic; something which we are all witnessing now in dismay throughout South Asia as well as the rest of the world. A man of conscience, he was at the same time very critical of the oppressive imperialist regime of the British India. We are all aware of his renunciation of his knighthood as a protest against the atrocities committed by the British soldiers on the innocent population of Jalianwalaabag as well as the accompanying scathing criticism of the British government. He also wrote another passionate letter in the newspaper from his bed just two months before his death denouncing the British Raj in no uncertain terms for its shamelessly self-serving and hypocritical role in India.

§   As a socially conscientious person, Rabi Thakur was very much aware of the cruel oppression and discrimination against the Indian women in the name of religion, culture, and tradition. He openly sympathized with the victimized women of his day, strongly denouncing all the oppressive social norms and practices and preaching for equal rights for Indian women in many of his writings such as “Streer Patra,” “Chitrangadaa,” and “Jogajog,” just to name a few. His sympathy for the women wasn’t confined to words only; he made conscious efforts to translate that into action. One such glorious example was his arrangement of the marriage of his son Rathindranath Thakur and a child-widow Pratima Debi.

The above are just a few of Rabindranath’s many other socially conscious and committed philosophical and moral positions. We may all benefit by learning more about this exceptionally open-minded, truly modern, and progressive personality and by striving to implement his humanist philosophies in our own personal as well as social lives.

Perhaps that will be the greatest tribute to our beloved poet Rabindranath, who has provided us with our Bangalee identity and the Bangladeshi national anthem, “Aamaar sonaar bangla, aami tomaay bhaalobaasi” — My Golden Bengal, I love you.

Last updated: September, 2004