Google has revealed a doodle to celebrate the 121st birthday of Bengali poet, musician, writer, and activist Kazi Nazrul Islam.
His well known revolutionary poem “Bidrohi” (The Rebel), which was marked by a vehement stance against colonialism and global oppression, inspired the doodle artwork, says Google.
A leading voice of the movement of the independence of India, Nazrul was a fierce advocate for religious tolerance, freedom, and also the fight against injustice, earning him the nickname “Bidrohi Kobi” (Rebel Poet).
Kazi Nazrul Islam was born on May 25th in 1899 in the district of Bardhaman in West Bengal, India.
As a youth, he developed an interest in poetry and literature through his involvement together with his uncle’s travelling theatre group.
After many years within the British Indian Army during World War I, He moved to Kolkata and in 1922, he published his well known revolutionary poem “Bidrohi” (The Rebel).
Nazrul’s subversive writing—much of which he published in his own magazine, Dhumketu (The Comet)—resulted in frequent imprisonment, which successively inspired one in all his most well-known works, “Rajbondir Jobanbondi” (‘The Deposition of a Political Prisoner, 1923).
He used his platform to combat bigotry in all its forms, and through his poetry supported the women’s equality at a time when few of his peers were willing to do the same.
Not to be confined to the written word, Nazrul also wrote some 4,000 songs, which brought him national popularity and spawned an entirely new genre called Nazrul Geeti (Music of Nazrul).
For his incredible contributions in literature, Kazi Nazrul Islam was named the national poet of Bangladesh in 1972.
