Of Nazrul and Vara Vara Rao

Moumita Alam

[Following is a speech delivered by Moumita Alam at the launch of VaraVara Rao’s translation of KaziNazrul Islam’s collection of poems—BIDROHI]

These days the children studying in English medium schools are fast becoming oblivious to the contribution of Nazrul Islam. Others, who are still dependent on the public education system, are victims of inequality due to the deteriorating public educational infrastructure, thanks to neo-liberalisation. It’s very saddening to say KaziNazrul Islam in his own birthplace is fast becoming only a thesis topic for research scholars. At this juncture when I got to learn that VaraVara Rao is working on translating Nazrul Islam’s poems, I was more than happy. What can be better than VaraVara Rao translating the poems of Nazrul! Thanks to Gita Ramaswamy and Hyderabad Book Trust for publishing the collection–Bidrohi.

When our jungles, rivers, mountains, lands are being occupied by ten billionaires and the government works as a midwife felicitating the smooth transition of the occupation, when the gig workers are working like slaves of the neo-liberal market economy, our children are the worst victims of climate crisis, the relevance of Kazi Nazrul Islam, the relevance of Varavara Rao’s poetry can never fade. We need Nazrul more than ever before.

In recent times the optics of students and youth participating in what’s now called Bangladesh’s second freedom struggle against the autocratic Sheikh Hasina regime, reciting Nazrul’s immortal verses facing bullets and shells of the fascist state, have deeply affected me, a Bengali, a teacher of a government madrasa near the Bangladesh border.

Coincidentally, I was about to start a new chapter in the class on one of those days and the first question I asked my 5th standard students was, “Do you know KaziNazrul Islam and the students went silent. It was so disheartening. When on the other side of the border, the Bengalis were celebrating and drawing strength from the songs and poems of Nazrul’, on this side of the border Nazrul is still not being discussed much. I returned to the teachers’ room after the class and narrated my colleague about the incident and the colleague too was not surprised and asked which Nazrul! Is he not from Bangladesh? It broke my heart once more.

On one hand, the upheaval created by majoritarian Hindutva fundamentalism and, on the other, the rise of conservative elements inside the minority community are occupying the space of resistance and the dream of revolution that Nazrul talks about.

Does a poet have a nation? Does a poet have a country? A true rebel poet who fought his entire life for the marginalised, for the downtrodden is now being compartmentalised into a particular place, a particular nation, is being reduced into his immediate religious identity that Nazrul always disowned and attacked through his works.

Dear friends, forgetting rather I should be allowed to say that pushing Nazrul Islam into oblivion is not an aberration, this is a rule in a fascist regime, it’s a fascist cultural project. When we witness how a poet like Varavara Rao, perhaps the most jailed poet has to spend most of his life in jail. And how free he is now? He still can’t move outside Mumbai, far away from his home in Warangal. But as Nazrul Islam is still relevant for the dreamers who dream for a change, Varavara Rao is the same breathing, living hope for us, the dispossessed, the marginalised, the downtrodden, the nameless and the people who are only numbers in the eyes of the state.

When I was informed that our dear Varavara Rao is going to translate the poems of Nazrul Islam, the immediate thoughts that came to my mind was who could be a better translator than VV is! A revolutionary translating the poems of another revolutionary–the readers and the dreamers like us have nothing more to be joyous for. When a revolutionary translates the poems of another rebel poet, he touches all the strings, the words behind the words and the emotions behind every poem. How similar their poems are in spirit, in their dedication to the idea of Revolution. In the poem, Bidrohi, Nazrul writes,

I am the unutterable grief,
I am the trembling first touch of the virgin,
I am the throbbing pen,
I am the wild fire of the woods,
I am Hell’s mad terrific sea of wrath!
I ride on the wings of lightning with joy and profundity,
I scatter misery and fear all around,
I bring earth-quakes to this world! “
(8th stanza, Wikipedia)

And with the same spirit, Varavara Rao writes in his poem, Chains Write Now,

Even your shadow may not tell you the truth.
It may be saying what you want to hear.
But you are alone in the outside world.
Here inside, I am among countless people.
I am with the strength of my beliefs
With the power of people, like a volcano
That will erupt lava and fumes in the future
Even if it appears silent today.

In this long, silent imprisonment
I am sharpening my thoughts.
Dictator, now my chains are writing
Tomorrow I will sing full-throated in freedom.

This undeterred faith and dream for freedom guides both the essence of the works of Nazrul Islam and Varavara Rao. Their hell bent determination for the idea of a free mind and soul and their fearless advocacy for the peasants and labourers land them in jails. But who doesn’t know, history is witness those who are in power are always afraid of the unchained, strong voice. Nazrul’s Bisher Banshi (The flute of Poison) was banned by the British.

Nazrul was a stern critic of imperialism. He never stopped only by being a critic. So is VaraVara Rao. In the poem (Captain Beware), Nazrul writes,

The hapless nation drowns, for swim it cannot
O Captain! Today you shall be watched
For determination and love
Hindu or Muslim? Wait! Who asks?
Captain! Proclaim: My Mother’s children are drowning, Human all!

VaraVara Rao has been charged in over 30 separate court cases and survived countless attempts on his life. As Nazrul was the chronicler of his time, so is VV. From Emergency to the Operation Green Hunt to the oppression of the common people and Adivasis, VV’s pen has flared up against every injustice.

In the translation collection, VV has translated 64 poems of Nazrul. It is the need of the hour.

The main cultural project of a fascist regime is to wipe out history, the legacy of rebellion. A rebel Poet’s word can give the mass the needed strength and zeal to rise, to fight back. In the post- nineties economic liberation and the rise of Hindutva fascist neo-liberalisation, the common people have forgotten the idea of mass struggle, the idea of freedom. The jungles are being handed over to the giant companies. Democracy has been turned into a corporate funded democracy. All the brilliant minds and sharp tongues are being put behind the bar. The neoliberal education policy making the younger generations the slave of the market. The hard earned eight hours working policy is being enervated. Every day religious fanaticism and binaries push the minorities of all types–gender, lingual, religious sexual etc into the verge of precarity. Narrative is being set into Hindutva laboratory and is being circulated by the Whatsapp universities. The income gap between the have and the have- nots have never been so wide. The class politics is being weakened by the deep state funded identity politics, when we need to embolden class politics taking identity politics under its ambit. The translations of Nazrul’s poems would give the young Telugu readers the hope, the strength to fight against the fascist corporate regime which is now lashing on people’s rights with projects like ‘Operation Kagaar’. Civil rights are being curtailed.

Nazrul was always vocal about class politics. His poems testify that.

The translation is more important as the birthplace of Nazrul, West Bengal is in a state of limbo, a upper class bhadralok hegemony of left movement that too completely based in Kolkata is failing to make the new generation the dream of a better world, the dream of Resistance.

Back to Home Page

Frontier
Vol 57, No. 25, Dec 15 - 21, 2024