Life and Nature in Nazrul Works

Reviewed By Shishir Reza

Author: Dr. Ali Hossen

Publisher: Bangla Academy

Price: 170 Taka

In June 2011, Dr. Ali Hossen has been published a book on men and nature thoughts of Kazi Nazrul Islam from Bangla Academy. This book is entitled "Life and Nature in Nazrul works".

Author explains in this book - nationalism, literacy and education; individualism and collectivism, agrarian question; poverty, employment and development; micro-level collective formations, science for social revolution; the collapse of socialism; the era of liberalization; deep ecology in nature; economists views of nature; and finally women and sustainability.

In this manuscript, writer elucidates that Nazrul was widely quoted to have said in his last days: "you will forget everything else I have given you, but not my songs." He said certainly in great fulfillment for the response of Bengalis to his songs. And he was so right, as evidenced by the way Bengalis have kept singing his songs to this day with unfading passion and love for them. Nut, as this study should reveal, there is no reason to shelve for oblivion the social and environmental thinking of the poet, author inserts.

Through this study, writer explores the social and environmental thinking of this 'myriad-minded' man in the light of world development. It has been observed that Nazrul in a pioneering role in initiating what in much later years crystallized into a global 'action research' movement and brings out his unique thinking on poverty, employment and development based on a view of human beings as a creative species.

Author highlights Nazrul's philosophy of service to others humanity - as opposed to individualist aggrandizement as the mission of human life, predicting that uncontrolled individualism leads to destruction. It traces the sweep of modern world history as a dialectic encounter between collectivism and individualism in which individualism is currently the winner, taking the world toward destruction in terms of both ecological and human.

Writer clarifies that Nazrul's ideas and observations are highly pertinent for the progress and predicaments of societies and world civilization. some of these are the notions of participatory development of which he was a forerunner both in conception and activism that is not much known in the world literature on alternative development; his philosophies of collectivism and of poverty which interest with Marxism and Maoism while not sharing with them the notion of class struggle; and his position on the relation between humans and the environment which anticipated the viewpoint of 'deep ecology' developed more than declares after his demise. And his view of the woman as an agent of nature coming out of the bounds of mainly to co-pilot the world to save it from destruction with her tenderness vis-a-vis male aggressiveness is unique in its vision and depth.

This slim volume mentions Nazrul's view of organic unity between humans and nature that modern philosophy of 'deep ecology' has formally concretized.

This thought-provoking book is a great epilogue for the nature and biodiversity based researchers, learners, environmental economists as well as students of environmental science and natural resources economics.

Reviewed By Shishir Reza is an Environmental Analyst and Sharmin Akter is an Urban Planner.