Radio, ghazals, and “Islami gaan”: What Nazrul’s shift to music said about his syncretism
The adoption of the ghazal by Nazrul, with renewed fervour in the late ’20s and ’30s, signaled an understanding that his earlier literary and linguistic world was an impermanent one, as was a politics in which the unity of Hindus and Muslims was achieved through an appeal to a shared culture and language.
1 September 2021, 18:00 PM
In memory of Prof Anisuzzaman, a scholar of Bengals past and present
I arrived in Dhaka, some years ago, as an outsider twice removed. First, I had grown up in Kolkata; second, I was a graduate student in Chicago.
21 May 2020, 18:00 PM