RSS to translate Nazrul Islam into Hindi

25 ‘patriotic songs’ to raise awareness

Kazi Nazrul Islam, is reckoned a great revolutionary
poet of India, though stricken by illness, he is to-day a
dead volcano. Rabindranath Tagore has been denounced by Pakistan, but Nazrul reigns in the hearts of East Bengalis, supplanting Mohammed
Iqbal, who mooted the idea of a separate Muslim State.
An interesting fact is that Nazrul is the only poet who enjoys literary pension from the Governments of both Pakistan and West Bengal. (25/05/1969).
PHOTO: THE HINDU ARCHIVES

The Bengal unit of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) is all set to translate 25 “patriotic songs” of iconic Bengali poet Kazi Nazrul Islam into Hindi to raise awareness in the country about the “works and secular values” of the poet. According to RSS officials, the project has been taken up also to commemorate the 118th birth anniversary of the poet.

“Kazi Nazrul through his works has proved that one can be respectful towards Indian ethos, regardless of his religious practice. We are translating 25 of his patriotic songs to raise awareness about his works and secular values outside Bengal,” RSS spokesperson Jishnu Basu told The Hindu .

According to RSS officials, the works of Kazi Nazrul, the national poet of Bangladesh, are still relevant today, not only because of their “literary value” but also because of the ongoing “vote bank politics” in Bengal centring around Muslims. Taking potshots at both the Left Front and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) governments for indulging in such “divisive politics”, they said that “fundamentalist elements” are taking advantage of this to “disrupt the secular fabric” of Bengal.

According to RSS sources, the project is likely to be completed within October.