Kazi Nazrul Islam, popularly known as rebel poet (vidrohi kobi), was born on the 25th May 1898 at Churulia in the district of Burdwan, West Bengal, India. He was an exceptional talented person in Bangla literature. This patriot, poet, composer writer, political figure or the myriad minded man edited a politico-cultural magazine "Dhumketu".

When still a school student in his teens Nazrul joined the newly recruited Bengali regiment (1916) and sent to Mesopotamia some months before the armistice. The regiment was not given a chance to face battle but all the same Nazrul got his fill of the fighting gusto which later-found expression in poetic effusion and warmth.

Kazi Nazrul Islam

His first two significant poems, Pralayollas (Exhilaration at the Final Dissolution) and Vidrohi (Rebellion) appeared early in 1922 and his first book of poem Agnibina (The lute of fire) was out before the year was over. The book was received with an enthusiasm never experienced in India before or since. After he joined the Kollol group and wrote mostly deft and pungent verse and songs galore.

Nazrul Islam wrote a good numbers of valuable poems, songs, novels, dramas. He had a good command on classic Indian song. He could sing, recite and act with considerable proficiency.

Nazrul was an emotional soul, but his emotion was unstable and volatile. Those who came in personal contact with him were moved by his irresistible enthusiasm and sincerity. But his literary output falls far short of his merit, except the early poems in Agnibina. After Agnibina his best known books of poems and songs are Dolonchampa(1923), Biser Bansi (The poisonous flute, 1924), Bhangar Gan (Songs of break-up, 1924), Puber Haoya (The east wind 1925) and Bulbul(1928).

The rebel poet Kazi Nazrul Islam was crowned in 1972 as the national poet of Bangladesh. He was living such a life with no care in a shabby, nasty and crowded cottage in Calcutta. West Bengal government did not even arrange a bed in any convalescent home for the poet who was suffering from irreversible brain-damage and living nearly a vegetative life.

Under the auspicious of Bangladesh government of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the poet was moved to Dhaka; capital of newly liberated Bangladesh situated 125 km west of Trishal a small township in Mymensingh district where Kazi Nazrul Islam spent several years during his boyhood. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman arranged round the clock nursing, physiotherapy since his arrival in Dhaka.

The poet died at Dhaka, capital of Bangladesh as National poet on the 29th August 1976. Nazrul Institute, an institution works for research and propagating the poet’s life, works and ideals, is situated in Dhaka with several branches in divisional towns. Bangla Academy has published collected works of the poet to celebrate the poet’s birth centenary in the year (1998).

Rabindranath Tagore, mystic, painter and Nobel laureate for literature is among the leading personalities of modern Bangladesh & India. He was born in Calcutta on May 7, 1861 and was the youngest of fourteen children. His father, Debendranath Tagore, was a Sanskrit scholar and a leading member of the Brahmo Samaj. Rabindranath's early education was imparted at home. In school, while others use to learn their lessons, he would slip into more exciting world of dreams. Inspired by his older nephew, he wrote his first poem when he was hardly seven. At the age of seventeen, his first book of poems was published.

Rabindranath Tagore

In 1878, he went to England for further studies but returned back in just seventeen months as he did not find the studies interesting. He was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature (1913) for his collection of well known poems Gitanjali. Tagore was knighted by the ruling British Government in 1915, but within a few years he resigned the honour as a protest against British policies in India.

Tagore had early success as a writer in his native Bengal. With his translations of some of his poems he became rapidly known in the West. In fact his fame attained a luminous height, taking him across continents on lecture tours and tours of friendship. For the world he became the voice of present Bangladesh & India's spiritual heritage; especially for Bengal, he became a great living institution.

Although Tagore wrote successfully in all literary genres, he was first of all a poet. Among his fifty and odd volumes of poetry are Manasi (1890) [The Ideal One], Sonar Tari (1894) [The Golden Boat], Gitanjali (1910) [Song Offerings], Gitimalya (1914) [Wreath of Songs], and Balaka (1916) [The Flight of Cranes]. The English renderings of his poetry, which include The Gardener (1913), Fruit-Gathering (1916), and The Fugitive (1921), do not generally correspond to particular volumes in the original Bengali; and in spite of its title, Gitanjali: Song Offerings (1912), the most acclaimed of them, contains poems from other works besides its namesake. Tagore's major plays are Raja (1910) [The King of the Dark Chamber], Dakghar (1912) [The Post Office], Achalayatan (1912) [The Immovable], Muktadhara (1922) [The Waterfall], and Raktakaravi (1926) [Red Oleanders]. He is the author of several volumes of short stories and a number of novels, among them Gora (1910), Ghare-Baire (1916) [The Home and the World], and Yogayog (1929) [Crosscurrents]. Besides these, he wrote musical dramas, dance dramas, essays of all types, travel diaries, and two autobiographies, one in his middle years and the other shortly before his death in Calcutta on 7th August, 1941. Tagore also left numerous drawings and paintings, and songs for which he wrote the music himself.