Rafiq Azad

Azad was widely regarded as one of the most prolific young poets in the post-Liberation War period. He had 45 books to his credit, including an autobiography.[4] His first book of poetry, Ashombhober Paye, was published in 1973. Since then, he had experimented with language and poetic form, where surrealistic approach was conspicuous.

He described himself as a 'lover of humans, nature and romance'.[3] He depicted love, romance, poverty, sufferings, injustice, urban and rural life through his poems. Many of his love poems, including ‘He Doroja’ and ‘Bhalobashar Shonga’(Definition of Love), have been used and quoted many times in movies, TV dramas and other media in Bangladesh.[5] He became widely famous when his controversial poem “Bhaat De Haramjada” was published in 1974. At the time the country was going through its worst famine. It was an angry poem about a starving man lashing out in impotent rage- “Bhat De Haramzada, Noile Manchitro Khabo” (“give me food, bastard! Or I will engulf your map, your geography!”).[6] The indication was -if the newly independent country cannot even feed its own people, then what good is the liberation? The poet quickly became the center of a controversy. The Sheikh Mujib administration found the poem to be incendiary and an attack on the ruling party, while his readership hailed it as a rebellious and courageous outburst. In an attempt to settle the debate, Azad explained to the administration, by writing a long analysis of how his poem only reflected the great literary tradition of Bengal and the poem intended no animosity toward the government.[6]

Throughout his professional life, spanning 50 years, Azad had many roles. He began his career as a lecturer in Kagmari College (now Govt. Maulna Mohammad Ali College) in Tangail in the late 1960s. The year 1971, changed the course of the poet's life, as he traded his pen with a wooden rifle. After March 25th crackdown by Pakistani Military, Azad joined Kader Siddique’s ‘Kaderia Bahini’, a civilian guerrilla force, to fight against the occupying army in the Liberation War. He soon received the necessary arms and equipment from the treasury, provided by then finance secretary Khondokar Asaduzzaman.

He joined Bangla Academy in 1972 and worked there until 1984, as the executive editor of Uttaradhikar, a monthly magazine.[3] He was also the editor of Robbaar, another popular weekly in 1980s. Azad was the director of National Book Center (Jatiyo Grontho Kendro) of Bangladesh for many years. He briefly served as the deputy general manager of BJMC (Bangladesh Jute Mills Corporation). Azad returned to Bangla Academy in 1995, for a brief period, to help assist the ‘Young Writers Project’, taking up the role of poetics instructor.[5] Later he went back to teaching and became a visiting professor of literature at Jahangirnagar University in Savar. In the recent years, he had been working in a daily called Amader Shomoy.