Published: 12:00 AM, 13 May 2016
Sardar Fazlul Karim: Life shining lessons
Sardar Fazlul Karim, is a name having many adjectives to glorify itself. To many, he is a National Professor while some know, he was a communist till his last breath. Mostly, he is an academic, a philosopher, translator, political activist, and also a writer. In our first class at Dhaka University, we heard about him as our national pride from lecture of Prof. Dr. Nurul Amin. Later we discovered him through his enriched Bengali translated books Plator Republic (Republic by Plato), Plator Songlap (Plato's Dialogues), Aristotler Politics (Politics by Aristotle), Engelser Anti-Duhring (Anti-Duhring by Friedrich Engels), Rousseaur Social Contract (Social Contract by Jean-Jacques Rousseau) and so on.
As an apprentice of political science, so far as I have known about him I would like to describe him as a pro-life philosopher, even his life itself is a great philosophy. A famous quote of Sardar Fazlul Karim is, "Throughout my life, I have continuously gone through a single book. The name of that book is 'Jeeban' (meaning life)." - Which describes his depth of philosophical wisdom. In the class room, whenever some curious students asked him to suggest a book through which they can understand the thousand years old theories to be relevant to concurrent realities, he asked them to learn from the book 'Jeeban '(life). Again, if he was asked for the name of that book's author, and Sardar with a smiling face said: It is Jeeban Babu or Jeeban Dutt.
To him, victory of life is inevitable defying any kind of disappointment, death or decay in human life. There is no death of soul, only body can die. He treated young girl workers who confidently moved fast through the streets to their workplaces, garment factories in the morning as a symbol of life struggle, and a promo of social change in a larger scale. He used to dream of a 'knowledge-based society' as he strongly believed that knowledge makes one modest. He felt the necessity to learn from Lalon to Lenin. He said: we should gather all knowledge that mankind has accumulated generations after generations. He suggested to his fellows to assimilate knowledge from the common people.
Sardar Fazlul Karim did not consider himself as a part of the 'civil society' or 'public intellectual'. Rather he would like to stand beside relatively weak people. Whenever he was with underprivileged people, he showed uncompromising commitment to his ideology. He cherished an ardent zeal to do something for the nation. Whatever was his identity, he was seen uttering the highest order of devotion. He never isolated himself from the masses. He felt honored to introduce himself as a son of peasant.
Born in 1925 in Barisal, Sardar Fazlul Karim a high school student was influenced by the Saratchandra Chatterjee's novel Pather Dabi (Demand for a Pathway) to dream of a communist society through revolution for the first time. With outstanding academic background he came to the University of Dhaka and got admitted to the Department of English. Later his thirst for knowledge of life and philosophy pulled him to stroll from the Dept. of English to Dept. of Philosophy. Scoring the highest results in both his BA Honours and MA examinations in Philosophy from Dhaka University; he became a lecturer in 1946 at the age of 21. Later he was offered a scholarship for higher study in London but he willingly left scholarship and instead wished to be organizer of communist party.
In 1948, he resigned from his job as a lecturer of the University of Dhaka and started working with the communist party in today's Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan). He started life as an underground communist organizer when the communist party was facing brutal repression unleashed by the then Muslim League rulers of Pakistan. He was arrested from Dhaka in 1949. His voice however did not stop in prison. In prison, he took part in hunger strike along with other political prisoners at the Dhaka jail.
He had a very tragic life, as I have learned from his book Anoshone Attodan! He passed 58 days only having water with salt. Later the Pakistan government came to agreement with a number of demands made by the striking political prisoners. More interestingly, Sardar was elected to the Pakistan Constituent Assembly in 1954 while he was behind the bar. It was a magic of his connection with the masses! Just after the independence of Bangladesh, with the cooperation of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of the Nation and Prof. Abdur Razzak, he joined the University of Dhaka again in 1972 in the Dept. of Political Science.
Even in the last moments of his life he firmly believed: socialism has not failed even after the 1990s. In fact he was very clear about human beings struggle to establish communism. He believed that human's struggle to be human is the struggle for communism, what ultimately is known as the struggle of communists. We live within revolution and we are marching forward and in future we will see its complete application in our life. "Alor Potho Jatree ( A man towards light)" - Sardar Fazlul Karim, his life, his belief, his ideology, his area of activism, and his works will remain in the minds of people for generations. He will remain one of the most revered icons of Bangladesh.
The writer is a research analyst at MGR & Ex-student, the Dept. of Political Science, University of Dhaka
As an apprentice of political science, so far as I have known about him I would like to describe him as a pro-life philosopher, even his life itself is a great philosophy. A famous quote of Sardar Fazlul Karim is, "Throughout my life, I have continuously gone through a single book. The name of that book is 'Jeeban' (meaning life)." - Which describes his depth of philosophical wisdom. In the class room, whenever some curious students asked him to suggest a book through which they can understand the thousand years old theories to be relevant to concurrent realities, he asked them to learn from the book 'Jeeban '(life). Again, if he was asked for the name of that book's author, and Sardar with a smiling face said: It is Jeeban Babu or Jeeban Dutt.
To him, victory of life is inevitable defying any kind of disappointment, death or decay in human life. There is no death of soul, only body can die. He treated young girl workers who confidently moved fast through the streets to their workplaces, garment factories in the morning as a symbol of life struggle, and a promo of social change in a larger scale. He used to dream of a 'knowledge-based society' as he strongly believed that knowledge makes one modest. He felt the necessity to learn from Lalon to Lenin. He said: we should gather all knowledge that mankind has accumulated generations after generations. He suggested to his fellows to assimilate knowledge from the common people.
Sardar Fazlul Karim did not consider himself as a part of the 'civil society' or 'public intellectual'. Rather he would like to stand beside relatively weak people. Whenever he was with underprivileged people, he showed uncompromising commitment to his ideology. He cherished an ardent zeal to do something for the nation. Whatever was his identity, he was seen uttering the highest order of devotion. He never isolated himself from the masses. He felt honored to introduce himself as a son of peasant.
Born in 1925 in Barisal, Sardar Fazlul Karim a high school student was influenced by the Saratchandra Chatterjee's novel Pather Dabi (Demand for a Pathway) to dream of a communist society through revolution for the first time. With outstanding academic background he came to the University of Dhaka and got admitted to the Department of English. Later his thirst for knowledge of life and philosophy pulled him to stroll from the Dept. of English to Dept. of Philosophy. Scoring the highest results in both his BA Honours and MA examinations in Philosophy from Dhaka University; he became a lecturer in 1946 at the age of 21. Later he was offered a scholarship for higher study in London but he willingly left scholarship and instead wished to be organizer of communist party.
In 1948, he resigned from his job as a lecturer of the University of Dhaka and started working with the communist party in today's Bangladesh (erstwhile East Pakistan). He started life as an underground communist organizer when the communist party was facing brutal repression unleashed by the then Muslim League rulers of Pakistan. He was arrested from Dhaka in 1949. His voice however did not stop in prison. In prison, he took part in hunger strike along with other political prisoners at the Dhaka jail.
He had a very tragic life, as I have learned from his book Anoshone Attodan! He passed 58 days only having water with salt. Later the Pakistan government came to agreement with a number of demands made by the striking political prisoners. More interestingly, Sardar was elected to the Pakistan Constituent Assembly in 1954 while he was behind the bar. It was a magic of his connection with the masses! Just after the independence of Bangladesh, with the cooperation of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of the Nation and Prof. Abdur Razzak, he joined the University of Dhaka again in 1972 in the Dept. of Political Science.
Even in the last moments of his life he firmly believed: socialism has not failed even after the 1990s. In fact he was very clear about human beings struggle to establish communism. He believed that human's struggle to be human is the struggle for communism, what ultimately is known as the struggle of communists. We live within revolution and we are marching forward and in future we will see its complete application in our life. "Alor Potho Jatree ( A man towards light)" - Sardar Fazlul Karim, his life, his belief, his ideology, his area of activism, and his works will remain in the minds of people for generations. He will remain one of the most revered icons of Bangladesh.
The writer is a research analyst at MGR & Ex-student, the Dept. of Political Science, University of Dhaka
