Allen Ginsberg
'September on Jessore Road' is a patriotic long poem for unspeakable sufferings confronted by Bangladesh's refugees who took shelter in various camps in West Bengal, India during Bangladesh's liberation war with the roughshod Pakistan's army to establish Bangladesh in 1971 and it is a poem with a-152 line by American humanist poet and writer Allen Ginsberg.
Ginsberg came all the way from America to witness the Bangladesh liberation war of 1971. He saw with pity and awe the inhuman sufferings of the people who were without food and shelter for months together, braving sun and shower. The-then East Pakistan's people were forced to move out of their homes by Pakistan's brutal army and our shelter-less people used the Jessore Road to flee to India as one the routes.Seeing the conditions prevailing there, Ginsberg composed his epoch-making poem 'September on Jessore Road' based on the awful conditions of the then war victims.
Allen Ginsberg is one of the twentieth century's most talented poets, regarded as a founding father of the Beat Movement. He was born into a Jewish family in Newark, New Jersey, United States of America and grew up in nearby Paterson. In 1943, he graduated from Eastside High School. Afterward, he was admitted to Columbia University after studying at Montclair College for some time.
Ginsberg spent most of his time in India, in Kolkata, in 1962-1963 and he became close to West Bengal poets. With the help of the Hagari movement Poet Shakti Chattopadhyay and Moloy Roy Choudhury, he went back to the United States and made arrangements to publish the works of the Hagri movement poets published in the famous magazines. Allen's famous poem 'Howell' and 'Kaddish' have been translated into Bengali by Maloy Roy Chaudhury.
'September on Jessore Road' was later sung. Allen Ginsberg came to Kolkata, India at the end of Bangladesh's liberation war in 1971. His friendship with several Kolkata-based writers was one among which Sunil Gangopadhyay He got up at Sunil's house.
Many refugees from Bangladesh took shelter in West Bengal and other border cities. During the British Raj East, Bengal and West Bengal were working as the road connecting "Jessore Road." Jessore road was drowned in the water due to heavy rains. Without being on the road, Ginsberg finally reached Bongaon by boat and reached the Jessore border of Bangladesh. Sunil was also with him. They witnessed the suffering of refugees living in the camps of Jessore and its surrounding camps.
Ginsberg wrote this poem from this experience. He composed the song with the lyrics of this long poem of 152 lines. Returning to America, a concert was organized with the help of his friend Bob Dylan and other famous singers to support Bangladesh's just cause. In this way, Ginsberg collected money for Bangladesh's refugees in 1971.
Ginsberg was always anti-war. In 1971, when the United States government supported Pakistan and stood against Bangladesh's Liberation War to establish Bangladesh. Allen Ginsberg was vocal about Bangladesh's just cause. With his literary friends in Kolkata, he was in the struggle to spread worldwide about the horrors of Pakistan's war on the people of Bangladesh.
In September of that year, Keith Richards of Rolling Stone gave some money to Ginsberg; the Independence struggle in Bangladesh had started, thousands of Bengali refugees have taken shelter in refugee camps of India, leaving Bangladesh to suffer from untimely sufferings. Ginsberg's work would be undertaken in the context of the real situation of the war, writing the report.
When Ginsburg was in Kolkata, Geeta Mehta came to report to the BBC. He came to the house of litterateur Sunil Gangopadhyay as a friend of some Kolkata-based artists and writers. Sunil Gangopadhyay, along with others, took Ginsberg to the refugee camps where Bangladesh's millions of people were suffering on many terra firms.Many refugees from Bangladesh took shelter in West Bengal and other border cities as during British rule, Jessore Road was working as a bridge connecting Bangladesh and West Bengal, India.
Jessore road was drowned in the water due to heavy rains. Without being on the road, Ginsberg finally reached Bongaon by boat and reached the Jessore border of Bangladesh. Sunil was also with him. They witnessed the suffering of refugees living in the camps of Jessore and its surrounding camps.
The refugee camp, adjacent to Jessore Road, and the euphoria of thousands of innocent people who traveled from across the country echoed "September on Jessore Road" Poetry. He returned to the United States, with the help of his friend Bob Dylan and others; he made this poem in song. They collected money for the help of Bangladeshi refugees by singing this song at the concert.The best poem in the book 'The Fruit of America' is undoubtedly 'September on Jessore Road.'
In 1971, John Lennon and Yoko Ono organized 'Free John Sinclair' procession. Lennon then asked Ginsburg to recite from his poem with Guitarist Gary Geek 'September on Jessore Road' with String Quartet (a musical ensemble of four string players- usually two violin players, a violist and a cellist) in the Beatles' Eleanor Rigby.
Through this poem, he expressed his solidarity with Bangladesh's war of liberation and returned to America to participate in 'Concert for Bangladesh' organized by Pandit Ravi Shankar and George Harrison at the Modern Square Garden in New York on 1 August 1971. Rekha Concert for Bangladesh was organized to help 71 Bangladesh refugees.
The concert includes George Harrison, Bob Dylan, Joan Bayez, and many other popular music artists of America. Pandit Ravi Shankar and another Indian legend singer Ali Akbar Khan also performed the music and collected about two and a half million dollars from this concert for Bangladesh's people.
It was bigger than this money that the concert was able to stir a whole world. We came to the forefront of the barbarity of the Pakistani aggressors and our glorious freedom fight. Since then, public opinion has been formed and the world is waiting for the birth of an independent state named Bangladesh.In addition to "Concert for Bangladesh" to collect money during the War of Liberation, Ginsberg also organized poetry recital lessons with Oreviya Yevgeni Yev Tussossoo.
In the poem of Ginsberg, the image of the devastating British war broke out in front of the eye. The best friend of Bangladesh, Ginsberg died in New York on April 5, 1997. Even though late, President Zillur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina expressed their gratitude towards all the foreigners who have made humanitarian and moral assistance, including those who had come to the Liberation War at the 'Liberation War Memorial Award' and 'Bangladesh Liberation War Maitree Award' at the Bangabandhu International Conference Center in Dhaka. At the time, the President and the Prime Minister handed over the Medal of Honour to 83 friends or their representatives.
The poem specifically provides a critical perspective on this unsung lot who are comparatively less spoken about. Ginsberg has gracefully, yet ingenuously, captured the perpetual despair and perplexities that millions of refugees had to face when they fled over by the Jessore Road as a passage to India during the War. A few lines of this long poem:
"Millions of Souls nineteen seventy-one
homeless on Jessore under grey sun
A million are dead, the millions who can
walk toward Calcutta from East Pakistan…
"Wet processions families walk… starving black angels in human disguise…"
Jessore Road had always remained a crucial link between India and the-then East Pakistan in terms of communication and exchange but in 1971, it gained new significance. Millions of dejected individuals and families, broken and injured, all cynically affected by the War, made their way to this path which linked Jessore with West Bengal's Kolkata, India.
As I gravely read on, I could imagine and relive the perilous and poignant journey. Looking ahead towards hundreds of kilometers to cross, perhaps on foot, with no money, no food, and no shelter. The only thing they held in hand was an ounce of hope for survival.
I couldn't help tearing up a little as I deliberated upon the next few lines of the poem -
"Whom shall we pray to for rice and for care?
Who can bring bread to this s - flood foul'd lair?"
Their perilous escape was the least of their worries as they waited there in the face of severe starvation and horrific living conditions. International aid and relief had reached the border. It makes you wonder how they felt then - a tiny glistening ray of hope was right there, so close, yet so far from them.
During the War, and even today, decades later, Jessore Road still remains an important topic of war and refugee migration. Around 10 million inhabitants of the then East Pakistan had escaped to India and even today, many still remain somewhere across the world, far away from the place they once called home.
Almost two generations have passed since then. But even today, some monumental pieces of work, such as this poem can invoke anguish in our hearts for the sufferers and shake us to the core. Today, we are fortunate to be able to speak in a language we call our own, to live in a country we call our own.
Yes, it is true that many have not experienced the brutality of the war first-hand. However, it is necessary for them to do their part by always honoring the heroes who fought the war and never forget those oft-ignored refugees of the War who had to leave their beloved motherland behind to simply stay alive.
Everyone should read this poem again and again, and reflect. And perhaps remember, too, that the Liberation War it so startlingly conjures up was, probably, the inevitable consequence of the previous years' suppression of the Bengali language, the refusal of a military dictator based far away to accept the result of one of the freest and fairest elections the post-partition sub-Continent had seen, and, finally, ignoring the devastation of the 1970 Cyclone in which 1.5 million are believed to have died.
In 1971, Jessore Road led from human rights abuses, authoritarianism and natural disaster; it led to Bangladesh, this free country, still struggling to come to terms with its past, with its environment, and realize its extraordinary potential, sharing its outstanding natural beauty, its visible history and extraordinary endeavors for self-development with a world that, perhaps, never noticed its devastating past, and remains so unaware of its human, social, cultural and economic potential.The humanist American poet will fondly be remembered by Bangladesh's people for whose just cause, he once stood by and gave a very loud voice.
The writer is an independent political observer who writes on politics, political and human-centered figures, current andinternational affairs.
Latest News