Digital library on Kazi Nazrul helps scholars to gain insight on poet's life
Kolkata: A digital archive on Kazi Nazrul titled Mahafezkhana is becoming popular among research scholars and students interested in the life and work of the rebel poet.
It was inaugurated by Firhad Hakim, state minister for Urban Development and Municipal Affairs December 20, 2017 at Nazrultirtha. Since inception over 2,000 people have visited the digital library.
It may be mentioned that after coming to power in 2011, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee stressed on setting up an archive and a university has been named after Nazul. It has come up at his native place in Churulia. The archive contains nearly 30,000 documents on Kazi Nazrul Islam, including 500 songs, sung by eminent singers during the 1930s.
Nazrul was a great singer and a teacher, who had coached singers like Angurbala and Suprabha Sarkar. He was associated with the All India Radio as a music teacher. He recited a poem which was aired after the death of Rabindranath Tagore in 1941.
Rare documents include the first prints of Nazrul's own books, magazines Nazrul edited, magazines on Nazrul, manuscripts, notations of Nazrul's songs along with original songs (poems), letters written by and to Nazrul, advertisements, booklets on Nazrul's records, photos of record labels, covers, script of dramas where Nazrul's songs/poems have been used, copies of Betar Jagat, Journal of All India Radio, the films by Nazrul and video graphed interviews of eminent Nazrul scholars.This archive is one of its kind in the country. Several Nazrul scholars and researchers including a few from the neighboring Bangladesh have visited so far and or have expressed their desire to visit the archive .
Nazrul went to Bangladesh and breathed his last there.
Nazrul's younger son Kazi Aniruddha was a well-known electric guitarist and one gets the notations of Nazrul songs which he used to play. Many of Nazrul's books like Agnibina, Bisher Banshi had been banned by the British government and one gets early copies of those books.
