Hasina gets honorary D Lit degree from India’s Kazi Nazrul University

Hasina gets honorary D Lit degree from
India’s Kazi Nazrul University
R

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has accepted a
doctorate in literature from West Bengal’s
Kazi Nazrul University during a special
convocation on Saturday.
She was awarded with the honorary D Lit
degree at the event in Asansol on Saturday.
The degree was awarded to Hasina for her
role in creating a democratic society free of
exploitation and discrimination, for
empowering women, alleviating poverty and
promoting socio-economic development, said
Vice Chancellor Sadhan Chakraborty.
The event was part of West Bengal’s
celebration of poet Kazi Nazrul Islam’s 119th
birthday on Saturday. Bangladesh celebrated
the birth of its national poet on Friday.
“It’s significant for me because I have been
able to visit the great poet’s place of birth on
his birthday and have received an honorary
‘Doctor of Literature’ degree from the
university named after him,” she said.
“I believe this honour is not for me alone, but
for all the people of Bangladesh.”
She dedicated the degree to ‘all Bangalees’.
Kazi Nazrul University’s special convocation
was attended by Bangladesh Education
Minister Nurul Islam Nahid, Bangladesh
Foreign Minister AH Mahmood Ali, Bangladesh
Cultural Affairs Minister Asaduzzaman Noor
and Hasina’s advisers HT Imam, Gowher Rizvi
and Tawfiq-e-Elahi Chowdhury.
Hasina compared the arrival of rebel poet
Nazrul on the literary scene to that of a comet
blazing through the sky of Bangla literature.
He has left behind a golden legacy, she said.
“He was more than a poet. He was an
essayist, a songwriter, a singer, a lyricist, a
musician, a playwright, a journalist, an editor
and a soldier. He was a man of prodigious
talents.”
She also highlighted his contributions to the
literature of both Muslim and Hindu
Bangalees.
“Bengal may be divided,” she said. “But
Nazrul and Rabindranath cannot be. They both
belong to both Bengals.”
The prime minister is on a two-day trip to
India during which she also attended the
convocation at Visva-Bharati University and
inaugurated the university’s Bangladesh
Bhavana.
Funded by the Bangladesh government, the
building has a 450-seat theatre, the largest at
the university.
The building also houses a library of books on
Bangladesh and its relations with India as well
as a collection of historical and cultural
artifacts of Bangladesh.
The two sides of the building’s entrance have
murals of Bangabandhu and Rabindranath.
The inauguration event was also attended by
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
The two prime ministers met for bilateral
meetings following the building’s inauguration.
From the Visva-Bharati, Hasina travelled to
Kolkata, where she visited Rabindranath’s
birthplace, the Thakur Bari, at Jorasanko and
met business leaders of Kolkata at the Taj
Bengal hotel where she is staying during the
two-day trip.
In 1972, Kazi Nazrul Islam was granted
Bangladeshi citizenship and declared the
national poet of Bangladesh. The poet was laid
to rest on the Dhaka University campus after
his death in 1976.
Though he was born in Charulia, Nazrul
travelled all across Bengal, spent a portion of
his childhood in Mymensingh and lived in
Cumilla, Chattogram, Sirajganj and Faridpur.
Following the convocation, the prime minister
returned to Kolkata. She is to visit the Netaji
Subhash Chandra Bose Museum and meet
with local MPs at a courtesy meeting before
returning to Dhaka on Saturday night.
by:bdnews24