Gaffar Chowdhury then went on to write “Ekusher Gaan”, the poem that was turned
into a song with the immortal essence of the historic moment. The journalist
and columnist died at a hospital in London on Thursday morning.
In an interview, Gaffar recalled the days when the Pakistani rulers were forced
to declare Bangla a state language after the bloody movement that sowed the
seeds of subsequent struggle for Bangladesh’s independence.
Protesters in the then East Pakistan called a general strike and demonstrations
on Feb 21, 1952, defying a government ban on gatherings. Rafiq, Abdul Jabbar, Abul
Barkat, Abdus Salam and many others embraced martyrdom in police firing during
the protests.
Gaffar said he saw the body of Rafiq, with the head damaged in the firing, at
the outpatient department of the hospital.
He said he felt the bloodied body was his brother’s, and the first line came to
his mind – “Amar Bhaier Rokte Rangano Ekushey February”, which can be roughly
translated to “The 21st of February, incarnadined with the blood of my
brother”.
“I don’t take credit for the lyric. I wrote it without knowing.”
The next day, funerals in absentia for Rafiq and the other martyrs were held, followed
by a mass procession of protesters. Gaffar was injured in police attack at that
time.
He then started completing the poem, which was published in a manifesto during
a secret meeting in Gendaria.
Abdul Latif was the first to compose a song from the poem. It was sung at the
inauguration of a newly elected student union of Dhaka College at Britannia
Hall in Gulistan in 1953.
Hasan Hafizur Rahman published the poem in “Ekushey Sangkalan”, a collection of
literary works on the Language Movement, but the Pakistani government seized
it.
Altaf Mahmud changed the tune of the song later and it was sung with that tune
for the first time during the early morning procession to the Shaheed Minar, a
monument for the martyrs.
Barefooted, people carry flowers in their hands and the immortal line -- “‘Amar
Bhaier Rokte Rangano Ekushey February, Ami Ki Bhulite Pari’ (Can I forget the
twenty-first of February/ incarnadined by the blood of my brother?) on their
lips while paying tribute to the martyrs every year. The UNESCO in 1999
declared Feb 21 International Mother Language Day.
The song is the third on a BBC list, based on readers’ votes, of the Greatest
Bangla Songs of All Time. The first six lines of the poem are sung on Feb 21.
The original poem has 30 lines.
Filmmaker Zahir Rayhan used the song in his “Jibon Theke Neya” in 1970. It has
been translated into 15 languages.