Novelist Shawkat Osman inspired language movement in Ctg

Progressive cultural activists in Chattogram played a leading role in creating public awareness on making Bangla a state language of Pakistan after 1947. They tried to build a progressive trend in Pakistan since its inception after the 1947 Partition of Bengal. Their vision was to build a society without communalism and economic inequality.

Mahbub-ul-Alam Chowdhury, poet and activist, became interested in publishing a magazine called "Simanta" to create a positive society along with Sucharit Chowdhury. Shawkat Osman, who came to East Pakistan from West Bengal after partition, inspired them to publish the magazine. At that time, he was a teacher of Chattogram Government Commerce College.

Simanta was a magazine influenced by the ideology of the Communist Party. The magazine played an active role in creating a non-communal and democratic cultural atmosphere in Chattogram in the early days of Pakistan. A cultural organisation called Sanskritik Boithok was formed centring the magazine. Simanta played an important role in the language movement. At the early stage, it published an article titled Rashtrabhasha (State Language). Shawkat Osman played a vital role behind all these.

On 16-19 March 1951, two organisations Sanskritik Boithok and Prantik Nabanatya Sangha arranged the first cultural conference in the country in Harikhola Math. Eminent writer Abul Fazal was the president of the reception committee of the event. The president of the conference was Abdul Karim Sahitya Bisharad. The petition for the conference was jointly signed by Saidul Hasan and Shawkat Osman.

Shawkat Osman was born on 2 January 1917 in Sabal Singhapur village in the Hooghly district of West Bengal.

He started his studies at Alia Madrasa in Kolkata. Later, he completed his bachelor's degree in economics at St Xavier's College and Kolkata University. He obtained his MA degree in Bengali from the same university.

After passing IA, he worked for the Information Department of Kolkata Corporation and the Government of Bengal. After passing MA, he was appointed as a lecturer in Government Commercial College, Kolkata, in 1941.

He joined Chattogram College of Commerce (now Government Commerce College) in 1947. He joined Dhaka College in 1958 and retired from there in 1972.

Early in his career, he also worked as a journalist in a magazine called 'Krishak' for some time. Writer and poet Humayun Azad used to call Shawkat Osman a 'progressive modern man'. After the partition of the country in 1947, he moved to East Bengal.

Shawkat Osman is remembered as one of the major writers and novelists in Bangla literature. His real name is Sheikh Azizur Rahman.

He also wrote plays, short stories, essays, political writings and children's literature. He was best known as a free-thinking intellectual.

Kritodaser Hashi or The Laughter of the Slave is his most famous novel. For his outstanding contribution to Bengali literature and culture, he was awarded the Bangla Academy Award in 1962, Adamjee Sahitya Award in 1966, President's Award of the Government of Pakistan in 1967, Ekushey Padak in 1983 and Independence Award in 1997. He passed away on 14 May 1998.

A TBS-Nagad initiative.