National Professor Anisuzzaman passes away

ZOOMBANGLA DESK: Eminent educationist and National Professor Dr Anisuzzaman breathed his last at Dhaka’s Combined Military Hospital (CMH) where he was being treated for old age complications. He was 83, BSS reports.

“He breathed his last at around 4:55 pm,” a CMH spokesman said adding the national professor was being treated at the facility since May 10.

President M Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina issued separate statements expressing their profound shock at his demise and praying for eternal peace of the departed soul.

They also conveyed deep sympathy to the bereaved family members as he left behind his wife, a son and two daughters alongside numerous admirers and students with the incumbent premier being one of the most prominent ones.

Family sources said Anisuzzaman was first admitted to private Universal Cardiac Hospital in the city on April 29 with various health complications and was later shifted to the intensive care unit of the facility on May 2 ahead of his transfer to the CMH.

The body has been kept at the CMH mortuary as family members were making burial plans in consultation with the state functionary.

A leading member of the country’s civil society, prolific writer and professor emeritus of the Bangla Department of premier Dhaka University, Anisuzzaman was a prominent 1952 Language Movement veteran and leading figure of the intelligentsia who backed the 1969 mass upsurge.

But he is more widely remembered for his role in the country’s 1971 Liberation War when he provided his crucial intellectual services to the government in exile, put in his efforts to draw global supports for the Bengalis cause, particularly mobilizing the global intelligentsia.

Anisuzzaman was a member of the Liberation War time government’s Planning Commission and member of the National Education Commission set up by the post-independence Bangabandhu government.

Widely regarded as a conscience of the nation being an erudite senior citizen, Anisuzzaman visibly lived an active life even during his last days while he served as Bangla Academy’s president and elected Fellow of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh.

He was honoured with the position of a national professor for his outstanding role during his protracted academic career.

Anisuzzaman was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Chicago (1964-65), a Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellow at the University of London (1974-75), and was associated with research projects of the United Nations University (1978-83).

Having taught Bengali literature at the Universities of Dhaka (1959-69, 1985-2003 and 2005-08) and Chittagong (1969-85), he was a Professor Emeritus at the University of Dhaka until his demise.

Anisuzzaman kept mark of his academic excellence in abroad as well while from 1978 to 1983 was associated with research projects of the United Nations University.

He was a visiting fellow at the University of Paris (1994), North Carolina State University (1995) and University of Calcutta (2010), and a visiting professor at the Visva-Bharati (2008-09 and 2011).

The books he authored included “Kaal Nirobodhi” (2003), “Factory correspondence and other Bengali Documents in the India office Library and Records” (1981), “Creativity, Identity and Reality” (1991), “Cultural Pluralism” (1993) and “Identity, Religion and Recent history” (1995), “Aamar Ekattor” (1997), “Muktijudho Ebong Tarpor” (1998), “Aamar Chokh” (1999), “Bangali Nari : Sahittye o Somaje” (2000).

The other books related to his academic studies as a professor of Bangla literature included “Muslim Manos O Bangla Sahitya” (1964), “Munir Chowdhury” (1975), “Swaruper Sandhane” (1976), “Atharo Sotoker Bangla Cithi” (1983), “Purono Bangla Gadya” (1984),

He was conferred with the Bangla Academy award in 1970 for conducting outstanding research while was awarded the Ekushe Padak, an award given by the State, for his contribution to education in 1983.

The Rabindra Bharati conferred on him an honorary D.Lit in 2005 and the University of Calcutta the Sarojini Basu Medal in 2008.