Kalam, the teen orator of Rangunia march
The message was loud and clear that the collective priority was to make the language movement successful and at any cost
Abul Kalam was a brilliant orator at the young age of 19 – evidently the result of a deep influence from his father.
The tenacious teenager led the protest procession of some 80 people from Rangunia's Mariamnagar on 21 February 1952. Shouting the slogan "Rashtrobhasha Bangla Chai" on top of their lungs, when the determined bunch of youth reached Chowmuhani on Kaptai Road, followers of the then Pakistani oppressors attacked the procession.
Abul Kalam was critically injured at the confrontation and was rushed to the Chittagong Medical College Hospital.
Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel
The news of the attack spread quickly and hundreds of people from Maizpara gathered at Nur Jahan Girls School and staged a protest rally, continuing to press for the demand to make Bangla the state language.
Instead of staying by the side of injured Abul Kalam, his father Syed Abdul Haque chose to join the rally, where he denounced the coward attack and gave a passionate speech. The message was loud and clear – that the collective priority was to make the Language Movement successful and at any cost.
Abul Kalam joined left-leaning politics when he was in college. He played an active role all through the Language Movement. Because of his ability to deliver powerful speeches, he caught the attention of the top Language Movement leaders.
Kalam was in the first student protest which took place in 1950 after the then Education Minister Fazlur Rahman visited the Chittagong College. Earlier, Fazlur Rahman launched a project on introducing Bangla in Arabic script, which enraged the masses.
A student alliance called the Independent Student Organisation was formed. Later, the name was changed to Sarbadaliya Chhatra Sangram Parishad in the first half of February 1952. Abul Kalam's role in these activities was instrumental. He joined a number of local Language Movement committees, including the committees of Patia, Hathazari and Chittagong.
Due to his active role in the Language Movement, he joined the committees of Patia, Hathazari and Chittagong and accelerated the movement. He went on to form a Language Movement committee in his village Mariamnagar and successfully organised the movement there.
After the Language Movement, Abul Kalam also took part in the 6-point movement and the Liberation War.
Syed Abul Kalam was born in 1933 in the village of Mariamnagar in Rangunia. His father Maulana Syed Abdul Haque was a scholar. His childhood education started in Rangunia. He passed his SSC from Rangunia High School in 1950 and HSC from Chittagong Government College in 1952. He obtained his postgraduate degree from Kanungopara College, Boalkhali in 1954. Later he joined the Chittagong Metropolitan Detective Police. Abul Kalam retired voluntarily in 1975 due to a physical illness. He breathed his last on 19 June 1992.
A TBS-Nagad initiative.
