Golam Mostofa (poet)

Mostofa was born in 1897, in the village of Monoharpur in Shailkupa Upazila, Jessore district (now Jhenaidah), in present-day Bangladesh. He was the son of Golam Rabbani and grandson of Kazi Golam Sarwar, both folk poets.

He finished his primary education in Damukdia and passed the Entrance exam in 1913 from Shailkupa High School.[1] He passed BA from Ripon College in 1918 and BT from David Hare Training College in 1922.

Mostofa started teaching at Barakpore Government School in 1920. He retired as headmaster of Faridpur Zila School in 1949. He was the secretary of the East Bengal Government's Language Reform Committee, formed in 1949. He believed in the two-nation theory that formed the basis for the ideals of Pakistan and, during the Language Movement in 1952, supported Urdu as the only state language of Pakistan. Islamic heritage was one of his inspirations. His book Biswanabi (1942), a biography based on the life of the Islamic prophet Muhammad, provided him with wide recognition.[2]

Mostofa wrote his first poem, Adrianopol Uddhar, in tenth grade. After that, he wrote for forty-eight years.

Poetry

• Roktorag (1924)
• Hasnahena (1938)
• Khosroj (1929)
• Sahara
• Gulistan
• Bani Adam
• Kabbo Kahini
• Sahara
• Tarana-i-Pakistan
• Bulbulistan
• Prarthona

Biography

• Bishwanabi (1942)

Novels

• Ruper Nesha
• Vangabuk

Others

• Islam O Communism
• Maru Dulal
• Islam O Zihad
• Amar Chintadhara

Translations

• Musaddas-E-Hali
• Kalam-E-Iqbal
• Shiqwa O Jawab-E-Shiqwa
• Al Quran
• Joy Porajoy (Ekhwanus Safa)

• Sitara-i-Imtiaz
• President Medal

Mostafa had four sons and three daughters. One of the sons, Mostafa Monowar, became a puppeteer and former director general of the state-run Bangladesh Television.[3] He is the grandfather of Syed Mainul Hossain, an architect who designed Jatiyo Smriti Soudho at Savar. He is the great-grandfather of Bangladeshi software engineer and Academy Scientific and Technical Award winner Nafees Bin Zafar.[4]

Mostafa died on 13 October 1964 at the age of 67, of cerebral thrombosis.[1]

In 2014, the ancestral home of Mostafa in Jhenaidah was under threat from two land grabbers, who claimed partial ownership of the land.[3]

Many artifacts used by Mostofa and valuable photographs drawn by his second son Mostafa Aziz, sole artist of the first pencil sketch of the poet, were found to be in a pitiable condition at the village. Though Kabi Golam Mustafa Memorial Library received a concrete building at the yard of the poet's house in 2008 implemented by the Zila Parishad, Jhenidah, at a cost of Tk 1.70 million, there are, virtually, no reading materials were found to be there. Some parental property of the poet, including his paternal land and trees are secretly being sold, reliable sources.[1]

• Muslim Sahitya Prativa by Helal M. Abu Taher published by Islamic Foundation, Dhaka 1980.
• Dakhil Bangla Sahitya