A week ago, a video of a woman highlighting the silence of Bangladeshi Muslims over the atrocities committed against Hindus in the Islamic Republic went viral on X (formerly Twitter).
A user named ‘SK Chakraborty(@sanjoychakra)’ posted the video on the micro-blogging platform on 3rd December, which had since garnered 1.79 lakh views. The video was shared over 1800 times and was liked by 3500 users.
‘Sk Chakraborty’ informed that he did not know about the identity of the woman, who had conveyed the pain of the Hindu community and the hypocrisy of militant Muslims in the form of a melodious poem.
This gutsy H woman in her melodius voice sings about Hindu oppression bringing out the pain of Hindus and hypocricy of M. Militant M.. are inciting communal riots across Facebook. She shouldn’t face the fate of Kanhaiyalal.
— SK Chakraborty (@sanjoychakra) December 3, 2023
Rough translation-
“Free loader, son of M.
Your tears… pic.twitter.com/Rwdr2iF8eX
Tracing the singer and the poet
With the help of our sources, OpIndia was able to ascertain the identity of the woman as Indian Bengali singer Mousumi Hossain. She is a native of Barasat, located in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. At the time of writing, Mousumi had 7.1K followers on Facebook.
After closely listening to the lyrics in the video, OpIndia was able to find a transcript of the poem that was uploaded on the website ‘Kobita Cocktail in 2019. The name of the poet was mentioned as Akhtaruzzaman Azad.
We found that Azad is a Dhaka-based author and has more than 1.12 lakh followers on Facebook. It became clear that he indeed wrote the poem in the context of Bangladesh, although Indian singer Mousumi Hossain featured in the viral video.
On further digging into the matter, OpIndia was able to trace the video on the timeline of Akhtaruzzaman Azad. The video was posted on 29th June last year.
In the caption, the poet informed that the name of the poem is ‘Awoj Abar Tolo’ which loosely translates to ‘Raise Your Voice now.’
The lyrics and underlying meaning of the poem
The poem deals with the subject of religious extremism and selective outrage by various religious denominations (Muslims, Hindus, Christians, and Buddhists). Each stanza, barring the last and penultimate, is dedicated to the antics of followers of each Faith.
The poet Akhtaruzzaman Azad calls upon society to shed religious differences, stop the bloodshed and see the goodness in one another. The poem has been recited like a song by singer Mousumi Hossain.
It must be mentioned that only the first stanza of the poem (and not the entirety of it), concerning the hypocrisy of Muslims living in Bangladesh, has been going viral on social media.
In that particular stanza, the poet highlights how believers in Allah (Mumin) are willing to cry their hearts out on learning about murders in Palestine or the plight of Rohingyas in Myanmar.
He emphasises how Muslims are ever-ready to wail about ‘saving Gaza’ but have no tears to shed for Hindus dying in Bangladesh. The poem brings out the distinction in this selective ‘concern for humanity.’ –
In the first stanza, the poet highlights how the Muslim community screams over the death of someone named ‘Malik or Khalik ‘ but does not even whisper for a deceased named ‘Naresh or Paresh’.
While concluding the first stanza, Akhtaruzzaman Azad questions how the Muslim community in Bangladesh can live with such glaring double-standards. He talks about the behavioural patterns of followers of other Faiths such as Hinduism, Christianity and Buddhism in the second, third and fourth stanzas.
In the end, he the poet makes an appeal for peace among different factions of the society.
The virality factor
Amid the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, the 1-year-old video is going viral on social media.
Given that the poem by Akhtaruzzaman Azad questions the selective silence of the Muslim community in Bangladesh (in the first stanza), which perfectly fits a pattern in the Islamic world, it is gaining traction among netizens.
বাংলাদেশে বিবেক এখনো বেঁচে আছে। আমার প্রণাম নিন।
— Tathagata Roy (@tathagata2) November 1, 2023
আখতারুজ্জামান আজাদের কবিতা–
"এই যে তুমি মস্ত মুমিন, মুসলমানের ছেলে;
বক্ষ ভাসাও, ফিলিস্তিনে খুনের খবর পেলে।
রোহিঙ্গাদের দুঃখে তুমি এমন কাঁদা কাঁদো;
ভাসাও পুরো আকাশ-পাতাল, ভাসাও তুমি চাঁদও!
অশ্রু তোমার তৈরি থাকে— স্বচ্ছ এবং তাজা;
Ex-Governor of Meghalaya, Tathagatha Roy, shared the poem on X (formerly Twitter) on 1st November, 2023.
The video is equally popular on Facebook amid the ongoing conflict in Gaza.
