Rabindranath and Nazrul ( contd from 7.13.12)

II Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976)      Rabindranath (1861 -1941) Nazrul started a bi-weekly magazine, publishing the first "Dhumketu" "ধূমকেতু" (Comet) on August 12, 1922. Earning the moniker of the "rebel poet”, Nazrul also aroused the suspicion of British authorities. A political poem published in "Dhumketu" in September 1922 led to a police raid on the magazine's office and arrested Nazrul . On April 14, 1923 he was transferred from the jail in Alipore to Hooghly in Kolkata, he began a 40-day fast to protest mistreatment by the British jail superintendent. 
Rabindranath dedicated his song drama "Basanta" on this occasion and send a copy of the book to Nazrul in the jail with the help of his dear friend Pabitra Gangopadhyay On seeing this the sentry of the jail became astonished and uttered himself, " Tagore has dedicated a book to this prisoner." On this day (14 April 1923,
 1 Baishakh, 1330) Nazrul was shifted from Alipore to Hooghly jail and  was dressed as an ordinary prisoner in Naihati station. He began hunger strike in protest against the ill-treatment of the jail authorities for an indefinite period. The Government tried to suppress the news but after two weeks Ananda Bazar Patrika published the news on 28th April. In the name of shifting Nazrul from Alipore Centrall Jail to Berhampore Jail he was  shifted to an ordinary jail at Hooghly. Rabindranath was at Shillong at that time. Dr. Biswanath Roy wrote, " The litterateur friends of Nazrul became anxious at the report  of the deteriorating condition of his health and approached to Rabindranath for taking initiative. Pabitra Gangopadhyay wrote ; " it was decided to write to Rabindranath to Shillong to request him to give up hunger strike. But the letter of the poet make them feel helpless because he wrote [the letter was not available] that if an ideal person is asked to give up his ideals, it is tantamount to ask him to suicide.If he dies due to hunger strike, his truth and ideal will leave for ever." The same attitude was expressed when he wrote to Sarat Chandra after the confiscation of his book "Pather Dabi". 
But he wrote to Rathindranath in a letter which expressed separately.  he wrote;
" I sent a telegram to Nazrul at the address of Alipore Central Jail asking him " give up hunger strike, our literature claims you" - but the jail sent me a mail that "the addressee not found which meant that they did not want to give him my message - because the address of Nazrul should be known to them. in other words they did  not want to stand in the way of his committing suicide. Nazrul broke his hunger strike after 40 days on 23rd May,1923 in the morning.