Badruddin Umar

Umar was born on 20 December 1931 to a Bengali family of Muslim zamindars in the village of Kashiara in Burdwan district, Bengal Presidency. Although his father Abul Hashim and grandfather Abul Kasem opposed the Pakistan Movement, Hashim decided to move to East Pakistan and settled in Dhaka in 1950.{{cite news |last=Mitra |first=Ashok |date=22 June 2009 |title=Abul Hashem Had a Point |url=http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090622/jsp/opinion/story_11137241.jsp |archive-url=https://archive.today/20150224225626/http://www.telegraphindia.com/1090622/jsp/opinion/story_11137241.jsp |url-status=dead |archive-date=24 February 2015 |work=The Telegraph |location=Calcutta |type=Opinion}} Umar received his MA in philosophy from University of Dhaka and his BA Honors degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from University of Oxford.{{Cite web |url=http://www.shrabonprokashani.com/events.php |title=Shrabon Prokashani, author |access-date=19 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100122121229/http://www.shrabonprokashani.com/events.php |archive-date=22 January 2010 |url-status=dead}} Umar began his academic career as a teacher at University of Dhaka on a temporary basis. In 1963, he joined Rajshahi University as the founder-chair of the political science department. He also founded the department of sociology at the same university, but he resigned from his university positions during the hostile times of the then East Pakistan governor Abdul Monem Khan to become increasingly more active and engaged as a full-time leftist political activist and public intellectual to fight for the cause of oppressed peasants and workers in Bangladesh.{{Cite web |url=http://www.newagebd.com/2006/dec/20/oped.html |title=Tribute to Badruddin Umar on his seventy-fifth birthday |work=New Age |access-date=19 October 2009 |archive-url=https://archive.today/20070730212853/http://www.newagebd.com/2006/dec/20/oped.html |archive-date=30 July 2007 |url-status=dead}}

As a follower of Marxist–Leninist principles, Umar began writing anti-colonial articles from the 1970s. In the 1960s he wrote three groundbreaking books—Sampradayikata (Communalism, 1966),{{Cite web |url=http://www.mukto-mona.com/Articles/taj_hashmi/communalism_bengal250506.htm |title=Communalism in Undivided Bengal: shrouding Class Conflict with Religion |access-date=26 October 2009 |archive-date=16 October 2016 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161016074517/https://mukto-mona.com/Articles/taj_hashmi/communalism_bengal250506.htm |url-status=dead}} Sanskritir Sankat (The Crisis of Culture, 1967), and Sanskritik Sampradayikata (Cultural Communalism, 1969)—that theorise the dialectics of the political culture of 'communalism' and the question of Bengali nationalism,[http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Politics/ComparativePolitics/SouthAsia/?view=usa&ci=9780195979084 The Emergence of Bangladesh] thus making significant intellectual contributions to the growth of Bengali nationalism itself.

In 1969, Umar joined the East Pakistan Communist Party, and from February 1970 to March 1971, Umar edited the mouthpiece of the East Pakistan Communist Party—Shaptahik Ganashakti—which published essays and articles about the problems and prospects of the communist movement in Pakistan.

He was president of both Bangladesh Krishak Federation (Bangladesh Peasant Federation) and Bangladesh Lekhak Shibir{{cite book |last=Morshed |first=Abul Kalam Manjoor |year=2012 |chapter=Bangladesh Lekhak Shibir |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Bangladesh_Lekhak_Shibir |editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |editor2-last=Jamal |editor2-first=Ahmed A. |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=Second |publisher=Asiatic Society of Bangladesh}}—the country's oldest organisation of progressive writers, intellectuals, and cultural activists. Currently he is President of the Jatiya Mukti Council[http://www.newagebd.com/2008/jan/12/nat.html Jatiya Mukti Council calls for lifting of emergency]{{Dead link|date=June 2019 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} (National Liberation Council).

Umar has written nearly a hundred books and countless articles. The majority of his books discuss the problems and possibilities of the democratic and socialist transformation of class society. He lucidly and thoroughly exposes the lumpenbourgeoisie's political culture in Bangladesh.

In his books he discusses a wide range of issues including the political economy and culture of capitalism, world socialist movements, communist movements in Bangladesh, the phenomena of militarism and military dictatorships in the Third World, criminalisation of politics, business, and so on. His book titled Poverty Trade engages with the ideas of Dr. Muhammad Yunus and provides a critique of his concept and practice of micro-credit.{{Cite web |url=http://www.shrabonprokashani.com/events.php |title=Shrabon Prokashani |access-date=19 October 2009 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100122121229/http://www.shrabonprokashani.com/events.php |archive-date=22 January 2010 |url-status=dead}}[http://microcredit-book.blogspot.com/ Micro-Credit : myth manufactured] Umar also researched on Bengali Language Movement and published a book on this topic.

• Umar, Badruddin Amar Jibon: 1931–1950 (Hardcover, Shahittika, {{ISBN|984-8391-35-5}})
• Umar, Badruddin Banaladese Ganatantrika Swairatantra (Maola Brother's, {{ISBN|984-410-028-3}})
• Umar, Badruddin Bangladeshi Songshadio Ganatantra (Shahityika, {{ISBN|984-8391-11-8}})
• Umar, Badruddin Bangladesher artha-Rajnaitik Paristhiti (Jatiya Grantha Prakasana, {{ISBN|984-560-007-7}})
• Umar, Badruddin Ditiy Awami League Sarkarer amole Bangladesh (Jatiya Anubhaba Prakasana, {{ISBN|978-984-8237-13-7}})
• Umar, Badruddin Ganaadalata, Asamapta Mukhti Samgramera Jera (Mira Prakasana, {{ISBN|984-775-088-2}})
• Umar, Badruddin Nirbacita Rajnaitik Prabandha (Subarna, {{ISBN|984-459-014-0}})
• Umar, Badruddin Sakhinara Candrakala (Ekuse Bamla Prakasana, {{ISBN|984-8670-97-1}})
• Umar, Badruddin Siksha O siksha andolana (Srabana, {{ISBN|984-8130-12-8}})
• Umar, Badruddin The Emergence of Bangladesh: Class and Political Struggles in East Pakistan, 1947–1958 (Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|0-19-579571-7}})
• Umar, Badruddin The Emergence of Bangladesh Vol. 2: The Rise of Bengali Nationalism, 1958–1971 (Oxford University Press, {{ISBN|0-19-597908-7}})
• Umar, Badruddin Indian National Movement: R. R. M. Roy Memorial Lecture, 1984 (University Press, Limited, {{ISBN|984-05-1208-0}})
• Umar, Badruddin Language Movement in East Bengal (Jatiya Grontha Prokashan, {{ISBN|984-560-094-8}})
• Umar, Badruddin "samskritir sankata" 1st published in 1967 by Srabon Prokashoni,({{ISBN|984-813-047-0}})

Badruddin Umar claimed in an interview that he has left Islam.{{Cite web |date=Nov 19, 2021 |title=বেলা অবেলা সারাবেলা / বদরুদ্দীন উমর এবং আসাদুজ্জামান নূর। DeshTv (29:40 minutes) |url=https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VIP581yz--4&t=1740 |access-date=7 April 2024 |website=YouTube}} In that interview he said,

The misery of humans can't be explained if there is an all knowing, all seeing, all powerful Allah... Once a mother went to the hospital leaving her child outside. Coming out of the hospital she saw that her child is dead. What kind of test from Allah it was that He needed to kill that child? What was His intention? He testes the poor only... He gives the rich everything He wants in this life and all He wants to give to the poor is left due for afterlife...

{{reflist}}

• [http://www.oup.com/us/catalog/general/subject/Politics/ComparativePolitics/SouthAsia/?view=usa&ci=9780195979084 The Emergence of Bangladesh]
• [http://www.allthelook.com/articles/article-6.html A People’s History of The Language Movement]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110610081316/http://www.weeklyholiday.net/2009/120609/mis.html New platform to fight against fascism]
• [http://b-umar.blogspot.com/ সংবাদপত্রে প্রকাশিত বদরুদ্দীন উমরের কয়েকটি লেখা]
• [https://www.thedailystar.net/opinion/news/badruddin-umar-our-leading-marxist-revolutionary-2013673 Azfar Hussain's essay on Badruddin Umar] in The Daily Star
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SGiAiLNPTFw Azfar Hussain pays tribute] to Badruddin Umar on his 89th birthday

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Bangladesi

Category:Bangladeshi essayists

Category:Bangladeshi political writers

Category:Bangladeshi politicians

Category:Marxist theorists

Category:Living people

Category:1931 births

Category:20th-century Bangladeshi philosophers

Category:Bangladeshi people of Indian descent

Category:People from Purba Bardhaman district

Category:Writers from West Bengal

Category:Recipients of the Independence Award