Soon after the death of Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar (1820-91), a pioneering figure of the Bengal Renaissance and the father of modern Bengali language, Rabindranath Tagore (1861-1941), Asia’s first Nobel Laureate, reverentially wrote about him: “One wonders how God, in the process of producing forty million Bengalis, produced a man!” (“Ishwar Chandra Vidyasagar”). Perhaps one should begin with a similar tribute to Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain (1880-1932) and say, with slight modifications of Tagore’s words, “One wonders how God, in the process of producing millions of Bengalis, produced a woman!” Indeed, Rokeya was a phenomenal figure of her time in many ways. As the Bengali writer and critic Mohitlal Majumdar (1888-1952) once said, she was the embodiment of the “soul and…
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Citation: Quayum, Mohammad A.. "Rokeya Sakhawat Hossain". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 05 September 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=13179, accessed 21 November 2024.]
