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 …
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