Gono Sangeet singer Kamruddin Absar passes away

Renowned singer of Gono Sangeet, the songs of the masses, lyricist and music teacher Kamruddin Absar has passed away (Inna Lillahi wa Inna Ilaihi Raji'un). He breathed his last at around 9:30 pm on Saturday while undergoing treatment at BISH Hospital in Dhaka.

His body was to be taken to the Central Shaheed Minar in the capital at 10:00 am on Monday for people to pay their respects. His namaz-e-janaza (funeral prayer) will be held later in the day, with the time and venue to be announced by the family.

According to family sources, Kamruddin Absar had been suffering from illness for a long time. He suffered a stroke in 2011 and had since been receiving treatment at home. His condition recently deteriorated, and he was admitted to hospital on 14 May after contracting pneumonia and influenza. He had been receiving treatment in the intensive care unit (ICU).

Kamruddin Absar is survived by his wife and one child. His wife is poet Ferdousi Begum. Their son, Adnan Mukit, is the executive editor of the popular children's monthly magazine Kishor Alo.

Kamruddin Absar was associated for many years with the progressive writers’ organisation Bangladesh Lekhak Shibir. He was also an active organiser of the Ganosanskriti Front, a political and cultural platform working for social change. He was involved with the Gono Sangeet group Srijan.

A movement emerged in 2006 to protect the Phulbari coal mine in Dinajpur. Kamruddin Absar played a leading role in that movement through the Ganosanskriti Front.

He composed the tune for the revolutionary song ‘Bolo Joy Jagrata Bir Jonogon, Hatao Samrajyobad…’, written by left-wing cultural activist and writer Mohsin Shastrapani. During the Phulbari movement, the song became one of the protesters’ principal sources of inspiration.

Kamruddin Absar maintained a close association with left-oriented cultural movements throughout his life. He worked to advance cultural struggles in support of the emancipation of farmers and workers.

Alongside performing, writing and composing Gono Sangeet, he also set countless children’s rhymes to music. He regularly sang the songs of Hemanga Biswas and was involved in progressive book publishing. He owned a publishing house named Dipro.

People from the country’s cultural and political spheres have expressed their condolences following his death. Economist and academic Anu Muhammad paid tribute to him on Facebook, recalling that he had known Kamruddin Absar since the late 1970s and had worked alongside him in various organisations throughout the 1980s and 1990s.

“He stood throughout his life with the struggles for human liberation, armed with music. Countless people found inspiration in his songs, and he lent strength to numerous movements. He was a music teacher to countless adolescents and young people, and a mentor to many of today’s artists. Much love and profound respect for Kamruddin Absar,” Anu Muhammad wrote.