Birth: 27 November 1925
Death :14 December 1971
Education:MA (linguistics)
Alma mater Aligarh Muslim University
Dhaka University
Harvard University
Notable awards:Bangla Academy Award (1962)
Spouse:Lily Choudhury
Children: Ahmed Munier,Ashfaq Munier,Asif Munier
Relatives: Ferdousi Mazumder (sister),Kabir Chowdhury (brother)
Important works:
Kabar (The grave), 1952 – a one act play about the Language Movement
Raktakta Prantar (The bloody meadow), 1959 – play about the Third Battle of Panipat
Mir-Manas, 1965 – literary critique of Mir Mosharraf Hossain's literature
Munier Optima, 1965 – a Bengali keyboard layout design
Ektala-Dotala (First ever Bengali drama telecast on TV), 1965
Dandakaranya, 1966
Chithi (The letter), 1966
Palashi Barrack O Anyanya, 1969
Tulanamulak Samalochana (Comparative critique), 1969
Bangla Gadyariti (Bengali literary style), 1970
Awards:
Bangla Academy Prize, 1962
Daud Prize, 1965
Sitara-e-Imtiaz, 1966, awarded by Govt. of Pakistan
Muneir chowdhury was passionately devoted to Bangla language and culture, and courted imprisonment in 1952 for his participation in the Bangla language movement, where he had, along with some others, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman as his prisonmate. While in jail he assiduously studied Bangla language and literature, appeared at the MA examination in Bangla from inside the jail and came out first in the first class.[3] In 1958, he obtained another Masters in Linguistics from Harvard University.
He wrote his famous symbolic drama, Kabar (The Grave) in Bengali during his imprisonment. 'Kabar' is a translation of Irwin Shaw's 'Bury the Dead' written in English. He also fought against any type of cultural repression during the late 1950s and 1960s. In 1967, he protested the Pakistan government's ban on Tagore songs on radio and television. In the late 1960s there was a movement in Pakistan to replace the Bengali language alphabet with the Arabic alphabet. As a linguist and writer, Munier Choudhury protested this move to undermine the native language of East Pakistan. He actively participated in the non-co-operation movement during the early part of 1971 and renounced his award Sitara-e-Imtiaz (awarded by Pakistan Govt in 1966).
After the Pakistani army crackdown in 1971 in the Dhaka University area from which Munier Chowdhury luckily escaped like many, he moved to his parents' house, near Hatirpool. He became a totally dejected and broken man. Many of his student-like well-wishers requested him to come to the liberated areas. But unfortunately Munier Choudhury couldn't mentally adjust to the idea of fleeing from his beloved motherland. He preferred to stay back and surrendered to his 'fate'
On 14 December 1971 Munier Choudhury, along with a large number of Bengali intellectuals, educators, doctors and engineers, were kidnapped from their houses and later tortured and executed by the Pakistan Army and its Bengali collaborators Al-Badr, Al-Shams, only 2 days before the end of the Bangladesh War. His dead body could not be identified.
Munier's body was never found.
“It is highly recommended that no one plagiarizes any content of Sahos24.com without permission from the authority for any sort of business purposes. For non-profit purposes, proper citation or reference should be provided. If any content of ours seems to be copied illegally or seems to be plagiarized, please send your abuse report to [email protected] . We shall take proper step with sincere consideration of your report.” — Editor, Sahos24.com
N. B. – All the comments of the comment section are no how connected to the editorial policy of Sahos24.com. The liability and responsibility regarding the comment are none but of the respective commenter.