The death of uncompromising writer, renowned Marxist thinker, and leftist leader Comrade Badruddin Umar (94) is an irreparable loss to the progressive and revolutionary movement of Bangladesh. Throughout his life, Comrade Umar fearlessly raised his bold voice against the ruling class, imperialism, and reactionary forces.

Background

Born in 1931 in Bardhaman, his father, Abul Hashim, was a major organiser of the anti-British movement in the region, a campaigner for a united Bengal, and a recognised leader of the progressive wing of the Muslim League. In 1950, Umar became actively involved in the Language Movement of 1952 and later became a pioneering researcher of that movement. After completing his studies at Dhaka University, he went on to Oxford, where he earned degrees in politics, philosophy, and economics. Upon his return, he began teaching at Dhaka University and later played a key role in establishing the Departments of Political Science and Sociology at Rajshahi University.

He stood at the forefront of Bangladesh’s education and research, and was widely regarded as the most accomplished theoretician of revolutionary politics in the country. In the 1960s, Umar’s writings on communalism symbolised the road for what he termed the “return of the Bengali Muslim to their homeland.” At a time when the Bengali Muslim middle class needed intellectual coherence and self-confidence to assert its role against Pakistan’s ruling class, his work had notable influence. From the late 1960s, he embarked on invaluable research on the Language Movement. Without any institutional support, he completed “The Language Movement and Contemporary Politics of East Bengal”, a three-volume work that most synthetically linked social, economic, and political contexts. Over the decades, he went on to publish more than a hundred books in both Bengali and English.

His revolutionary role as a theoretician was inseparable from his political practice. While writing on communalism in the 1960s, Umar faced the tyranny of the Ayub–Monem regime, forcing him to leave the university and devote himself fully to politics. He left academia to evade the state’s surveillance and to work independently. Thereafter, he explored society, state, and history, and devoted his life to formulating a revolutionary political path toward a new future.

Political Contribution and Life

Before independence, Umar was one of the leading figures of the East Pakistan Communist Party (Marxist–Leninist) — EPCP-ML, providing both theoretical and organizational leadership against imperialism, Pakistani military rule, and communal politics. He stood at the forefront of student and worker struggles, playing a crucial role in steering the 1969 mass uprising and broader democratic movements of the time.

His writings built a unique intellectual space in Bengali society. Works such as “Sampradayikata” (1966), “Sanskritir Sankat” (1967), and “Sanskritik Sampradayikata” (1969) analyzed and diagnosed the oppressive structures of Pakistani rule and the dangers of communal division. His extensive research on the Language Movement and East Bengal politics remains among the most comprehensive historical accounts. In “The Emergence of Bangladesh,” he explored the Liberation War with the perspective of class struggle. His monumental five-volume autobiography “Amar Jiban” fuses personal experience with the political and social history of Bangladesh.

During the Liberation War of 1971, Umar wholeheartedly supported independence, presenting its true meaning within the framework of socialist transformation. After independence, he became General Secretary of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (Marxist–Leninist) – CPBML – and led it firmly on Marxist–Leninist principles. He also played leading roles in the National Liberation Council.

In 1974, Umar inaugurated the monthly journal Sanskriti. After only a few issues, the journal was banned in December of that year during the state of emergency, when all newspapers and periodicals were shut down. It was restored in 1981, and Umar continued to edit and write for it until the end.

On September 7, 2025, he breathed his last at Bangladesh Specialized Hospital in Dhaka. His funeral prayer will be held on September 8 at the Dhaka University Central Mosque, followed by burial at Jurain graveyard. Even in his final years, despite illness, he remained active – writing, debating, and nurturing new generations.

Character and Work Orientation

Badruddin Umar’s life symbolised continuous practice and lifelong struggle. He fused the qualities of thinker, organizer, and revolutionary. His death is a mortal loss for the left movement in Bangladesh, but his writings, teachings, and legacy of struggle will forever illuminate the path of liberation and inspire future movements. From the struggles against imperialism to the battles for democracy, Umar was unwavering in his commitment to the people’s emancipation.

The boldness of his writing shook people.

Umar’s political analysis was uncompromising to the last, never caving in or subordinating to the interests of the ruling classes. Neither the Awami League nor the BNP escaped his critique, for he consistently exposed how both upheld capitalist exploitation and imperialist dominance. His writings and speeches became instruments for workers, peasants, and ordinary people.

Umar staged campaigns against opportunism, sycophancy, and the intellectual bankruptcy plaguing the world of thought and politics. His clear and forceful writings against exploitation, oppression, inequality, and imperialist domination consistently refuted the ideas of the ruling elites.

For him, intellectual labour and the politics of human liberation were inseparable. Honesty, relentless commitment, uncompromising integrity, and firmness characterized his life and work. Neither position nor comfort could ever drive him astray or derail him from his chosen path.

Umar’s trump card lay in never surrendering and his resolute resolve. For him, the people’s current struggle for freedom manifested the “unfinished liberation struggle of 1971.” Rejecting defeat, surrender, and the chains of bondage was, to him, the very prerequisite for advancing this struggle.

He exposed the great failure in building and expanding revolutionary movements and organisations in Bangladesh, with the 180 million people of this country bound to the dictates of the ruling classes.

Umar wrote: “During the Pakistani period I had always been opposed in principle to the system of conferring literary awards on writers and to their accepting such awards. I am still opposed to it because the practice of providing this type of material incentive to writers adversely affects their creativeness and undermines their freedom.” Over fifty years later, he echoed the same principle by refusing the Swadhinata Padak in 2025. In his statement published in The Daily Star on March 7, 2025, Umar reaffirmed: “Since 1973, I have been offered awards from various government and non-government organisations. However, I have never accepted any of them.”

In the examination of Bangladesh’s history and in the politics of human emancipation, Badruddin Umar will forever illuminate.

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