Badruddin Umar

Badruddin Umar (Bengali: বদরুদ্দীন উমর; born 20 December 1931) is a Bangladeshi Marxist–Leninist theorist, political activist, historian, writer, intellectual and leader of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (Marxist–Leninist) (Umar).^[1] His father, Abul Hashim,^[2] was a prominent politician in the Indian subcontinent.

Umar was born in Bardhaman, Bengal Presidency, British India. Although his father Abul Hashim, a clandestine Communist, opposed the creation of East Pakistan, Hashim decided to move to East Pakistan and settled in Dhaka in 1950.^[3] Umar received his MA in philosophy from University of Dhaka and his BA Honors degree in Philosophy, Politics and Economics (PPE) from University of Oxford.^[4] Umar began his academic career as a teacher at University of Dhaka on a temporary basis. In 1963, he joined Rajshahi University as the founder-chair of the political science department. He also founded the department of sociology at the same university, but he resigned from his university positions during the hostile times of the then East Pakistan governor Abdul Monem Khan to become increasingly more active and engaged as a full-time leftist political activist and public intellectual to fight for the cause of oppressed peasants and workers in Bangladesh.^[5]

As a follower of Marxist–Leninist principles, Umar began writing anti-colonial articles from the 1970s. In the 1960s he wrote three groundbreaking books—Sampradayikata (Communalism, 1966),^[6] Sanskritir Sankat (The Crisis of Culture, 1967), and Sanskritik Sampradayikata (Cultural Communalism, 1969)—that theorise the dialectics of the political culture of 'communalism' and the question of Bengali nationalism,^[7] thus making significant intellectual contributions to the growth of Bengali nationalism itself. In 1969, Umar joined the East Pakistan Communist Party, and from February 1970 to March 1971, Umar edited the mouthpiece of the East Pakistan Communist Party—Shaptahik Ganashakti—which published essays and articles about the problems and prospects of the communist movement in Pakistan. He was president of both Bangladesh Krishak Federation (Bangladesh Peasant Federation) and Bangladesh Lekhak Shibir^[8]—the country's oldest organisation of progressive writers, intellectuals, and cultural activists. Currently he is President of the Jatiya Mukti Council^[1] (National Liberation Council).

Umar has written nearly a hundred books and countless articles. The majority of his books discuss the problems and possibilities of the democratic and socialist transformation of class society. He lucidly and thoroughly exposes the lumpenbourgeoisie's political culture in Bangladesh. In his books he discusses a wide range of issues including the political economy and culture of capitalism, world socialist movements, communist movements in Bangladesh, the phenomena of militarism and military dictatorships in the Third World, criminalisation of politics, business, and so on. His book titled Poverty Trade engages with the ideas of Dr. Muhammad Yunus and provides a critique of his concept and practice of micro-credit.^[9][10] Umar also researched on Bengali Language Movement and published a book on this topic.

• Umar, Badruddin Amara Jibana: 1931–1950 (Hardcover, Sahityika, ISBN 984-8391-35-5)
• Umar, Badruddin Banaladese Ganatantrika Svairatantra (Maola Bradarsa, ISBN 984-410-028-3)
• Umar, Badruddin Banaladese Samsadiya Ganatantra (Sahityika, ISBN 984-8391-11-8)
• Umar, Badruddin Banaladesera artha-Rajanaitika Paristhiti (Jatiya Grantha Prakasana, ISBN 984-560-007-7)
• Umar, Badruddin Dvitiya Aoyami Liga Sarakarera amale Banaladesa (Jatiya Anubhaba Prakasana, ISBN 978-984-8237-13-7)
• Umar, Badruddin Ganaadalata, Asamapta Mukhti Samgramera Jera (Mira Prakasana, ISBN 984-775-088-2)
• Umar, Badruddin Nirbacita Rajanaitika Prabandha (Subarna, ISBN 984-459-014-0)
• Umar, Badruddin Sakhinara Candrakala (Ekuse Bamla Prakasana, ISBN 984-8670-97-1)
• Umar, Badruddin Siksha O siksha andolana (Srabana, ISBN 984-8130-12-8)
• Umar, Badruddin The Emergence of Bangladesh: Class and Political Struggles in East Pakistan, 1947–1958 (Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-579571-7)
• Umar, Badruddin The Emergence of Bangladesh Vol. 2: The Rise of Bengali Nationalism, 1958–1971 (Oxford University Press, ISBN 0-19-597908-7)
• Umar, Badruddin Indian National Movement: R. R. M. Roy Memorial Lecture, 1984 (University Press, Limited, ISBN 984-05-1208-0)
• Umar, Badruddin Language Movement in East Bengal (Jatiya Grontha Prakashan, ISBN 984-560-094-8)
• Umar, Badruddin "samskritir sankata" 1st published in 1967 by Srabon Prokashoni,(ISBN 984-813-047-0)

Badruddin Umar claimed in an interview that he has left Islam.^[11] In that interview he said,

The misery of humans can't be explained if there is an all knowing, all seeing, all powerful Allah... Once a mother went to the hospital leaving her child outside. Coming out of the hospital she saw that her child is dead. What kind of test from Allah it was that He needed to kill that child? What was His intention? He testes the poor only... He gives the rich everything He wants in this life and all He wants to give to the poor is left due for afterlife...

• The Emergence of Bangladesh
• A People’s History of The Language Movement
• New platform to fight against fascism
• সংবাদপত্রে প্রকাশিত বদরুদ্দীন উমরের কয়েকটি লেখা
• Azfar Hussain's essay on Badruddin Umar in The Daily Star
• Azfar Hussain pays tribute to Badruddin Umar on his 89th birthday