Munier Choudhury

Munier Choudhury (27 November 1925 – 14 December 1971) was a Bangladeshi educationist, playwright, literary critic and political dissident.

He was born on 27 November 1925 in Manikganj.

His father was Khan Bahadur Abdul Halim Chowdhury, a district magistrate and Aligarh Muslim University graduate.

Choudhury was married to Lily Choudhury (1928–2021).

Together they had three sons, Ahmed Munier, Ashfaque Munier (Mishuk) and Asif Munier.

The family moved to Dhaka permanently in 1936.

Then he grew up in the residence Darul Afia, named after her mother, among 14 siblings.

He completed his matriculation from Dhaka Collegiate School in 1941 and intermediate examination from Aligarh Muslim University.

He then studied English literature for his bachelor's degree (with honours) in 1946 and master's in 1947 at the University of Dhaka.

He was expelled from Salimullah Hall, his residential dorm, because of his involvement in leftist politics.

In 1947, Choudhury started his career in teaching at Brajalal College in Khulna.

In 1948, he attended the Communist Party Conference in Kolkata.

He was elected Secretary of the "Pragati Lekhak O Shilpi Sangha" (Progressive Writers and Artists Association).

He moved to Jagannath College in Dhaka in 1950.

In the early 1950s, there was a movement in Pakistan to replace the Bengali language alphabet with the Arabic alphabet.

As a linguist and writer, Choudhury protested this move to undermine the native language of East Pakistan.

He was imprisoned for two years in 1952 for his participation in the Bengali Language Movement.

In 1952, he was arrested under the Preventive Detention Act for protesting against police repression and the killing of students on the Language Movement.

During his imprisonment in 1952–54, he wrote his symbolic drama on the historic language movement, Kabar (The Grave).

While in jail, in 1954, he appeared at the master's examination in Bengali literature and stood first in the first class.

Later, in 1958, he obtained his third master's degree in linguistics from Harvard University.

He continued to write after being freed from prison, some of his notable works being Roktakto Prantor (1959; a play about the Third Battle of Panipat), Chithi (1966) and Polashi Barrack O Onyanno (1969).

He became reader in 1962 and professor in 1970 and the dean of the faculty of arts in 1971.

Choudhury was associated with leftist politics and progressive cultural movements.

In 1965, Choudhury redesigned the keyboard of the Bangla typewriter, named Munier Optima Keyboard in collaboration with Remington typewriters of the East Germany.

In 1967, he protested the Pakistan government's ban on Tagore songs on radio and television.

He was a victim of the mass killing of Bangladeshi intellectuals in 1971.

He joined the University of Dhaka later that same year and taught both in the departments of English and Bengali until 1971.

He actively participated in the non-co-operation movement during the early part of 1971 and renounced his award Sitara-e-Imtiaz, awarded by the Government of Pakistan in 1966.

After the Pakistani army crackdown in 1971 in the University of Dhaka area from which Chowdhury escaped like many, he moved to his parents' house, near Hatirpool.

On 14 December 1971, he, 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 and Al-Shams.

According to a witness, Choudhury was last seen in Physical Training College in Mohammadpur Thana, Dhaka where his fingers were mutilated.

His dead body could not be identified.

On 3 November the same year, both of them were sentenced in absentia after the court found that they were involved in the abduction and murders of 18 people – nine Dhaka University teachers including Choudhury, six journalists and three physicians – in December 1971.

He was awarded Independence Day Award in 1980, by the then president Ziaur Rahman's government, posthumously.

Choudhury's ancestors were originated from Noakhali.

His mother was Umme Kabir Afia Begum (d. 2000).

Because of his father's official assignment, Choudhury lived in Manikganj, Pirojpur and other parts of East Bengal.

On 18 July 2013, Asif Munier Chowdhury Tonmoy, a son of Choudhury, made the statement before the International Crimes Tribunal-2.

According to his testimony, Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, a Muslim leader based in London, and Ashrafuz Zaman Khan, based in the United States, were directly involved in abduction, forced disappearance and killing of Choudhury.