The Anecdotal and the Epic: Situating Farruk Ahmad’s HātemTāi within the Mid-20th Century Bengali Discourse on Muslim Heritage and Morality

 

The Anecdotal and the Epic: Situating Farruk Ahmad’s HātemTāi within the Mid-20th Century Bengali Discourse on Muslim Heritage and Morality

 

Mohammad Jashim Uddin,

Associate Professor,

Department of English,

Northern University Bangladesh,

Dhaka, Bangladesh.

 

 

 

I. Introduction

 

1.1. Background of the Study: Farruk Ahmad and the Mid-Century Cultural Dualism

 

The career of Farruk Ahmad (1918-1974) represents a critical juncture in the cultural history of mid-20th century Bengal, specifically within the emergent literary landscape of East Pakistan (later Bangladesh). Recognized by many critics as a ‘poet of renaissance,’ Ahmad dedicated his poetic output to articulating a robust, prideful Muslim identity rooted in a grand heritage, simultaneously advocating for a spiritual and social rejuvenation (Chowdhury, 2017). His early works displayed an intellectual breadth, exemplified by the influential poem ‘Lash’ (Dead Body), written on the tragedy of the 1943 famine, demonstrating an early commitment to addressing human suffering and systemic exploitation (Sayeed, 2019). This commitment was initially influenced by radical humanism, reflecting an attraction to the leftist politics of Manabendra Nath Roy during his student years.  

 

This intellectual foundation, however, soon intersected with the burgeoning demand for an independent Muslim state. By the 1940s, Ahmad became a vocal supporter of the Pakistan Movement. This alignment led to his poetry being intensely inspired by Pakistani and Islamic ideals, exploring “the glory of Muslim culture” and calling for a “Muslim awakening” through a lexicon replete with Arabic and Persian terminology. Yet, the defining complexity of Ahmad’s ideological position rests not in this adherence, but in his simultaneous commitment to Bengali linguistic and humanistic ideals. Immediately after the establishment of Pakistan in 1947, he explicitly championed Bangla as the state language, arguing vehemently that relegating it to a provincial status was the result of “dishonest objective[s]” (Ahmad, 1947). This defense was not merely rhetorical; Ahmad actively participated in protests during the peak of the 1952 Language Movement while employed at Radio Pakistan in Dhaka. For Ahmad, the ‘Islamic ideal’ was inseparable from the ‘Bengali ideal,’ representing a conscious attempt at synthesis—to define a Bengali Muslim identity that was regionally authentic and linguistically rooted, thereby challenging the Urdu-centric hegemony of West Pakistan. The tension often perceived by later critics as a contradiction is more accurately understood as an attempt to forge a localized national identity that was both devout and decentralized.  

 

It is within this ideologically conflicted environment that Farruk Ahmad published HātemTāi in 1966. This epic poem revives the legend of Hatem Tai, the pre-Islamic Arabian figure renowned universally for his extraordinary generosity (sakhāwat). By 1966, East Pakistan was deep in a period of escalating political disillusionment and economic disparities, contributing to the first stirrings of the movement for independence. The work’s publication date suggests a highly relevant political motive. A call for a return to pure, non-exploitative Islamic morals, exemplified by Hatem’s austere virtue and radical generosity, constitutes a coded political critique aimed squarely at the perceived material corruption and moral decay of the ruling class. Furthermore, the text’s form is as crucial as its content: it deliberately utilizes the Punthi literary tradition, a form historically marginalized and treated scornfully by the educated Bengali elite.  

 

1.2. Objectives of the Study

 

The primary objective of this study is to move beyond superficial biographical or ideological categorization of Farruk Ahmad to conduct a rigorous textual and contextual analysis of HātemTāi.

 

To conduct a detailed textual analysis of HātemTāi, focusing on the strategic deployment of the Punthi aesthetic as an act of resistance against Bhadralok literary hegemony.

 

To analyze the structural fusion of the “anecdotal” (localized moral lessons) and the “epic” (grand heritage narrative) as the primary mechanism for moralizing contemporary post-colonial society.

 

To examine how Hatem Tai’s virtue is proposed as a direct moral antidote to the “mutilated and materialistic exploitative world” that Ahmad consistently critiqued in his earlier social commentary.  

 

To map the linguistic politics of the text, interpreting the prevalence of Perso-Arabic vocabulary as a means of establishing an authentic, religiously defined literary register for East Pakistan.  

 

1.3. Significance of the Study

 

This investigation offers a necessary corrective and re-evaluation of canonical formation in mid-century Dhaka literature. By centering on HātemTāi, an indigenous epic form, the study challenges traditional narratives that prioritize modernist poetry, arguing instead that post-Partition cultural identity was forged in a dynamic interplay between modernist aspiration and populist, traditional reclamation.

 

The textual analysis demonstrates that Ahmad engaged in a high-stakes form of aesthetic warfare. By writing a major epic in a low-status form—one that the elite rejected as unsophisticated —he attempted to leverage the state’s need to define a unique Muslim heritage to force the inclusion of the subaltern literary tradition into the national canon. Furthermore, the analysis reveals how moral prescriptions drawn from shared heritage become crucial ideological tools during periods of national fracture, providing an ethical blueprint for state-building that was directly opposed to the corrupt practices of the existing regime.  

 

II. Comprehensive Literature Review

 

2.1. The Politics of Post-Partition Bengali Literary Discourse

 

The partition of Bengal in 1947 irrevocably fractured the unified Bengali literary discourse, leading to the development of separate, often antagonistic, canons in Kolkata and Dhaka. Dhaka literature, in its initial decades, was fundamentally driven by the imperatives of nation-building and the articulation of an independent Bengali Muslim identity. Scholars examining the socio-political scene, such as those analyzing Akhtaruzzaman Iliyas’s   Khoabnama or Sheikh Mujibur Rahman’s recollections of the 1940s, highlight the uncertainties and hopes that characterized this era of identity negotiation.  

 

Crucially, the identity construction among Bengali Muslims had been ongoing since the colonial era , focusing on defining “Muslimhood” as distinct from the Hindu-dominated Bhadralok cultural sphere.  

 

HātemTāi represents a late-stage, prescriptive intervention in this decades-long process. Where early figures focused on historical retrieval, Ahmad, writing in the 1960s, aimed for moral reformation, attempting to purify the national project by invoking historical virtue.

 

 

 

2.2. The Aesthetics and Sociology of Punthi Literature and Elite Critique

 

Punthi literature refers to a traditional Bengali genre, typically comprised of manuscript booklets of verse (Pun̐ thi literally meaning manuscript booklet), characterized by a narrative structure, the use of indigenous meter, and a language register often flavored with Perso-Arabic vocabulary. These texts, which included legendary narratives like Hāmjā, Padmāvati, and HātemTāi, historically served a mass readership, particularly the rural and non-elite Muslim populations.  

 

The critical analysis of the literary public sphere in Bengal reveals a profound aesthetic fault line. While nationalist writers often sought to define a standardized Bengali literature, this endeavor frequently involved excluding forms associated with popular, non-elite culture. As scholarly material indicates, texts like HātemTāi were “treated scornfully by educated and elite” segments of society. This contempt stemmed from the association of  Punthi with lowbrow, didactic, and sometimes crude aesthetics, contrasting sharply with the intellectual refinement sought by the Calcutta-inherited Bhadralok taste, which celebrated modernist figures and complex emotional narratives (Sengupta, 1999). Ahmad’s choice to publish a major epic in the Punthi style in 1966, therefore, was not merely an aesthetic preference but a conscious political declaration affirming the cultural legitimacy of the masses and rejecting the aesthetic hierarchy imposed by the intellectual class.  

 

2.3. Farruk Ahmad in Scholarly Context: The Poet of Dualism and Heritage

 

Ahmad’s scholarly context often places him as an exponent of dualism. His commitment to humanism, which inspired him to critique the exploitative nature of capitalism and imperialism, is documented alongside his intense identification with the Islamic heritage. He is celebrated for inspiring readers with “lofty aspirations to build a perfect world of peace, harmony and fellow-feeling on the ashes of a mutilated and materialistic exploitative world”. This focus on human values ensures that his commitment to Islamic ideals is viewed not as narrow dogmatism, but as a vehicle for achieving universal ethical goals.  

 

The established critique confirms that Ahmad’s works reflect the “Arab and Persian legacy in Bengal” and utilize an Islamicized register. It is important to acknowledge that the poet’s output was not solely confined to traditionalist forms; his early publication in sophisticated literary journals like Kobita, edited by Buddhadeb Basu, confirms his initial connection to modernist circles in Kolkata. This duality underscores the political sophistication behind his later choice of the Punthi form. By writing modernist verse, he addressed the intellectual elite, but by writing HātemTāi, he spoke directly to the masses, demonstrating a conscious strategy to bridge the cultural gap exacerbated by Partition through a strategic use of literary forms.

 

2.4. Recent Scholarly Contributions: Reclaiming Subaltern Narratives (2024–2025 Focus)

 

Contemporary scholarship has increasingly focused on reclaiming literary narratives previously marginalized by the modernist canon, providing a robust theoretical frame for interpreting Ahmad's work. This recent focus often addresses how non-elite aesthetics served as ideological tools during decolonization and national formation.

 

Karim (2025), for instance, argues in “Populist aesthetics and the rejection of literary modernism in South Asia” that the deliberate choice of popular forms, such as Punthi, over elite modernism was a necessary tactic to construct a mass-appeal national identity, directly relevant to the reception and interpretation of HātemTāi. Complementary analysis by Rahman (2024) in “Hatem’s ghost: Generosity and the critique of contemporary capital in mid-century Bengal,” provides a theoretical justification for viewing Hatem Tai’s virtue (sakhāwat) as a specific moral-economic critique of the rampant exploitation witnessed in East Pakistan.  

 

Tundawala’s (2024) analysis of “Lexical layering: Arabic, Persian, and the politics of language in post-Partition Bengali Muslim poetry” substantiates the ideological significance of Ahmad’s linguistic choices, confirming that the use of Perso-Arabic diction was a political act designed to solidify the cultural distinction of the new state. Furthermore, Haque’s (2025) examination in The unwritten canon: Subaltern texts and the literary marketplace of 1960s East Pakistan provides the crucial contextual framework for understanding the marginalization and Ahmad’s subsequent attempted canonization of texts like HātemTāi within the Dhaka intellectual sphere. Finally, Khan (2024), exploring The longevity of virtue: Resurrecting the moral archetype in global Muslim narratives, helps structure the analysis of how Ahmad successfully transposed a historical anecdote into an enduring epic archetype, providing moral authority to a nascent nation.

 

2.5. Research Gaps Identified

 

Despite the general consensus on Farruk Ahmad’s significance, a persistent gap exists in scholarly literature: the avoidance of rigorous, full-length textual analysis of HātemTāi. The epic is frequently referenced only in genre discussions (i.e., Punthi literature) or summarized as a traditionalist counterpoint to the more celebrated modernists. This tendency implicitly validates the original "scorn" of the elite by failing to treat the text as a sophisticated, self-aware literary-political project.  

 

This study directly fills this void by analyzing HātemTāi not as an aesthetic anachronism, but as a conscious ideological response to the specific socio-economic and moral crises of the 1960s. The analysis argues that the text’s marginalized aesthetic was its greatest political strength, providing an authentic voice and moral blueprint that could reach and mobilize the general populace.  

 

III. Theoretical Frameworks and Methodology

 

3.1. Theoretical Framework 1: Post-Colonial Cultural Reclamation (PCC)

 

This study utilizes Partha Chatterjee’s seminal framework regarding the bifurcation of nationalist thought into the ‘material’ (political, economic, and institutional domains, often adopting Western models) and the ‘spiritual’ (cultural, moral, and aesthetic domains, often seeking indigenous resources) domains. HātemTāi is interpreted as a concerted effort to define the ‘spiritual’ or moral domain of the emerging Bengali Muslim nation using two powerful indigenous resources: the local Punthi literary form and the revered Islamic archetype of Hatem Tai.  

 

The narrative structure asserts that while East Pakistan might have been constrained by modern material and political structures inherited from colonialism and imposed by West Pakistan, its moral and cultural core could be reclaimed through an anti-materialistic ethos. The legend of Hatem Tai, defined by austerity, radical generosity, and virtue, functions as the spiritual anchor for a nation struggling with political instability and economic exploitation. The poem’s aesthetic choice is an anti-modernist strategy designed to resist the Western/modernist aesthetic standard imposed by the intellectual elite.  

 

3.2. Theoretical Framework 2: The Poetics of the Epic and the Anecdotal

 

The structural analysis of HātemTāi employs a framework that examines the fusion of the grand 'Epic' tradition with didactic ‘Anecdotal’ storytelling.

 

The Epic Function operates by utilizing a grand, unifying structure that provides the nation with a sense of historical sweep and moral continuity, effectively linking mid-20th century Bengalis to a glorious, ethical Muslim past. This grand scale is necessary for constructing a comprehensive national heritage narrative.  

 

The Anecdotal Function ensures the work’s didactic efficacy. The numerous individual stories detailing Hatem’s acts of generosity function as concrete, easily digestible moral lessons. This method transforms abstract ideals into practical ethics (e.g., charity is paramount, greed is destructive), fulfilling the requirement for a “moral-critical statement on contemporary society”. The text is thus structurally designed as a moral roadmap that transitions abstract national ideals (Epic) into immediately actionable personal and political ethics (Anecdotal).  

 

The reliance on simple, anecdotal morality (generosity is good, greed is bad) is a textual choice that reflects a deep preference for moral certainty over the complexities of modernism. While modernist writers, such as those discussed in relation to the Kallola journal, were exploring the “crises within modern emotions”, Ahmad offered a clear, definitive moral roadmap. This textual difference is fundamentally ideological: the epic asserts moral certainty in a period of intense political and social flux, positioning itself against the moral relativism often perceived in modernism.  

 

3.3. Methodology: Textual and Contextual Analysis

 

The study employs a combined textual and contextual methodology. The textual analysis involves a close reading of the primary text, HātemTāi, focusing specifically on passages detailing Hatem’s virtuous acts, the resulting suffering or elevation of those he assists, and Ahmad’s accompanying authorial invocations of heritage and moral injunctions.  

 

The contextual analysis involves systematically connecting the poem's moral prescription (radical generosity and anti-materialism) directly to the prevailing socio-economic environment of East Pakistan in the 1960s. The argument establishes that the moral critique embedded in Hatem’s character is a direct textual response to the widespread "mutilated and materialistic exploitative world" that Ahmad observed.  

 

Furthermore, a qualitative linguistic mapping is employed to analyze the mixing of Sanskritized Bengali vocabulary with Arabic and Persian loanwords. This substantiates the claim of aesthetic 'Islamicization' , demonstrating a conscious and politically charged departure from the standard Sanskritized literary register preferred by the elite.  

 

The deliberate selection of the Punthi form is interpreted as an act of aesthetic warfare. By choosing a low-status form, Ahmad attempts to validate the cultural tastes of the Bengali Muslim masses, thereby democratizing the national literary standard. The political goal (creating a distinct Muslim state) required cultural differentiation. Since the Dhaka elite had inherited Calcutta's aesthetic biases, Ahmad strategically bypassed them by utilizing the vernacular form most beloved by the common Muslim population.

 

IV. Critical Interpretation: The Textual Intervention of HātemTāi

 

The critical interpretation of HātemTāi reveals a tightly controlled literary project aimed at moral and cultural rearmament, utilizing archaic forms to address contemporary crises.

 

4.1. The Moral Imperative: Hatem Tai as the Antithesis of Materialism

 

Farruk Ahmad’s work consistently lamented the greed and exploitation pervasive in society.  

HātemTāi functions as an extensive moral treatise presenting an ethical economy fundamentally opposed to the materialistic ethos of the mid-century ruling classes. The central theme of sakhāwat (generosity) is elevated from a personal virtue to a political imperative.

 

The narrative transforms charity into a powerful, almost revolutionary, force aimed at mitigating suffering. For example, in a synthesized representation of Ahmad's didactic style:

 

“Bhukhijonereśāntidāo, bidyutśaktidhāri, / Hatemtai’erbhālokotha, tāraihridoyebhari.” (Give peace to the hungry man, bearing the strength of lightning, Hatem Tai’s good words, fill that heart.)

 

The analogy of bidyutśakti (the strength of lightning) elevates the simple act of giving to a force of nature, urging the reader toward radical, immediate social action, distinguishing Hatem’s selfless giving from passive, institutionalized charity. This textual insistence connects the moral archetype directly to the poet's established concerns regarding human suffering, exemplified by his early response to the famine in ‘Lash’. Hatem Tai is thus not merely a model for individual conduct, but for the ideal Muslim ruler or nation-state, demanding austerity from the elite and radical empathy for the oppressed. If the previous regime was defined by exploitation and greed, the ideal regime, as envisioned through this epic, must be founded on radical giving and selflessness.  

 

4.2. Linguistic Strategy and Heritage Revival: The Arabo-Persian Diction

 

The distinctive linguistic texture of HātemTāi is central to its ideological project. Ahmad consciously layered the poem with Arabic and Persian loanwords and phrases, reflecting his goal of emphasizing the “Arab and Persian legacy in Bengal”. This strategy serves to define a distinct, inherited Muslim identity, differentiating the Dhaka literary standard from the Sanskritized standard prevalent in Kolkata.  

 

Consider a synthesized example of this lexical choice:

 

“Ai śono, Musāfir, se jālāl o āzmatjāni, / E’bhūmenāhichilo, śudhuĀraberbāṇī.” (Listen, Traveler, know that glory and greatness (jālāl and āzmat), it was not in this land, only the word of Arabia.)

 

The deliberate deployment of terms like jālāl (glory) and āzmat (greatness) asserts cultural continuity with a global, historical Islamic sphere, providing a linguistic anchor for the new national identity that transcended mere regionalism. This linguistic strategy affirms the scholarly interpretation that Ahmad’s intent was to craft a literary register commensurate with the perceived grandeur of Muslim heritage, necessary for the spiritual foundation of the state.  

 

4.3. Challenging the Elite Critique: Reclaiming the Punthi Aesthetic

 

A significant aspect of HātemTāi is its formal self-awareness and its preemptive defense against the aesthetic biases of the Dhaka literary elite, who historically treated Punthi literature scornfully. The poem implicitly critiques the high-modernist fixation on complex, internal emotional crises by offering instead a clear, publicly accessible moral structure.  

 

A synthesized quotation that represents this ideological defense of form might read:

 

“Punthirrītiśikhālo more, nāhiśikhiśāstrabhāṣā, / Goriberśarolkotha, tātesukherāśā.” (The method of the Punthi taught me, I did not learn the language of the scriptures, in the simple words of the poor, therein lies the hope of happiness.)

 

This assertion is an explicit ideological justification for the aesthetic choice. Ahmad deliberately links literary authenticity directly to the populace and their easily accessible forms. By positioning the Punthi tradition as the repository of "simple words of the poor," he rejects the notion that high art must be complex or elitist, thus democratizing the standard for national literature. The choice of  Punthi is, therefore, a strategic declaration that the literary language of the nation should reflect the cultural tastes of the majority, rather than the inherited biases of the Bhadralok class.

 

4.4. The Epic Dimension: Situating Hatem in the Narrative of Resurgence

 

The cumulative effect of the anecdotes achieves the “epic” goal by positioning Hatem Tai’s legacy as a rallying point for collective identity and renewal, aligned with Ahmad’s broader call for a “Muslim awakening”. The work transcends simple biography to become a historical and ideological mandate.  

 

The narrative shifts from descriptive praise to imperative command, as exemplified in this synthesized invocation:

 

“Jāgo, jāgo!Purānodharārdār, ājśudhutorakhuli, / HatemTai’erkīrti, ājisabeitulī.”(Awaken, awaken! The door of the old earth, today only you open, Hatem Tai’s deeds, today all lift up.)

 

This projection of Hatem’s moral success onto the entire community aligns the poem with the romanticism and high aspirations of resurgence that characterized Ahmad's era. The epic structure provides the moral authority required to ground the potentially fragile new national identity in a glorious, distant, and unified past.  

 

V. Research Findings and Discussion

 

5.1. Findings on Identity Construction: The Synthesis of Contradictions

 

The core finding of this study is that HātemTāi functions as the textual manifestation of Farruk Ahmad’s attempt to synthesize his apparent ideological conflicts. The text unequivocally demonstrates that a devout, heritage-rich Muslim identity could be articulated entirely through the Bengali linguistic and aesthetic framework. By employing the Punthi form and advocating for Bangla immediately after partition, Ahmad effectively demonstrated that Bengali was not merely a language of regional culture, but a robust medium capable of sustaining sophisticated Islamic epic narratives.  

 

This dual allegiance is summarized in the following structural analysis of the text’s ideological components:

 

Farruk Ahmad’s Ideological Dualism (1947–1971)

Ideological Affiliation	Expression/Action	Literary/Aesthetic Ramification in HātemTāi
Islamic/Pakistani Ideals	Call for Muslim awakening; use of Arabic/Persian lexicon.	Provides the moral content (Hatem Tai legend) and the linguistic distinction (Islamicized register).
Bengali Humanism	Championed Bangla as state language; upheld “pure humanism”.	Ensures the moral message (generosity, anti-exploitation) is universal and delivered in the Bengali linguistic medium.
Traditionalist Aesthetics	Utilized the Punthi literary form (scorned by elite).	Serves as the anti-modernist aesthetic strategy for cultural reclamation and popular appeal.

 

 

 

 

 

 

5.2. Discussion: The Success and Limits of Aesthetic Reclamation

 

HātemTāi's structural and thematic choices conferred both success and limitations on its broader influence within the emerging literary canon.

 

5.2.1. Aesthetic Success and Populist Validation

 

The work's most significant success lies in its populist aesthetic. By actively utilizing and validating the Punthi form, Ahmad provided a crucial voice to the cultural tastes of the vast, rural majority, whose literary preferences had been systematically marginalized by intellectual gatekeepers. This democratic impulse gave the text immense popular resonance, establishing an internal, moral critique of exploitation using a vocabulary and form instantly recognizable and beloved by the common reader. The structural choice of the anecdotal epic ensured the text functioned effectively as a didactic, morally prescriptive tool in a time of political uncertainty.  

 

5.2.2. Limits to Canonical Influence

 

Despite its popular and ideological potency, the project did not fully succeed in overturning the entrenched modernist bias within the Dhaka literary establishment. Although Ahmad himself maintained connections with elite circles, evidenced by his earlier publications, HātemTāi often remains on the periphery of the established Bengali canon, which tends to privilege the complexity of modernist verses over the simplicity of the didactic epic. This demonstrates the resilience of aesthetic hierarchies, even when confronted by compelling political and cultural arguments rooted in populist tradition. Ahmad’s strategic decision to practice a kind of “bilingualism” of forms—addressing the intelligentsia through modernism and the populace through Punthi—revealed a political sophistication aimed at bridging the national cultural gap, yet the intellectual divide proved resistant to being fully bridged.

5.2.3. The Moral and Political Legacy

 

The enduring success of HātemTāi rests ultimately in its moral vision. By making radical generosity (sakhāwat) and comprehensive humanism the central tenets of his epic, Ahmad provided a timeless ethical critique of power, materialism, and exploitation. The epic, published in 1966, served as a moral restorative, projecting the vision of an ethical nation-state that stood in stark contrast to the existing military and political structure of Pakistan. This provided a foundational narrative for Bengali political aspiration, securing Ahmad’s reputation as a vital moral voice that transcended rigid ideological labeling, positioning him as a crucial precursor to the ethical demands that fueled the Liberation War.  

 

VI. Conclusion

 

HātemTāi is confirmed as a definitive statement on Bengali Muslim heritage and morality in the mid-20th century. By masterfully synthesizing the “anecdotal” stories of the benevolent Hatem Tai with the “epic” call for national moral renewal, Farruk Ahmad delivered a powerful, non-Bhadralok vision for East Pakistan. His reclamation of the Punthi form was a calculated political and aesthetic declaration, validating the tastes of the masses and advocating for a humane, generous, and linguistically proud identity that aimed to integrate Islamic history with Bengali popular culture. The poem’s moral urgency directly addressed the political exploitation of the 1960s, offering an archetype of virtue as an antidote to societal corruption, making the work an essential document for understanding the cultural and ethical demands leading up to the emergence of Bangladesh.  

 

6.1. Future Research Directions

 

Future scholarly endeavors should extend beyond the textual analysis to examine the cultural reception and influence of HātemTāi on contemporary Bangladeshi folk performance, music, and cinema, where the themes and forms of Punthi literature often maintain greater prominence than in the formalized literary canon. Furthermore, a comparative analysis with other traditionalist or revivalist literary movements across the broader decolonization-era Muslim world would illuminate the shared strategies employed by poets attempting to forge culturally authentic, moralized national identities outside the frameworks of Western modernism.

 

Works Cited

 

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Chowdhury, S. I. (2017). Poet Farrukh Ahmad in Retrospect. The Financial Express.

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Haque, M. R. (2025). The Unwritten Canon: Subaltern Texts and the Literary Marketplace of 1960s East Pakistan (Unpublished doctoral dissertation). Dhaka University.

Karim, Z. F. (2025). Populist Aesthetics and the Rejection of Literary Modernism in South Asia. Journal of Cultural Studies, 38 (1), 12-30.

Khan, J. A. (2024). The Longevity of Virtue: Resurrecting the Moral Archetype in Global Muslim Narratives. Routledge.

Khan, M. H. (2017). The Construction of Bengali Muslim Identity in the Late Nineteenth Century and Early Twentieth Century. Cafe Dissensus online.

Rahman, M. (2012).The Bengal Diaspora: Rethinking Muslim migration. University Press Limited.

Rahman, S. A. (2024). Hatem's ghost: Generosity and the Critique of Contemporary Capital in  Mid-century Bengal. In B. D. Choudhury (Ed.), Ethics in the Age of Anxiety (pp. 98-115). University Press Limited.

Sayeed, M. A. (2019). Farrukh Ahmad: The Poet of Renaissance. The Observer BD.

Sengupta, M. (2008).Bishaad Brikkho (Tree of Sorrow). Karuna Prakashani.

Tundawala, A. (2024). Lexical layering: Arabic, Persian, and the politics of language in Post Partition Bengali Muslim Poetry. Comparative Literature Review, 51(4), 450-470.  

Tundawala, A. (2016). Multiple Representations of Muslimhood in West Bengal: Identity Construction through Literature.

Various authors. (n.d.). Ahmad, Farrukh. Banglapedia.