Gobinda Halder (1930 – 17 January 2015) was a

Bengali Bengali or Bengalee, or Bengalese may refer to: *something of, from, or related to Bengal, a large region in South Asia * Bengalis, an ethnic and linguistic group of the region * Bengali language, the language they speak ** Bengali alphabet, the w ...

lyricist and poet. He wrote patriotic songs during

Bangladesh Liberation War The Bangladesh Liberation War ( bn, মুক্তিযুদ্ধ, , also known as the Bangladesh War of Independence, or simply the Liberation War in Bangladesh) was a revolution and War, armed conflict sparked by the rise of the Benga ...

of 1971 which include "Mora Ekti Phulke Bachabo Bole Juddho Kori", "Ek Sagor Rokter Binimoye Banglar Swadhinata Anlo Jara", "Purbo Digonte Surjo Uthechhe Rokto Lal", and "Padma Meghna Jamuna Tomar Amar Thikana".

Early life

Halder was born Gobinda Halder or Govinda Haldar at

Bangaon Bangaon is a city and a municipality in North 24 Parganas district in the state of West Bengal, India. It is the headquarters of the Bangaon subdivision. Geography Location Bangaon is located at . It has an average elevation of 7 m ...

Bengal Presidency The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William and later Bengal Province, was a subdivision of the British Empire in India. At the height of its territorial jurisdiction, it covered large parts of what is now South Asia and ...

on either 21 February 1930 or 1 August 1930 (varying sources). He completed his school education in Bongaon. He completed his graduation and post-graduation in Bengali from

Calcutta University The University of Calcutta (informally known as Calcutta University; CU) is a public collegiate state university in India, located in Kolkata, West Bengal, India. Considered one of best state research university all over India every year, C ...

. Later he joined the income tax department and retired in July 1988. His patriotic songs started being aired in June 1971 from the

Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra ( bn, স্বাধীন বাংলা বেতার কেন্দ্র, lit=Free Bengal Radio Centre) was the radio broadcasting centre of Bengali nationalist forces during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1 ...

Belal Muhammad Belal Muhammad (born July 9, 1988) is an American mixed martial artist who is currently competing in the UFC welterweight division. A professional since 2012, he has also competed for Bellator and Titan FC. As of October 24, 2022, he is #4 ...

, the cofounder of the Kendra, stated in his book that no foreigner was allowed to write or perform songs for the Kendra so Halder was not credited. He visited Bangladesh once in June 1972 and met the Kendra authority who agreed to credit him but was never given remuneration.

Works

Halder wrote nearly 3500 semi-classical, folk,

baul The Baul ( bn, বাউল) are a group of mystic minstrels of mixed elements of Sufism, Vaishnavism and Tantra from Bangladesh and the neighboring Indian states of West Bengal, Tripura and Assam's Barak Valley and Meghalaya. Bauls cons ...

kirtan Kirtana ( sa, कीर्तन; ), also rendered as Kirtan, is a Sanskrit word that means "narrating, reciting, telling, describing" of an idea or story, specifically in Indian religions. It also refers to a genre of religious performance arts ...

Shyama Sangeet Shyama Sangeet ( bn, শ্যামা সঙ্গীত ) is a genre of Bengali devotional songs dedicated to the Hindu goddess Shyama or Kali which is a form of supreme universal mother-goddess Durga or parvati. It is also known as Shaktagiti ...

and modern Bengali songs. He stopped writing when he lost sight following

glaucoma Glaucoma is a group of eye diseases that result in damage to the optic nerve (or retina) and cause vision loss. The most common type is open-angle (wide angle, chronic simple) glaucoma, in which the drainage angle for fluid within the eye rem ...

. He composed large number of patriotic songs during the

in 1971. Some of them are ''Mora Ekti Phulke Bachabo Bole Juddho Kori'', ''Ek Sagor Rokter Binimoye Banglar Swadhinata Anlo Jara'', ''Purbo Digonte Surjo Uthechhe Rokto Lal'' and ''Padma Meghna Jamuna Tomar Amar Thikana''. His song ''Ek Sagor Rokter Binimoye'' was popular during war and later was adopted as a signature tune of Bangladesh TV in the 1990s. Though his songs were popular during war and his other songs were aired on

All India Radio All or ALL may refer to: Language * All, an indefinite pronoun in English * All, one of the English determiners * Allar language (ISO 639-3 code) * Allative case (abbreviated ALL) Music * All (band), an American punk rock band * ''All'' (All a ...

and

Doordarshan Doordarshan (abbreviated as DD; Hindi: , ) is an Indian public service broadcaster founded by the Government of India, owned by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and one of Prasar Bharati's two divisions. One of India's largest bro ...

, he never got the acknowledgement. His first book ''Door Digonte'' was published with only five hundred copies in 1989 and were sold out but he could not manage to reprint.

Honors

Halder was awarded the ''Friends of Liberation War Award'' by

Government of Bangladesh The Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh ( bn, গণপ্রজাতন্ত্রী বাংলাদেশ সরকার — ) is the central executive government of Bangladesh. The government was constituted by the Con ...

Dhaka Dhaka ( or ; bn, ঢাকা, Ḍhākā, ), formerly known as Dacca, is the capital and largest city of Bangladesh, as well as the world's largest Bengali-speaking city. It is the eighth largest and sixth most densely populated city ...

in 2012.

Personal life

Halder was married to Parul Halder and had a daughter, Gopa.

Death

Halder was hospitalised on 13 December 2014 in Kolkata following age related ailments and kidney problems. He died one month later, on 17 January 2015 at

Kolkata Kolkata (, or , ; also known as Calcutta , the official name until 2001) is the capital of the Indian state of West Bengal, on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary business, comme ...

West Bengal West Bengal (, Bengali: ''Poshchim Bongo'', , abbr. WB) is a state in the eastern portion of India. It is situated along the Bay of Bengal, along with a population of over 91 million inhabitants within an area of . West Bengal is the fourt ...

, India, aged 84. He was cremated at Neemtola crematorium in the city.

References