National Professor Anisuzzaman dies at 83

National Professor Anisuzzaman has died during treatment in a hospital at the age of 83.

He passed away at Dhaka's Combined Military Hospital at 4:55 pm on Thursday, his son Ananda Zaman said.

Aside from a combination of heart, kidney and lung ailments, Prof Anisuzzaman was also suffering from Parkinson's disease and prostate complications.

President Abdul Hamid and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina have expressed deep shock and condolences over his passing.

Born in 1937 in Calcutta, Prof Anisuzzaman was a recipient of the Bangla Academy award for research (1970) and the Ekushey Padak, the second-highest civilian award in Bangladesh, for his contribution to education in 1983.

The Rabindra Bharati also conferred on him an honorary DLitt in 2005 and the University of Calcutta the Sarojini Basu Medal in 2008.

He was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Chicago from 1964 to 1965, a Commonwealth Academic Staff Fellow at the University of London from 1974 to 1975, and was associated with research projects of the United Nations University.

Having taught Bengali literature at Dhaka University and Chittagong University, he was a professor emeritus at the University of Dhaka. He was a visiting fellow at the University of Paris in 1994 and the North Carolina State University in 1995 and a visiting professor at the Viswa Bharati in 2008-09.

He authored many books in Bangla and English, including Muslim Manas O Bangla Sahitya, Swaruper Sandhane, Purono Bangla Gadya, Factory Correspondence and other Bengali documents in the India Office Library and Records, Creativity, Reality and Identity, Cultural Pluralism and Identity, Religion and Recent History.

Anisuzzaman was a member of the Bangladesh government's Planning Commission during the Liberation War and later, the president of the Bangla Academy. He was also elected a fellow of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh. He was a member of the Centre for Policy Dialogue's Board of Trustees, according to the think-tank’s website.