Sardar Fazlul Karim

Sardar Fazlul Karim was born on 1 May 1925, to a lower middle class family in the village of Atipara located in the Backergunge District of the Bengal Presidency (present-day Wazirpur Upazila, Barisal District, Bangladesh). His father, Khabiruddin Sardar, was a farmer, and his mother, Safura Begum, was a housewife. He had one brother and three sisters, and they grew up in the village.

When Karim was a high school student, Saratchandra Chatterjee's novel Pather Dabi (Demand for a Pathway) inspired him to dream of a revolution. He matriculated from Barisal Zilla School in 1940.

He completed his Intermediate of Arts (IA) at Dhaka Intermediate College in 1942. He then became a student of Dacca University, initially studying English but soon shifting to philosophy because Haridas Bhattacharya's class lectures had attracted him. He earned an honors BA, and in 1946, an MA.

In 1954, while in prison, he was elected to the East Bengal Legislative Assembly as a Jukto Front candidate. He was released in 1955 by the United Front government.

He was elected to the National Assembly of Pakistan in 1955. Arrested again during martial law, he was released in 1962.

He left politics in 1963 and joined the translation section of the Bangla Academy. From 1969 to 1971 he directed the academy's cultural section.

In 1972, after Bangladesh won its independence, he rejoined Dacca University as a professor of political science.

Karim wrote scholarly books on philosophy, among them his দর্শনকোষ (Encyclopedia of Philosophy). He has translated Plato, Aristotle, Rousseau and Engels.

Bengali Translation:

Karim received the Bangla Academy Literary Award in 1976, and the Independence Day Award in 2000.