Kazi Abdul Wadud (1894–1970) was a noted educationist, litterateur, and thinker born on April 26, 1894, in the village of Bagmara in Pangsha Upazila, Faridpur district. His father, Kazi Syed Husain, was a railway station master, and his mother was Khodeja Khatun. Wadud passed his Entrance examination in 1913 from Dhaka Collegiate School and completed his Intermediate of Arts from Calcutta Presidency College in 1915. He earned his BA in 1917 and an MA in Political Economy from Calcutta University in 1919.
In 1920, Wadud began teaching Bengali at Dhaka Intermediate College, a post he held until 1940, when he was appointed Secretary to the Provincial Textbook Committee and a Reader at Calcutta University. In 1947, he took on the additional role of Registrar of Publications for the West Bengal Government, serving for 11 years before retiring in 1951.
Wadud began his literary career as a college student, publishing collections of short stories and novels such as Meer Paribar and Nadibokse. He was active in Bengali Muslim literary circles, notably the Bangiya Musalman Sahitya Samiti in Calcutta, where he mingled with prominent writers including Kazi Nazrul Islam. He was a founding member of the Muslim Sahitya-Samaj in Dhaka (1926) and edited journals like Sankalpa and Tarunpatra.
His writings reflect intellectual liberalism and a quest for freedom of thought, challenging traditional prejudices and social stagnation among Bengali Muslims. Notable works include Shashwata Banga, Banglar Jagoran, and biographies of Goethe and Rabindranath Tagore, as well as Hazrat Muhammad O Islam, which presents the Prophet Muhammad as a reformer emphasizing equality and knowledge.
Wadud’s prose style is marked by logic, moderation, and confidence. He contributed to modern Bengali linguistic scholarship with works like Baboharik Shabdokos, a dictionary introducing Arabic, Persian, and Turkish words systematically. His collected works and letters have been published posthumously.
Kazi Abdul Wadud’s legacy lies in his role as a proponent of intellectual freedom, modernism, and noncommunalism, making significant contributions to Bengali literature and thought. He passed away in Calcutta on May 19, 1970