Rashid Askari


Harun-Ur-Rashid Askari, known as Rashid Askari, is a writer, columnist, media personality, and an academic in Bangladesh. He was the 12th vice-chancellor of Islamic University, Bangladesh. He served as the Director General of the Bangla Academy for less than a month in 2024.

Early life and education

Rashid Askari was born in Askarpur, Mithapukur, Rangpur in former East Pakistan in 1965. He obtained Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees in English from Dhaka University, and a PhD in Indian English Literature from the University of Poona".

Career

Askari joined as a lecturer in English at Islamic University, Bangladesh in 1990. He became promoted as Head of the English department and professor in 2005 and promoted to the position of the dean of the Faculty of Arts. He served with King Khalid University - the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia as a professor of English for five years. His debut as a writer was marked in 1996 by his book The Dying Homeland. He has written articles, essays and newspaper columns on a variety of themes. He is the editor of Bangladesh's first multilingual international literary magazine, The Archer. He was elected the Secretary General of Federation of Bangladesh University Teachers' Association for 2014. He was also elected chairman of folklore studies department of the Islamic University in Kushtia". Rashid Askari has been nominated as a part-time member of the University Grants Commission of Bangladesh. He is working as a member of the international publication and translation sub-committee under "Bangabandhu's Birth Centenary Celebration National Implementation Committee" and translated Sheikh Mujib's 10 January speech delivered at the Race Course into English. He also translated in English Sheikh Mujib's UN speech on 25 September 1974.
He is a peer reviewer and a Quality Assurance expert nominated by the Quality Assurance Unit of the Government of Bangladesh. "Askari regularly writes columns in various newspapers". "The areas of his academic interest include Modern and Postmodern Fiction, Colonial and Postcolonial Literatures, South-Asian Writing in English, Literary Theories and Creative Writing". In the recent past "Askari has been accorded gold medal for his contribution to advancement of education sector" in Bangladesh. He has also received "Janonetri Sheikh Hasina Award 2019" for his outstanding contribution to education sector, and "won the Dhaka University Alumni News Award 2020".

Writing style

Bangladeshi novelist and critic Syed Manzoorul Islam said of Askari:
In his short story collection Nineteen Seventy One and Other Stories "Rashid Askari speaks of a long-ago war, revisiting the age of brutality we emerged free of through beating back the denizens of darkness". "The book contains a dozen of mind-blowing stories mostly based on realistic events that took place either in faraway villages or the bustling metropolis in Bangladesh. However, the regional fictional representation does not evade universal significance." The book has been translated into French Language and also into Hindi". His short story "Virus" was published in the Daily Suns Eid Special 2017 and "A slice of sky" has been published in the Contemporary Literary Review India. Askari wrote the intellectual biography of the country's founding president Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman,  which is "based on authentic background information, factual accounts of events, historical research and clear elegant prose". He edited the English version of Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's book My Father, My Bangladesh published in Amar Ekushey Book Fair 2021.

Books

  • Mumūrṣu shadēśa, 1996
  • Indō-inrēji sāhitya ō an'yān'ya, 1996
  • Ēkālēra rūpakathā, 1997
  • Binirmita bhābanā, 2001
  • Uttarādhunika sāhitya ō samālōcanā tattba, 2002
  • The Wounded Land: Peoples, Politics, Culture, Literature, Liberation War, War Crimes, and Militancy in Bangladesh, 2010
  • Nineteen seventy one and other stories: a collection of short stories, 2011
  • English Writings of Tagore, 2012–13
  • The Making of Mujib: an intellectual biography, Dhaka: 2022, Bangla Academy
  • Bangladesh: Somokalin Somaj, Rajniti Dhaka: 2019
  • Bangabandhu, Sheikh Hasina: Somokalin Bangladesh, Dhaka: 2022

Short stories

  • Lottery, 2011
  • Nineteen seventy one, 2011
  • Jihad, 2012
  • Locked-in Syndrome, 2012
  • Virus, 2017
  • The Disclosure, 2019 - This was published in the emerging and seasoned writers publishing platform Kitaab'
  • The virgin whore, 2019 - The virgin whore" was published in the New York City City and India based magazine Cafe Dissensus.
  • A slice of sky, 2019

Awards