The body of writer, researcher, and leftist intellectual Badruddin Umar was laid at the Central Shaheed Minar on Monday at 10 a.m., where people from all walks of life paid their final respects.
Family sources said the funeral prayer will follow after Zuhr at the Central Mosque of Dhaka University. Umar will be buried at Jurain Cemetery beside his father, Abul Hashim.
The veteran leftist thinker had long suffered from age-related complications. On Sunday morning, his condition deteriorated, and he was taken to Bangladesh Specialized Hospital in Dhaka, where he passed away at 10:05 a.m. He was 94.
His death has cast a shadow of grief over the nation’s intellectual, political, and cultural circles.
Expressing condolences, Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus said, “Badruddin Umar was a shining beacon in our struggle for free thought and progress.” BNP’s acting chairman Tarique Rahman described him as “a symbol of independent conscience in the country.”
Umar was a longtime leader of the Communist Party of Bangladesh (Marxist-Leninist) and remained active in politics throughout his life. In 2025, he was awarded the country’s highest civilian honor, the Independence Award, which he controversially declined.
Born on 20 December 1931 in Bardhaman, British India, Umar was the son of Abul Hashim and Mahmuda Akhtar Mehrbanu Begum. Despite his father’s socialist views and opposition to the creation of Pakistan, the family moved to East Pakistan in 1950 and settled in Dhaka.
Umar completed his early education at Bardhaman Town School in 1948 and higher secondary at Bardhaman Raj College in 1950. He earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s in Philosophy from Dhaka University in 1953 and 1955, respectively, and a degree in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics (PPE) from the University of Oxford in 1961.
He began his academic career as a part-time teacher at Dhaka University and later founded the Department of Sociology at Rajshahi University. Umar also served as president of the Bangladesh Lekhak Shibir, founded the monthly essay magazine Sanskriti, led the Farmers’ Federation, and was central coordinator of the Democratic Revolutionary Alliance.
