Rabindra researcher, and musicologist Dr Sanjida Khatun breathed her last on Tuesday, March 25 at 3:10pm at the ICU of Square Hospital in the capital where she was undergoing treatment for the past week. She had been battling diabetes, pneumonia, and kidney complications. She was 92.
A founding member and the current president of Chhayanaut, Sanjida Khatun’s legacy largely remains in the success of the institution she helped build from ground up. Chhayanaut bade farewell to the Ekushey Padak winner on March 26 when her body was brought to the premises at 12:30pm.
Cultural personalities gathered at Chhayanaut to pay their last respects singing “Amar Mukti Aloy Aloy” and placed floral wreathes around her. Singers Bulbul Islam, Shaheen Samad, Laisa Ahmed Lisa, Partha Tanveer Naved, Ruchira Tabassum, and others sang in her honour at Chhayanaut's courtyard. The farewell concluded with the Rabindra Sangeet "Aguner Poroshmoni" and the national anthem.
Other eminent personalities present there included, Fahmida Khatun, Ramendu Majumdar, Khurshid Alam, Selina Malek Chowdhury, Iffat Ara Dewan, Minu Hoque, Khairul Anam Shakil, Shamim Ara Nipa, Shibly Mohammad, among others.
Sanjida Khatun grew up in a family that fostered literature, music, and other forms of culture. She took part in the 1952 Language Movement. She completed her bachelor’s degree in Bangla Literature from the University of Dhaka in 1954 and her master's degree at Visva-Bharati University in India. She co-founded Chhayanaut in the early 1960s to promote the development of Bangla music and culture. In 1971, she was an integral part of Bangladesh Mukti Sangrami Shilpi Sangstha. She earned a PhD from Visva-Bharati in 1978. In 2021, her influence crossed borders as she was awarded Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian honour in India.
