Murtoza Bashir

Murtoza Bashir (born August 17, 1932) is a Bangladeshi artist, cartoonist and language movement activist.

Background and career

Bashir's father was Muhammad Shahidullah. He passed matriculation from Bogra Corronation Institute in 1949. He got involved with the movement as he was a member of the students' federation. In 1948, during the initial part of the language movement, he worked for the movement in the city of Bogra organizing a number of rallies and meetings held. In 1949, he got admitted to the Government Institute of Arts and Crafts. He spent 5 months in prison in 1950 and finally proved to be innocent. On February 21, he joined the meeting of Amtala at Dhaka University. Later that day, went to Dhaka museum to postpone the exhibition for the violating circumstances. He also joined the Gayebana Janaja on February 22 and later had to hide from the police as they tried to arrest the activists. He drew cartoons and festoons for the movement. Many of his cartoons describe the sacrifice of the martyrs of the language movement and the struggle for the mother land.