Nazrul Islam, as his name implies, was Muslim, yet some of his poetry is Shakti poetry, poems addressed to Kali, the Mother Goddess of Bengali Hindus -- though he often refers to her more generically as Mother or Ma. Nazrul Islam composed his poetry during the time of British control of India and, in Bengal, the goddess Kali came to be viewed as a personification of the national identity and determination to be free of foreign domination. Poems addressed to Kali became poems addressed to Mother India, a divine image of a fiercely united nation.
