Sukumar Sarkar
Today is February 21. The day, celebrated as the International Mother Language Day, is a monumental event not only in the history of the Bengali nation but also in the history of mankind. On this day in 1952, a number of brave Bangladeshi youths laid down their lives to defence mother tongue, setting an example the likes of which the world has never witnessed. Such endeavor to establish an innate and sacrosanct right to a people's mother tongue is a rarity in history of mankind.
However, their great sacrifice did not go in vain, as it was their call to the Bangalis to stand up for their right to speak their own language that had pushed the thorniest wedge between the Bengalis and the ruling class of West Pakistan. It was that power which eventually led to the birth of Bangladesh through the 1971 War of Independence. Thus it is logical that when world leaders wanted to select a day as a Mother Language Day, their choice would be February 21. This is because no other nation has ever sacrificed their lives in such a way as Bengali people did to defend their Mother language.
With that cataclysmic event taking place, with young blood spilled on the streets of Dhaka, the seed of our nationhood was sown which sprouted and grew into a tree and gave us the strength and fortitude to press for self-determination and freedom from exploitation of the Pakistanis. The glorious event took place in the wake of the then Pakistani rulers’ first attempt to suppress the Bengali-speaking people’s unique identity with their own language, heritage, art and culture.
When India gained independence from British rule, the subcontinent of India was divided into a separate Muslim state (East Pakistan and West Pakistan) and a separate Hindu state (India). There was a cultural and lingual conflict between East Pakistan (today Bangladesh) and West Pakistan (Today Pakistan).
In 1948, the government of Pakistan declared Urdu as the national language and due to it, the tensions grew more. This decision of the government sparked several violent protests amongst the Bengali-speaking majority in East Pakistan. Some students of the University of Dhaka organised a protest with some activists on 21 February, 1952. Later that day, the police opened fire at the students, protesters and four students of the university were killed. The martyrdom of these students who fought for the Bengali language to be used as mother language officially is remembered on International Mother Language Day.
The 1952 language movement was by any definition a mass movement and the students of Dhaka University and other educational institutions of Dhaka city acted as the torch bearers of the movement. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was one of the few student leaders who played the major role in shaping the movement into a mass movement in order to make it broad- based for establishing Bangla as one of the state languages of the then Pakistan.
The language movement was the beginning of our war of independence led by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Starting with the Ekushey movement Sheikh Mujib continued his relentless fight against the oppression and economic deprivation by the Pakistani rulers in every ways and in every sector. He did not hesitate to take full advantage of any and every forum to voice the grievances of the people of East Pakistan and put forward their demands strongly and logically.
Finally on 29 February, 1956, Bengali was recognised as the second official language of Pakistan. In 1971, East Pakistan became an independent country namely Bangladesh and Bengali became its official language. The General Conference of the UNESCO in November 1999 declared International Mother Language Day and on 21st February, 2000 the first International Mother language Day was observed.
International Mother Language Day is celebrated across the country with a vow to build the country in the spirit of Ekushey, calling for the preservation of the dignity of the mother tongue. Bengalis all over Bangladesh plus rest of the globe celebrate Amar Ekushey or International Mother Language Day as a gratitude towards the noble and valiant sacrifices of Rafique, Salam, Shafique, Jabbar and Barkat who laid down their lives to salvage the pride and prestige of this sweet language, Bengali language and the literature connected with it.
Sukumar Sarkar is a Executive Editor Online working with Bangladesh Post