International Mother Language Day

Pradip Kumar Dutta 

We Bangladeshis take pride in Ekushey February (21 February).  On this day,72 years ago,8 youths( Rafique,Salam,Jabbar Shafiur,Barkat,Awal and two others) laid down their lives in Dhaka streets to achieve recognition of our mother tongue Bangla as one of the state languages of Pakistan. The demand was more than justified. Above 55% of Pakistan's population spoke Bangla and it is linguistically  a rich language. Poet Tagore won Nobel prize and there were many other contributors to rich Bangla literature. Poets Kazi Nazrul,Sukanta,Jibanananda,Mir Mosharraf and novelists Bibhutibhushan,Sarat Chandra,Tarashankar, Syed Mujtaba Ali are to name a few. But the arrogant Pakistani authorities would not listen to any logical argument. They were bent upon establishing Urdu as the only state language of the country. Their ulterior motive was to rule over East Pakistan as they considered themselves as racially superior and consequently, fit to rule. They also thought that they were martial races and fish eating Bangalees were no match to them. Their neo colonial attitude was evident from the inception of the impractical creation of the state of Pakistan,two parts bound only by same religion but a thousand miles apart,hostile India lying in between. Pakistan won it’s freedom from British colonial rule on 14 August 1947 and from the next month the Bangalees of East Pakistan rose against the West Pakistani dominated central government, protesting the decision of imposing Urdu on them as the only state language. Movement for establishing Bangla as one of the state languages of the country was led by Tamaddun Majlish and Sarbadadaliyo Rashtrabhasha Sangram Parishad. The momentum of the movement kept on growing and the climax was reached on 21 February 1952 when the mass movement was tried to be subdued by bullets. The shedding of blood as mentioned earlier infuriated the Bangalees so much that from the next day, the movement attracted all and sundry and the authorities had to give in. Bangla was finally given it’s due status. The victory in the language movement became the source of inspiration for the Bangla speaking East Pakistanis to rise against all unfair practices of the Pakistani regimes(mostly military dominated) to deprive Bangalees of their rights. Finally in 1971 when Awami League winning the general elections was denied to be the ruling party of Pakistan,the Bengalees protested heavily. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the leader of Awami League and would be Prime Minister of the country. The then elites and military leaders of Pakistan could not accept a Bangalee as the countries head of government. They tried their best but failed to intimidate Awami League led by a staunch Bangabandhu. Finally,the military junta planned a military solution to a political problem. They launched a genocidal military campaign against the Bangalees,so that they shy away from their claim of forming the country's next government. The genocide started with a military clamp down codenamed Operation Searchlight on 25 March,1971. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had no other option except declaring the Independence of Bangladesh in the early hours of 26March. Thus began the glorious war of Liberation of Bangladesh. It was a peoples war. The mukti bahini(freedom fighters) led by several thousand Bangalee army,para military and police personnel deserting Pakistani ranks started to fight and getting organised simultaneously. Their numbers swelled by days. Students, peasants,workers and youth in general joined the war with minimal training and meagre arms. Further deserting Bengali soldiers and police from Pakistani side also joined in. The horrendous genocide also continued. Finally after nine months of glorious fighting the Freedom Fighters of Bangladesh won the war under the able leadership of their Government in exile in Mujibnagar. Of course we were supported all the way by India, backed by USSR and the socialist bloc countries. During this great war of Liberation too the spirit of Language movement's success was a driving force. The price paid was too high. Three million martyrs,millions of injured,between two to four hundred thousand sexually tortured mothers and sisters,ten million refugees to India and colossal massacre of properties and infrastructure were the cost of our freedom. The so called martial races had to surrender publicly and unconditionally to the joint forces of Bangladesh and India. A country having Bangla as their mother tongue was born. 

Bangalees of Barak valley fought in 1961 for securing Bangla,their mother tongue as one of the state languages of Assam in the Bangla speaking Barak valley. They too had to sacrifice 11young Martyrs to achieve their goal. It was on 19 May 1961 in Shilchar. One of the eleven was Kamala Bhattacharya, the first lady martyr for Bangla. Manbhum Bangalees were amongst the first to fight for their mother tongue. The mostly Bangla speaking Manbhum,Singbhum,Dhanbad areas were made parts of Bihar. As such, Hindi was their medium of education and Bangla had to take a back seat. They too had to struggle a lot and shed blood before a big chunk of Bangla speaking Bihar(now Jharkhand) came to join West Bengal as Purulia district.

To destroy an ethnicity or a group of people, their culture is targetted. Language is the basis of cultural identity. Once language is lost,the culture is lost and the people of the group goes into oblivion. We can cite the example of rich Aztec,Inca and Maya cultures. The colonial Spanish administration destroyed their culture and language and ruled them for centuries. In the contemporary world too we can see how the Kurds,Catalans,Basques are suffering from identity crisis.It is estimated that about 7000 languages are still surviving in this world. Approximately 1500 have already got extinct. With them,gone are folklore,literature and lifestyle of those people. Diversity and heritage is lost in the process. It had to stop.

Having the success of Bengali Language movement in mind, some Bangladeshi youths living in Vancouver,BC,Canada combined with their friends of different other nationalities to form an association named Mother Language Lovers of the World  Society. The lead was taken by two Bangladeshi expatriates to Canada Mr Rafiqul Islam and Mr Abdus Salam. They started communicating in 1998 with the UN to declare 21 February as the International Mother Language Day. Finally Bangladesh Government had to be involved. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was more than eager to extend her helping hand. Rigorous correspondence,lobbying and persuasion by Government of Bangladesh and MLLWS finally brought in the desired result.in it's 1999 sessions at Paris,UNESCO took up the proposal by Bangladesh for discussion. It was co proposed by 21 other countries. The proposal was adopted unanimously. It was decided that all member countries of UN will observe 21 February as International Mother Language Day starting from 2000.All countries will put in all efforts so that no more language anywhere goes extinct. Every single human being has the right to speak in his mother language and all efforts should be made to help him exercise his rights.All languages are a part of a treasure possessed by mankind.

We Bangladeshis used to celebrate Shahid Day and Language Day on 21 February. Now,a new flavour is added. It is International Mother Language Day too.

May all the existing 7000 languages in the world survive and flourish for ever!