Bangladesh got better prestige and glory when UNESCO declared 21st February as the International Mother Language Day. It is also making significant strides towards peace, progress and prosperity at home and discharging international obligations abroad. But still, most of the parts of the world are unknown about the occurrence and it’s significances. So I want to notify about then history to the people surround the world through my blog. I have lots of information from different sources to write the article. So please let me very briefly recount the fateful happenings of that day and the circumstances that led to and followed them.
In August 1947, a new state called Pakistan, comprising two far-flung wings in the west and east, separated by 1600 kilometers of foreign territory, emerged on the world map. The ideological basis of that strange phenomenon was the absurd and pernicious two nation theory of
Mr. Jinnah that ignored such basic elements as language and culture and considered religion as a bond strong and sufficient enough to transform a people into a nation.
The language of the people of eastern wing of Pakistan, and they were the majority, was Bangla. It had a rich tradition of literature of over a thousand years. The Bengalese also had a highly developed culture that had little in common with the culture of the people of western wing of Pakistan. The Bengalese' love for and attachment to their language and culture were easily understood if we look at their thousand years of history.
At March 21, 1948 , Mohammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of Pakistan and its first Governor-General, while on a visit to East Bengal, declares in Dhaka University convocation that while the language of the province can be Bengali, the
"State language of Pakistan is going to be Urdu and no other language. Anyone who tries to mislead you is really an enemy of Pakistan."
"The remark evoked an angry protest from the Bengali youth who took it as an affront: their language Bangla (Bengali) was, after all, spoken by fifty-four percent of the population of Pakistan. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, then a university student, was among those who raised the protest slogan and was placed under detention. The Dacca University campus became the focal point for student meetings in support of the Bangla language." (-- Siddiq Salik). Jinnah meets the student representatives of Committee of Action to persuade them of the necessity of having one national language, but the students are not convinced. "The discussion of Jinnah with the student representatives could not bear any fruit but blurred the difference between the student group led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his associates and the student group led by Shah Azizur Rahman. The National leadership resorted to repressive policies in order to crush the Bengali language and put its supporters behind bars." (Source - Md. Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan)
Finally, the Basic Principles Committee of the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan announced at January 26, 1952 that Urdu should be the only state language of Pakistan. Later, in a public meeting at Paltan Maidan, Dhaka, Prime Minister Nazimuddin declared that Urdu alone will be the state language of Pakistan. The same day of January 28, 1952, the students of Dhaka University in a protest meeting called the Prime Minister and the Provincial Ministers as stooges of West Pakistan. In January 30, 1952, a secret meeting called by the Awami League, which is attended by a number of communist front as well as other organizations, it is agreed that the language agitation could not be successfully carried by the students alone. To mobilize full political and student supports, it was decided that the leadership of the movement should be assumed by the Awami League under Bhashani. The following day, Bhashani presided over an all-party convention in Dhaka. The convention was attended by prominent leaders like Abul Hashim and Hamidul Haq Choudhury. A broad-based All-Party Committee of Action (APCA) was constituted with Kazi Golam Mahboob as Convener and Maulana Bhashani as Chairman, and with two representatives from the Awami League, Students League, Youth League, Khilafate-Rabbani Party, and the Dhaka University State Language Committee of Action.
At February 3, 1952, Committee of Action held a protest meeting in Dhaka against the move 'to dominate the majority province of East Bengal linguistically and culturally'. The provincial chief of Awami League, Maulana Bhashani addressed the meeting. On the suggestion of Abul Hashim it was decided to hold a general strike on 21 February, when the East Bengal Assembly was due to meet for its budget session. The day before strike at 6 p.m. an order under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code prohibiting processions and meetings in Dhaka City was promulgated. This order generated tension and resentment among the students.
February 21, 1952 a general strike was observed. A meeting was held in the campus of Dhaka University at noon. Students decided to defy the official ban imposed by Nurul Amin's administration and processions were taken out to stage a demonstration in front of the Provincial Assembly. Police started lobbing tear gas shells to the students. Students retaliated by batting bricks. The ensuing riot rushed to the nearby campuses of the Medical and Engineering colleges.
At approximately 4 p.m. -The police opened fire in front of the Medical College hostel. Five persons - Mohammad Salauddin, Abdul Jabbar, Abul Barkat, Rafiquddin Ahmed and Abdus Salam - were killed; the first three are students of Dhaka University. "The news of the killing spreaded like wildfire throughout the city and people rushed in thousands towards the Medical College premises." (-- Talukder Maniruzzaman) Inside the assembly, six opposition members pressed for the adjournment of the House and demanded an inquiry into the incidents. But Chief Minister Nurul Amin urged the House to proceed with the planned agenda for the day. At this point all the opposition members of the Assembly walked out in protest. The following day,
Thousands of men and women thronged the university, Medical College and Engineering College areas to offer prayers for the victims of the police firing. After prayers when they went for a procession, the police opened fire. The police also fired on angry mob that burned the offices of a pro-government newspaper. Four persons were killed. As the situation deteriorated, the government called in the military to bring things under control. Bowing to the pressure, the Chief Minister Nurul Amin moved a motion recommending to the Constituent Assembly that Bengali should be one of the state languages of Pakistan. The motion was passed unanimously.
"For the first time a number of Muslim members voted in favor of the amendments moved by the opposition, which so far had consisted of the Hindu Congress members only. The split in the Muslim League became formalized when some members demanded a separate bloc from the Speaker; the Awami (Muslim) League had attained the status of an opposition parliamentary party." (-- Hasan Zaheer).
"In the face of these repressive measures, the movement lost its momentum in Dhaka. But it spreaded widely throughout the districts ... In addition to demands for recognition of Bengali as one of state languages of Pakistan, students now began to call for the resignation of the 'bloody' Nurul Amin cabinet ... Nurul Amin claimed that the government "had saved the province from disaster and chaos" by its repressive measures. The students, however, argued that they had already "written the success story of the movement on the streets with their blood." In retrospect, whatever the merits of government and student actions, it is clear that the movement did sow the seeds of a secular-linguistic Bengali nationalism in east Bengal. Its immediate impact was to prepare the ground for the complete routing of the Muslim League in the 1954 elections by a United Front of opposition political parties, on a nationalistic planck of cultural, political and economic autonomy for East Bengal." (-- Talukder Maniruzzaman) "The Language Movement added a new dimension to politics in Pakistan. It left deep impression on the minds of the younger generation of Bengalis and imbued them with the spirit of Bengali nationalism. The passion of Bengali nationalism which was aroused by the Language Movement shall kindle in the hearts of the Bengalis forever ... Perhaps very few people realized then that with the bloodshed in 1952 the new-born state of Pakistan had in fact started to bleed to death." (-- Rafiqul Islam)
What were the consequences of language movements? Well, the answers are many. At May 7, 1954 the Pakistan government recognizes Bangla as a state language. Later at Feb 26, 1956 the Constituent Assembly passes the first Constitution of Pakistan recognizing Bangla as a State Language. Above all, that was one of seeds of disintegration sowed by Pakistani for which Bangladesh became an independent nation at March 26, 1971.
At the initiative of the United Nations and its various organs, a number of specific days have been declared over the years as international days for observance by the people of the whole world. All these days highlight some values, events and issues and are intended to generate a healthy awareness in the people of the world about them with the ultimate aim of making this world a better place to live in for the entire human population. Thus we have the international literacy day, international women's day. international children's day, the international day for eradication of racial discrimination, international day for ensuring pure drinking water, international habitat day, international day for preservation of environment and many others.
International Mother Language Day is particularly significant in the sense that it has a cultural importance. From now on, 21st February — so long observed in Bangladesh as the Bangla Language Martyrs' Day — will be observed here simultaneously as the Bangla Language Martyrs' Day and the International Mother Language Day. And in nearly 200 countries of the world, various peoples speaking various languages and belonging to various national cultures will observe 21st February as the International Mother Language Day. They will naturally celebrate their own mother languages, but while doing so, it is more than likely that they will refer to Bangladesh and the Language Movement launched by her people that reached a climactic point on 21st February 1952.
The declaration made by the UNESCO in November 1999 designating 21st February as the International Mother Language Day has placed Bangladesh on the cultural map of the world with a highly positive image. We, people of Bangladesh, should now do all that we can to further develop our mother language Bangla in all branches of knowledge so that it can play a worthy role in the community of world languages. We shall love, cherish and promote Bangla, our own mother language, but we shall not indulged in any kind of chauvinism.
In conclusion, while devotedly serving our own language, we shall respect the languages of all the peoples of the world make 21st February - The International Mother Language Day - a great day, to be observed worldwide in the new century and the millennium that we have recently stepped into. So the history of 21st is a great lesson for everyone. We should respect the mother tongue of everyone in the world.
Long live 21st February the International Mother Language Day!
--Suman Chowdhury
