The Historical Background of International Mother Language Day
Date: Thursday, January 06 @ 21:14:23 CET
Topic: Linguistica e società
To commemorate the sacrifice of Bengali language activists, the United Nations declared 21 february as the International Mother Language Day.
by Ragib Hasan
License Creative Commons: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/
When the British left the Indian subcontinent in 1947, they divided the country into two parts. The Western and Eastern parts became Pakistan while the middle part became India.
Pakistan's western and eastern wings were very different in their culture and languages. The only tie was their common religion. After independence, most of the leaders of Pakistan were from West Pakistan, and many of them wanted to make Urdu as the only national language of Pakistan. However, the Bengalis from the East Pakistan were the majority (56%) of the population. Urdu was quite unknown to them, and the Bengalis wanted equal status of their mother language: Bengali language.
Initially there were hopes that both Urdu and Bengali will have equal status. But in 1952, the government finally declared Urdu to be the only national language. This meant that Bengalis would not be able to use their own language for official purposes, do*****ents, jobs etc. There was a spontaneous movement against it. Students, teachers, poets, politicians united to protest against the government.
On 21 February, the government declared a ban on any processions or protests in Dhaka, the capital of East Pakistan. The Bengali students started a peaceful procession in support of Bengali language. Near Dhaka Medical College campus, Pakistani Police force fired upon the protesters, and killed a large number of students (including Salam, Barkat, Rafique, Jabbar, Shafiur). The protest went on and became a nationwide movement. Finally, the government of Pakistan gave equal status to Bengali language as the national language of the country.
The language movement caused Bengalis to unite, and later this led to the liberation of Bangladesh as an independent nation in 1971.
To commemorate the sacrifice of the language activists, a monument named the "Shaheed Minar" (or the language martyr's monument) was built on the site of the massacre. The Pakistan Police initially demolished the structure, but it was rebuilt. Every year, Bengalis commemorate this event with a renewed pledge of love for their language. A month long book fair is organized near the monument, and the day is a national holiday. In recognition of the Bengali language movement of 21st february, the United Nations declared it as the International Mother Language Day.
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