The
movement centering on mother tongue started from the birth of Pakistan state by
combining two different nationalities speaking different languages, living in
two regions located at a distance of about two thousand kilometers and this
language movement is considered as the first step on the path of creation of
Bangladesh state.
This day was observed as Martyrs’ Day in
Bangladesh until UNESCO declared the day as International Mother Language Day
in 1999. In Bangladesh, many people know this history. But there is a history
of many more struggles, which led to the creation of the context of this
movement.
How
movement started from language:
The
debate over language started long before the partition of India based on the
two-nation theory in 1947.
Language
activists Abdul Matin and Ahmed Rafiq in their book titled Bhasha Andolon-
Itihas O Tatporjo (ভাষা আন্দোলন-ইতিহাস ও তাৎপর্য) have written, “The
first battle was mainly confined to the field of literature and culture.”
According
to the description of this book, litterateurs talked about this issue in the
early forties even before the partition of the country. At that time, there
were different views on the pros and cons of the four languages- Bengali, Urdu,
Arabic and English, among Bengali Muslim litterateurs, teachers and
politicians.
Abdul
Matin and Ahmed Rafiq have written, “Language movement was not an isolated
case. It started several decades before the original movement began and secular
nationalism of Bengali Muslims has worked behind this.”
Political
and economic context:
After
the formation of the Pakistan state was confirmed, the Urdu-Bengali debate
resurfaced. In an editorial in Millat, the important newspaper of that time, it
was written, “There can be no greater slavery than accepting a language other
than the mother tongue as the state language.”
Gradually,
economics and politics became part of that debate. In 1947, in the daily Azadi
newspaper, writer and journalist Abdul Haque wrote, “Immediately after the
declaration of Urdu as the state language, every person who could communicate
in Urdu would qualify for the job, and every Bengali-speaking person will
become unfit for jobs.”
Bengali-speaking
people were also worried about the cultural differences between the people of
the two territories located at a distance of two thousand kilometers.
Sowing
the seeds of disbelief:
In
1947, Dr. Ziauddin Ahmad, the then vice-chancellor of Aligarh Muslim
University, proposed to make Urdu the state language of Pakistan. Then the debate
over language reawakened. By that time, the self-exploration of the Muslim
Bengali began.
In
1947, within a few months of the partition of the country, Urdu and English
were used excluding Bengali from Pakistan’s first currency, stamps, train tickets,
postcards etc. After this announcement of the Pakistan Public Service
Commission, a protest rally of students and intellectuals was held in Dhaka.
Bengali
officials of the commission staged a protest demanding the use of the Bengali
language in government work. In 1948, the Chief Minister of East Pakistan at
the time of the formation of Pakistan, who later became the Governor-General of
Pakistan, Khwaja Nazimuddin, in a legislative assembly session said, “These
have been printed before the debate related to language begin though not
everyone accepted his statement.”
Formation
of Rashtrabhasha Sangram Parishad:
At
that time, intellectuals expressed their worry that if Urdu is imposed instead
of their mother tongue, the next generation of Bengali speakers would become
illiterate, and the very existence of the Bengali language would be
jeopardized. This is considered to be a big blow to the practice of mother
tongue independently.
The
feeling of resentment in the minds of Bengalis about these issues has been
building since then. Rashtrabhasha Sangram Parishad was formed towards the end
of that year.
Many
including Nurul Haque Bhuiyan of Tamaddun Majlish, an Islamic Cultural
Organization of that time, Shamsul Haque, the then parliament member, Oli Ahad,
founder of the East Pakistan Muslim Student League, Syed Nazrul Islam, the
first interim president of Bangladesh, Mohammad Toaha, founder of the East
Pakistan Student Federation, were its members who secretly conducted the
activities in the beginning.
Muhammad
Ali Jinnah and his inflexible position:
In
the then Pakistan state, Bengali speakers were the majority than Urdu speakers.
Then on March 21, 1948, during his visit to East Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah
at an assembly at the Race Course ground (now Suhrawardy Udyan) made it clear
that Urdu would be the only state language of Pakistan.
Many
people present at this rally immediately protested. This declaration can be
said to be the beginning of the end of Bengali’s dream about the new state.
From the beginning, Jinnah expressed his inflexible attitude about establishing
Urdu as the state language.
Bengalis
believed that Urdu was made into the state language with the intention to
establish political and economic domination over the Bengalis and to exploit
them. The pillar of distrust towards Pakistan was created in the minds of
Bengalis.
The
language and culture differences were appearing more strongly. Not religion,
rather the concept of Bengali nationalism started becoming clear. On the other
hand, another reason for their aversion to the Bengali language was that the
then Urdu-speaking people considered Bengali culture to be ‘Hinduani’.
The
creation of deadly fire spark:
Even
after the death of Jinnah, various proposals and counter-proposals regarding
the state language continued. From the partition till the beginning of 1952,
the Bengalis have strongly expressed their dislike about the state language
Urdu.
In
response, the movement continued intermittently, but the most terrible fire
spark in this movement was born when the final decision to make Urdu the only
state language was taken at the assembly of Pakistan on January 26, 1952.
Despite
being a resident of East Bengal, Khawaja Nazimuddin coming to visit Dhaka on
January 27, 1952, repeated Jinnah’s speech at a rally at Paltan. At that time,
many people protested by shouting the slogan ‘We want Bangla as the state
language’ in strong protest.
What
happened on the 21st of February
It
is said that Khawaja Nazimuddin’s position and his speech due to political
reasons added a new dimension to the language movement. His announcement only
added to the sense of deprivation in the minds of the Bengalis of East
Pakistan.
Rejecting
Khawaja Nazimuddin’s statement, spontaneous strikes and demonstrations started
in East Pakistan from the next day. Here the students of Dhaka University
played an important role.
People
from the political, cultural and professional communities of East Pakistan took
part at the conference led by Mawlana Bhashani. On February 21, a general
strike was declared. Section 144 was declared at Dhaka University and its
surrounding areas to prevent the strike. Violation of the curfew resulted in
Martyr's Day.
On
that day in 1952, Muhammad Mahfuz Hossain was working in the emergency
department of the hospital as a student of Dhaka Medical College. In an
interview given to BBC Bangla three years ago, the picture of that day has come
to light in his description.
In
that interview, he said, “I took three people to the hospital on the afternoon
of 21st of February. Rafiq, who was shot in the forehead, was
declared dead, and Barkat, who was shot in the thigh, died at night, right
before my eyes.”
The
students were shot near Dhaka Medical College.
He
said, “Then we could hear a lot of noise from outside. We heard that many
people were injured in the shooting. The emergency ward was full at the moment.
The
exact number of martyrs in the language movement has not been determined today.
Apart from Salam, Barkat, Rafiq, Jabbar and Shafiur, many others were martyred
in the police firing that day and the next day.
Sowing
the seeds of the state of Bangladesh:
The
killings failed to quell the movement for the mother tongue. The movement made
it clear that the feeling of oneness in the minds of the inhabitants of a state
created by combining the nationalities of two different languages in two
territories at a distance of two thousand kilometers would probably not awaken.
However,
on 7 May 1954, more than two years after this incident, the National Assembly
of Pakistan recognized Bengali as a state language and adopted the resolution.
It took two more years for the Bengali language to get the recognition of state
language as per the constitution. The seeds of an independent state called
Bangladesh were sown in this movement with the mother tongue.
Source:
BBC
