International Mother Language Day

To human beings, mother language is as favorite thing as like their lives. With the use of mother language, people present the identity of their nation to the world. Bengali language was born almost thousand years ago after going through evolution. The history of the evolution of Bengali language is very old. Like all things in material world, language is also changeable. These words are equally applicable to our mother tongue Bengali. Out of four thousand languages on earth, Bengali comes sixth in terms of number of speakers around the world. Almost 25 crore people speak in Bengali language, which is a great pride for us. Writing literature in Bengali language, many litterateurs have earned special fame in this world. Creating literature in Bengali language, Rabindranath Tagore won Nobel Prize in 1913. With the achievement of Nobel Prize by Rabindranath Tagore, the status of Bengali language was elevated to the international standard in the world. Giving speech in Bengali in a session of the United Nations in 1974, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman also held the glory of Bengali language very high.

Bengali’s sole-searching regarding the status of Bengali language in Bengal gave birth to a spirit of language, which later on influenced the beginning of language movement in November–December, 1947 in the post-partition Dhaka, the capital of East Pakistan. In March 1948, a small protest took place on this matter and on 21 February 1952, it exploded. On 21 February 1952, the spirit that stimulated Bengalis to establish their mother tongue in a fitting dignified place by sacrificing their blood has now been recognized internationally, going beyond the country’s border.  

Based on the two-nation theory, Pakistan as a nation emerged in 1947 following the partition of British India. But there were many fundamental differences between the two parts of Pakistan, East Pakistan and West Pakistan, in terms of culture, geography and language. In 1948, Pakistan government declared that Urdu would be the only state language of Pakistan. In the context of this announcement, there arose a deep-rooted discontent and adverse reaction among the Bengali-speaking general people in East Pakistan. With the demand of equal status for Bengali language, movement began pretty rapidly in East Pakistan.

The police imposed the section 144 to stop the movement. On 21 February 1952, by disobeying this order, a number of students and some progressive political activists of the University of Dhaka jointly started the procession. When the procession arrived near Dhaka Medical College, police fired on protesters on the pretext of the contempt of section 144. The roads were colored with the blood of martyrs. Intense anger broke out in all over East Pakistan following this tragic incident. In the face of growing mass movement, the central government of Pakistan was forced to concede defeat. Bengali language was recognized as one of the state languages of Pakistan in the constitution adopted in 1956.

Recognition as the International Mother Language Day:

In 1998, Rafiqul Islam and Abdus Salam, two non-residential-Bangladeshis living in Vancouver, Canada, requested Kofi Annan, the then Secretary General of the United Nations, to declare 21st February as the International Mother Language Day. They were the first Bangladeshis to take this initiative. The 21st February was declared as the International Mother Language Day in Paris session of UNESCO held on 17 November 1999, and since 21st February 2000, it has been celebrated in the United Nations member states with due respect. On 21 October 2010, at the 65th session of the United Nations General Assembly, the United Nations passed a resolution that every year from now on, they would celebrate the International Mother Language Day on 21 February. To recognize February 21 as the ‘International Mother Language Day’, the government of Bangladesh sent a written proposal to UNESCO, which was passed with absolute support at the 30th General Conference of that organization on 17 November 1999.

Sources-

http://uttarannews.net/site2/?article=%E0%A6%86%E0%A6%A8%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%B0%E0%A7%8D%E0%A6%9C%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A4%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%95-%E0%A6%AE%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%A4%E0%A7%83%E0%A6%AD%E0%A6%BE%E0%A6%B7%E0%A6%BE-%E0%A6%A6%E0%A6%BF%E0%A6%AC

http://uttarannews.net/site2/?article=আন্তর্জাতিক-মাতৃভাষা-দিব