(Pic from open sourse , internet)
Bangladesh is a unique country created on the basis of language. Whenever we talk about a popular mass movement and political agitations conceived and executed to establish the right of Mothertongue, immediately we think of 21February,1952 when mass upsurge led by students in the then East Bengal was tried to be suppressed by savage force and police firing. It resulted in the martyrdom of Rafik,Jabbar, Salam,Barkat and Safiur in Dhaka but led to the bowing down of state power before the students and people of East Bengal. Bangla was accepted as one of the state languages of Pakistan. This victory became the source of inspiration for all the future movements against the discrimination and neo colonial exploitation by the West Pakistani authorities of their eastern wing. This ultimately led to emergence of Bangladesh from East Pakistan. Actually the agitation and movement started in East Bengal just after the emergence of Pakistan when Urdu was declared as the only state languages of the country where 55 per cent of the people spoke Bangla.
Then we have the success story of the 1961 Bangla language movement in the Barak valley. 11 youth including 16 year old Kamala Bhattacharjee laid down their lives in Shilchar for establishing the rights of Bangla as one of the state languages in Assam. This movement too is known and discussed.
We have another historical mass movement for establishing rights of Bangla language which was a long protracted fight that is not much known or talked about. I am referring to Manbhum Bangla language movement.
In 1912 the British Indian government annulled Banga Bhanga. East Bengal was separated from Assam and both East and West Bengal were reunited. Bihar and Orissa was curved out of Bengal Presidency to form a new province.A part of original Jangal mahal which came under the British East India company rule formed the district of Manbhum. When it was created Manbhum was approximately 20000 square kilometres of area. During the course of a century of British rule and administrative reforms it was reduced to approximately 10000 square kilometres at the time of partition of India. When the British left in 1947, Manbhum was still a part of Bihar since 1912 and the state language was Hindi. Since a large part of the Manbhum population was Bengali speaking,since 1913 they started raising their voice against imposition of Hindi and demanded to be a part of Bengal. Somehow they managed to have a status quo and Bengali was not neglected or cornered by the authorities. After the Independence of India,in 1948 the language movement started in Manbhum as a result of imposition of Hindi in a much stronger way. Hindi was to be taught compulsorily from primary schools, Bengali started to be eliminated from high schools,all public notice boards were becoming Hindi only affair,Bengali speaking officers were being transferred to other Hindi speaking districts deliberately. The Bengali popopulation brought in a proposal of transferring Manbhum from Bihar to Bengal in the Congress session of the district. The motion lost by a narrow margin. Leading figures of Manbhum Congress party left their organisation and formed Lok Sebak Sangha to fight for the right of Bengali. Soon it became a popular movement. Famous bard of Manbhum Sri Bhajahari Mahato penned his famous song:
Shun Bihari Bhai
Tora rakhtey laarbi
Dang dekhai..
Which translates to…..Listen Bihari brothers,you can’t stop us by threatening with sticks.
This became a signature song of the Manbhum language movement. Satyagraha,Hal Joal andolon,Tusu Satyagraha,long march to Kolkata were some of the worth mentioning steps taken by the mass and their leaders. It was a protracted struggle starting in 1948 for eight years. Finally the government had to yield to the demands of the Bengali popopulation of Manbhum. A commission was set up to consider the pros and cons of the problem and suggest remeadies. The commission,after detailed studies,suggested bifurcation of Manbhum. The majority Bengali speaking areas of the district with the existing headquarters at Purulia were curved out of Bihar and made a part of West Bengal. The Purulia district started functioning on 1November,1956. A memorable day indeed for mother language lovers of the world.
Kudos to the leaders and activists of Manbhum language movement. Long live the idea of all mother languages of the world. It is the duty of human civilization to protect all the mother languages in our planet.
