The United Nations has designated 21st February as International Mother Languages Day to preserve and protect from extinction the languages of all people on earth.Many languages have,in the meantime,perished from the universe for lack of institutional support and international consciousness. Together with the languages, gone were folklore,history and culture of the people speaking in those languages. The going into oblivion of a language is a loss of heritage. It’s a loss to the mankind. UN General Assembly has resolved in 2007 that no language will henceforth be allowed to disappear from the surface of the earth. To emphasize on the importance of all the languages of the world,UN declared 2008 as International year of Languages. A noble venture indeed!
The day was selected to pay tribute to the supreme sacrifice of Bengali nation to uphold the dignity,rights and honour of Bangla,their mothertongue. On this day in 1952 Bengali youth(of the then East Pakistan) Salam,Rafique,Jabbar,Shafiur and Barkat laid down their lives in the Dhaka streets to achieve recognition of Bangla(Bengali) as one of the state languages of Pakistan. It was perhaps the first time in history that people sacrificed their lives for establishing their Mother tongue as a State language of their country. The demand was justified. More than 55% of the population of Pakistan spoke and wrote in Bangla. Since inception of the country the rulers tried best to impose Urdu as the sole State language. A motion brought in Pakistan national assembly in 1948 by lawmaker Dhirendra Nath Dutta of Cumilla(the then East Pakistan and now Bangladesh) was turned down. All political persuasions failed and Students had to go for mass agitation and shed their blood to get Mother tongue Bangla’s recognition as a State Language. The movement for establishing Bengali as one of the State Languages of Pakistan was started in September of 1947 just after Pakistan was born and there were moves by the ruling class to make Urdu the only State language of the country. Tamaddun Majlish was formed as a Socio Cultural entity to spearhead the movement of establishing Bengali as one of the State languages of Pakistan. A little later Rashtrabhasa Sangram Parishad was formed combining all parties to strengthen the movement.The recognition finally came in 1954 and was incorporated in Pakistan’s constitution in 1956. But starting from 1953,the Bengali population of East Pakistan started to observe 21February as a day of Remembrance of the Language Movement Martyrs. Early morning bare feet procession to the graves of the Martyrs and laying floral wreaths there and also at the Shaheed Minar( a beautiful piece of Architectural marvel in memory of the Language Movement Martyrs) singing a song of remembrance of the Shaheeds became a must do for all the patriotic Bengali people on 21 February morning. Shaheed Minars were by then erected in all places of erstwhile East Pakistan. Day long cultural events and seminars were arranged to glorify the Mother tongue. Supreme sacrifice of the Shaheeds was highlighted all over the Province and beyond. Ekushey(Bengali for the date 21st) became a symbol of unity and struggle for emancipation. All politial movements against Pakistani oppression and dominance used to derive inspiration from the success of the Language movement paving the way for the final Great War of Liberation of Bangladesh from the clutches of Pak neo colonial regime in which Bengalis got full fledged support from friendly Indian people and Mrs Indira Gandhi’s Government. Progressive and peace loving people all over the world were in support of the just war of Bengali people who were facing a well planned Genocide by the Pakistan army and their collaborators. The socialist world led by USSR was strongly behind Indian policy of supporting Bengali people in their War of Independence and freedom from Pakistani oppression and disparity. Finally with the victory of the Muktibahini and Indian Army on 16 December 1971,the first Bengali speaking country appeared on the World map as a free Nation.
In 1961 a Language movement took place in Cachhar of Assam to get recognition of Bangla as an Official language together with Assamese in their Bengali speaking part of the State. 11 youth including the first lady martyr for language Kamala Bhattacharjee had to sacrifice their lives in Shilchar. That movement too came out successful.
Sudeshna Singha,a Bishnupriya Manipuri youth was the 2nd lady martyr for Mother tongue. They fought to achieve the recognition of Bishnupriya as one of the Manipuri languages beside Meitei.
From 1948 to 1956 the Bengali speaking people of Manbhum fought for the recognition of Bangla in place of Hindi in their Manbhum District which came under Bihar during partition of the Indian subcontinent. Finally they succeeded and most of Bengali speaking Manbhum was reorganised as a new District of West Bengal,named Purulia.
Besides our Subcontinent, attacks on culture and language had been practiced in many places mostly by the colonisers and regional stronger forces. Culturally rich Maya and Inca languages and literature almost perished under Spanish colonisers. Many languages in the world had gone extinct with time. Reasons were either aggressive attitude of the rulers or lack of patronising from the authorities that cultural,religious or linguistic minorities deserve.
To put emphasis on the importance of all mother languages of the world a few Bangladeshis residing in Vancouver,BC,Canada led by Mr Rafiqul Islam and Mr Abdus Salam(dont confuse with the Shaheeds of 1952) joined hands with some of their friends of different nationalities and formed an organisation,namely Mother Language Lovers of the World Society. They started lobbying with the UN in 1998 for recognition of 21st February as the International Mother Language Day.Finally Bangladesh Government also had to be involved. Bangladesh PM Honourable Sheikh Hasina took personal interest in the matter.Intense lobbying and hard toil of MLLWS and Bangladesh Government finally paid the dividend and the recognition was achieved from UNESCO in 1999. The proposal was moved by 21 member countries of UNESCO, the main initiative being taken by Bangladesh. The motion was adopted unanimously supported by all 188 members of the organisation.Ironically,Pakistan was one of the 21 co proposers in this case. Bangladesh Education Minister during that period,Mr ASHK Sadeque,the country’s Ambassador in Paris(the Headquarters of UNESCO being stationed there) and other senior Bangladesh officers working with different UN agencies had to put in a lot of efforts to work out the glorious achievement.
The stalwarts of the endeavour and the organisation MLLW were honoured by Bangladesh Government with the highest Honorific Medals of the country(Swadhinata Padak and Ekushey Padak).
Let us pay homage and show deepest gratitude to all Language Shaheeds/ Martyrs of all countries including our own. Lets observe the day in celebrations and festivities with due solemnity. Let all the languages,cultures and traditions of all people of the world survive with due respect and pride and receive due patronising from all concerned authorities.
Let 7000 plus existing living languages remain with glory on our mother earth. Let us feel sorry for about 1500 languages that once existed and are extinct now.
