Omor Ekushey: International Mother Language Day
21 February was proclaimed the International Mother Language Day by UNESCO on 17 November 1999. Its observance was also formally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution establishing 2008 as the International Year of Languages.
International Mother Language Day originated as the international recognition of Language Movement Day, which has been commemorated in Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) since 1952, when a number of Bangladeshi university students were killed by the then East Pakistan police and army in Dhaka, formerly Dacca.
International Mother Language Day is observed yearly by UNESCO member states and at its headquarters to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.
History of that day
On that day of 21 February 1952, corresponding to 8 Falgun 1359 in the Bangla calendar, a number of students campaigning for the recognition of Bangla as one of the state languages of Pakistan were killed when police fired upon them.
Mohammed Ali Jinnah (the Governor General of Pakistan) declared that the Urdu will be the only language for both west and East Pakistan at a public meeting on 1948, 21 March. The people of the East Pakistan (now Bangladesh, whose main language is Bengali) started to protest against this.
A student meeting on 21 February called for a province-wide strike. But the government invoked Section 144 on 20 February. The student community at a meeting on the morning of 21 February agreed to continue with their protest but not to break the law of Section 144. Even then the police opened fire and killed the students.
Annual themes
The observances of International Year of Languages tend to have a theme, indicated either in the formal program set for observance at UNESCO headquarters, or more explicitly in the publicity.
- 2000, Inaugural celebration of International Mother Language Day
- 2001, Second annual celebration
- 2003, “Linguistic Diversity: 3,000 Languages in Danger†(slogan: “In the galaxy of languages, every word is a starâ€)
- 2004, Children’s learning (the observance at UNESCO included “a unique exhibition of children’s exercise books from around the world illustrating the process by which children learn and master the use of written literacy skills in the classroomâ€)
- 2005, “Braille and Sign languagesâ€
- 2006, “Languages and Cyberspaceâ€
- 2007, Multilingual education
- 2008, International year of Languages
Source: Wikipedia
February 21st, 2008 at 11:05 pm
Words help us express the joys and pains of being alive. Language lets us do so. I am really proud of my mother tongue which has a unique history of its won, enabling us to be even prouder of ourselves and our heritage!
On this lovely day lets also remember that words are all beautiful. And in every language. Lets also know how to appreciate the diversity of sounds and languages around us. 2008 after all is (formally) the international year of languages. In the present era of globalisation that seems to make special sense!
At the same time, in the universal bowl of languages lets also not forget how beautiful our own mothertongue is. Lets love to cherish it ands preserve it in every way we can. Lets teach our children the words and beauty of expressions — the sounds and history of our language so they know to appreciate it more.
Otherwise you know, our own language will die in our own hands! That would be a terrible shame…not only because of how much we have fought to get a right to use it, but because its one of the most beautiful languages in the world, its OURS, and only we can keep it going!
Have a lovely weekend,
bhalo thakben, shundor thakben.
March 10th, 2008 at 6:02 pm
The Moderator,
I would like to draw your attention to the ‘History of the Day’ section of the Omor Ekushey: International Mother Language Day post.
The third paragraph of this post reads, “A student meeting on 21 February called for a province-wide strike. But the government invoked Section 144 on 20 February. The student community at a meeting on the morning of 21 February agreed to continue with their protest but not to break the law of Section 144. Even then the police opened fire and killed the students.â€
I was wondering if you could clarify the following;
1)The resolution of the student community meeting where they agreed to continue with their protest but not to break the law of section 144. I would like to understand how that was possible when the section 144 prohibited any gatherings of more than four people and any public meetings?
2)I would also appreciate if you mention the names of the Student’s who got brutally murdered by the Police.
Thank you,
Sincerely,
Galib Mahmud
March 10th, 2008 at 7:34 pm
Galib,
Thank you for your question. If you look at the source of the post, you will see it has been linked/sited from Wikipedia. That site has done a phenomenal job of documenting the history behind the day and forward.
I am siting from Wikipedia website to clarify your questions, hope this helps:
“Police declared Section 144 which banned any sort of meeting. DEFYING this, the students of University of Dhaka and Dhaka Medical College and other political activists started a procession in February 21, 1952. Near the current Dhaka Medical College Hospital, police fired on the protesters and numerous people, including ABDUS SALAM, RAFIQ UDDIN AHMED, SOFIUR RAHMAN, ABUL BARKAT AND ABDUL JABBAR, died.
The movement spread to the whole of East Pakistan and the whole province came to a standstill. Afterwards, the Government of Pakistan relented and gave Bengali equal status as a national language.”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Language_Movement_Day
March 11th, 2008 at 4:42 pm
I am sure the Wikipedia has done a phenomenal job of documenting the ‘history behind the day.’
But I am sorry to say that I failed to understand the specific paragraph, when it reads, “The student community at a meeting on the morning of 21 February agreed to continue with their protest but not to break the law of Section 144. Even then the police opened fire and killed the students,†it seems to imply that the students did not break the laws of section 144 but the Police killed the students anyways. Whereas, you have later clarified that the students of University of Dhaka and Dhaka Medical College and other political activists started a procession in February 21, 1952 DEFYING the section 144. Though, both the earlier and the later information my be based on facts; it is still confusing to a reader like me who is trying to understand the ‘History of the day’ from your post or the Wikipedia.
Secondly, when it says, “ Even then the police opened fire and killed the students,†it seemed to me that the people who took part in the protests were students and the ones who got killed were students only. But later you clarified that Police opened fire and killed numerous people including ABDUS SALAM, RAFIQ UDDIN AHMED, SOFIUR RAHMAN, ABUL BARKAT AND ABDUL JABBAR. Though, I am still wondering if Abdus Salam, Rafiq Uddin Ahmed, Sofiur Rahman, Abul Barkat and Abdul Jabbar were all students!