Rayhan Ahmed Topader :
February is a month of inspiration especially for the young generation as those who led the language movement in 1952 were the young students of the then East Bengal. On that day, Rafiq, Salam, Barkat, Safiur and Jabbar shed their blood to uphold the dignity of our mother tongue Bangla. The sad alphabet was unchained in their blood and we got back the mother tongue as the basis of Bengali nationality.
Our 21st February has now made its place beyond our borders and become a pride for the whole world. UNESCO has recognised the Day as International Mother Language Day to honour the sacrifices for mother tongue made by the youth of our nation. No nation has the history of sacrificing life for its mother tongue as we have. We are proud of our language. The first Nobel Prize to Asia came through poems and songs written by Rabindranath Tagore written in our language. National anthem of not only Bangladesh but also of India was written in our language. Three hundred million people all over world speak in this language, and it is the 6th most spoken language in the world and the second in the sub-continent.
Every year 21st February comes with its own glory and grief that touches every Bengali speaking person especially Bangladeshis as the magic seed was sown six decades ago on this very day to give birth to a new nation-state, today’s Bangladesh. And now, for more than a decade, the whole world celebrates ‘Amor Ekushey’ with us in the name of International Mother Language Day. That alone gives us a lot of sense of pride to have the recognition of our identity. We have achieved the credit of creating awareness world wide about the importance of maintaining and nurturing language and cultural diversity. It is established that we are many but we are one, we are human being no matter what language or what cultural background an individual possess. So it is important more than ever before, people value their own cultural heritage which is best borne by their local language, in the era of globalisation.
Ekushey is all about Bangla, the right to speak the mother tongue, the right to express oneself in the most comfortable way, the right to practice humanity in its own right. Bangla showed the way to stand with pride that is now followed by the other nations since United Nations declared 21st February as the International Mother Language Day. It’s not only celebrated by the expatriate Bangladeshis around the world beyond the mother land but everybody else irrespective of what language they speak to cherish their own language and cultural diversity. Most of all it gives people around the world a sense of dignity to be proud of their identity.
And that is a big thing now how we emphasize the importance of learning and teaching Bengali properly here and abroad. Outside the fence of Bangladesh Bengali is the 5th most spoken language in England and the 7th most spoken language in the world and that should give enough reason to enhance the education of this glorious language that won the literary Nobel Prize, has a vast wealth of literature and culture and most of all the unique language that was powerful enough to create a sovereign country. A much smaller language (by the number of people speaking), say, Dutch is being taught around the world by far more importance than Bengali. Why are we failing? We actually fell into a vicious circle of language barrier and economic importance. To make Bengali important we need to earn the economic importance worldwide and almost equally to make our economy important we need to promote Bengali language and culture more than ever before in the wake of globalisation.
Same argument can be put forward for many issues to realise that English is important which does not mean Bengali is unimportant. With thousands years of rich culture and literature we could lead the world in some ways while other countries are doing in other ways. But with great sorrow today we observe a big chunk of our own youngsters has no knowledge or interest in either Ekushey sense or Bengali just because English can ensure them a prosperous world. In the spirit of Ekushey, our new generation must be inspired by the glory of the language movement.
(Mr. Topader is a columnist.
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