AMAR Ekushey is being celebrated today with due solemnity and colourful festivities to remember the Martyrs of the 1952 Language Movement. In fact, it is a day of awakening for the nation and a landmark occasion in the history of the Bengali people that laid the foundation of our future nation from that blood taint event.
As we know the then Pakistani rulers had wanted to deny us the right to use Bengali as the State Language and tried to impose Urdu on us as the official language of the people of East Pakistan who constituted the majority of the nation. It sparked protest all over the land. The students of Dhaka University immediately took to the streets demanding the repeal of the move. The Pakistani government deployed heavily armed police to stop the movement and at one point they opened fire on protesters at the place where the Shaheed Minar is located now, killing four students to make them the first martyrs of our Language Movement. It inflamed the spirit of Bengali nationalism to ultimately lead to the creation of an independent Bangladesh. We remember Salam, Barkat, Rafique and Jabbar on this occasion for their sacrifice, which led establishing Bangla as our State Language and Bangladesh as an independent nation.
Bangladesh has become the model by now for world recognition of February 21 as the ‘International Mother Language Day’ since 2000. The United Nations took this move bringing the highest level of recognition to our Language Martyrs. President, the Prime Minister, Cabinet Minister, leaders of the opposition, other political parties, diplomats and socio-cultural bodies place floral wreaths at Central Shaheed Minar on this occasion as a mark of respect to those who laid down their lives for their mother tongue. Bangla Academy opens the month-long event with a book fair; which becomes the center of month-long cultural activities and launching of new books authored during the past year. The Academy also announces new literary awards. It is a festivity of colour and cultural jubilation, about the past achievement.
It is not that important to talk of history about the victory we achieved in Pakistan days by securing recognition of Bengali as a State Language. It was necessary to prove our identity and honour in the backdrop of Pakistan.
Now our focus should be on the totality of our own identity and prestige as a free nation. We must have courage to protect our other rights. Our challenge is not only how we enrich Bengali language but how we ensure all round development for us. We are no more fighting West Pakistanis for our language, now we have to improve our English for going ahead in the modern world. In Vietnam which never had any respect for English language, now English is learnt there compulsorily.
