Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque and Nasir Uddin :
Every year we observe 21st February as international mother tongue day. Our pride knew no bounds when we think that Bangle has been recognized at the international level. So our celebration of special day is elaborate. The month of February is marked out as a month of special significance with the capital city wearing a festive look. All our cultural organizations become all out with their cultural programmes orchestrating progressive ideas and intrinsic values of liberation war. Book festival at Bangla Academy premise marke the significance of the month.
International Mother Language Day (Bhasha Divas) was observed across the world, with Bangladesh leading on 21 February 2014. This day is observed with an aim to promote awareness of linguistic, multilingualism and cultural diversity.
International Mother Language Day was announced by UNESCO on 17 November 1999 and was formally recognised by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution establishing 2008 as the International Year of Languages.
It celebrates cultural diversity and commemorates the “language martyr” students of 1952 Bangladesh. In 1952 four students were killed on 21 February 1952 because they campaigned to officially use Bengali as their mother language in Bangladesh instead of Urdu. These students are honored by the encouragement of multiculturalism and the promotion of protective measures for endangered languages.
Current International Mother Language Day events include multicultural festivals which promote the hearing of all voices, and display social cohesion, cultural awareness, and tolerance. The unique nuances and subtleties of linguistic communication which connect individuals to culture and personal identity are valued and encouraged.
This day is being celebrated since February 2000 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. UNESCO highlights the importance of mother tongue as part of the right to education and encourages its member states to promote instruction and education in the mother tongue.
UNESCO promotes mother tongue-based bilingual or multilingual approaches in education – an important factor for inclusion and quality in education. Research shows this has a positive impact on learning and learning outcomes. The Organization provides normative frameworks for language policy and education and shares good practices in bilingual and multilingual education and mother tongue instruction.
Given the remarkable historical antecedents marked by the examples of supreme sacrifice of the martyrs shedding heavy blood the language movement of 1952 is a special day observed in a befitting manner as a mark of deep respect to memories of Salam, Barkat, Rafique, Jabbar and Shafique who died a tragic death due to police firing. It was essentially a student movement. Despite the fact that the movement was Dhaka based at its starting point it eventually stirred the whole student community with its spiraling impacts on campus politics all over the country. This was perhaps the beginning of glorious student politics. Of course the role of the renowned politicians was no less significant. They were found to be active in the initial stage of the movement.
The great language movement in each successive stage was carried forward by the students showing much enthusiasm and spirit as a powerful social force. The students started agitating against the ruling coterie hitting out all the way at repressive laws and nefarious policy intervention backed by misinterpretation of religious values. They initiated forward course of action in political mobilization at the moment when there was a conspiracy to undo rich Bengali culture striking at its linguistic elements often with distortions and indoctrinations. Tremendous protest was launched against the imposition of Urdu as the only state language of Pakistan. The then administration imposed promulgated 144 as an act of repression. The students defied section 144 steering the movement to its avouched goal against all odds. The students from varsity halls and respective homes gathered around medical college (the original varsity campus) are demonstrating a whirland of protest against the frantic attempt of the non-Bengali or half Bengali political elite to impose Urdu on Bengali speaking people. Urdu was not a language of our soil; nor was it a common popular language of different ethnic communities of the erstwhile West Pakistan. It was nothing more than a lingua franca. Perhaps originating from Lucknow and Hyderabad (Decan) the anti-people rulers with ethnocentric attitude described it as the Muslim language written in Arabic alphabet (the Holy Scripture). But the spoken Urdu is same as Hindi or better say as good as the Hindustani language commonly used by the Indians as language of communication. There was campaign of the so-called Islamic minded elite for Urdu being upheld as the only language to cement the bond of union among the linguistic communities as Islam was though be the unifying force.
Conspiracy against Bengali culture was going on inside the palace with Bengali speaking Nurul Amin appearing with heinous acts. As the Chief Minister of East Bengal he ordered a contingent of security force to crack down upon the peaceful demonstrators. The policemen fired on the processionists. Some among the processionists died, many injured and many were arrested. After that fateful day the agitation with unprecedented fury spread all over the eastern province with varsity and college students taking the lead. Even school students were aware of growing militancy of mass movements based on secular and vernacular values.
At that time the leading student leaders once associated with Muslim League as the platform of Pakistan movement came to constitute a real patriotic force. Bangabandhu was one of them. They became active forming Muslim Student League as soon as they became disillusioned thanks to step motherly attitude of the ruling clique. Some left lenient student organisations were springing up as a countervailing force against cultural aggression and domination all to the detriment of Bengali language and age long traditions. ‘Over the past half century, the Shaheed Minar has evolved into a sacred precinct symbolizing an underlying thirst for freedom from oppression. In its simplistic structure, it binds the emotion and the spirit of language movement and countless movements’ like six-point movement, liberation war,1971, democratic movement of the eighties and on’
It was hardly surprising that the first shaheed Minar was built by the students on 26th February, 1952. It was raised to the level, so to speak. Police raided the medical college hostel and demolished the monument. Although the monument disappeared physically the ruling regime could not efface the memory of the martyrs. ‘Innumerable small memorials on the same model were built all over the country, especially at educational institutions.’
The fact that 21 February is observed as shaheed Dibosh is due to the pioneering role of the student and youth community of the country. Marking the day as a special one started from 1953. ‘A replica of the memorial in red paper was installed in 1953 in the yard of the medical college hostel at the spot where the first memorial had been built. It was covered with a black cloth. From that symbolic Shaheed Minar, students launched their Probhat Phery (mourning procession) on 21st February for the first time. This has happened to be a Bengali tradition deeply anchored in our psyche.
(Dr. Md. Shairul Mashreque, Professor of Public Administration, Chittagong University and Nasir Uddin, Lecturer of Public Administration, Chittagong University)
