Md. Muzibur Rahman :
Every human being has his first expression just after born in the earth and it is from his mother tongue. The language is that one first learns to speak and interacts when he/she is a child. So, the love of mother tongue is natural & inevitable. The history of our mother tongue is hundreds of years. This language (Bengali language) predominates in some countries like India (Kolkata, Tripura, Assam), Bangladesh, in some areas of Myanmar as mother tongue. There are hundreds of languages in the world which peoples interact with each other with their respective languages. English is the international language in the world and some other languages are recognized as internationally for their importance and predomination.
International Mother Language Day is celebrated every year on 21st February. The main purpose of celebrating this day is to promote the awareness of language and cultural diversity all across the world. It was first announced by UNESCO on November 17, 1999. Since then it is being celebrated every year. The date represents the day 21st February 1952 when four young students were killed in Dhaka, the capital of Bangladesh, because of Bengali and Urdu language controversy. Languages are the most powerful way to preserve and develop culture and to promote it all across the world. Because of this unfortunate incident, International Mother Language Day is celebrated in all over the world, while it is a public holiday in Bangladesh. In 1947 at the time of partition of Pakistan, the province
Bengal was divided into two parts: the western part became India and the eastern part is known as East Bengal which was later known as East Pakistan. At that time there were many economic, social and cultural issues including linguistic issue. In 1948 when government announced Urdu as the national language it sparked the protest among the Bengali speaking majority of Pakistan. The protest got out of control and ended with the death of four protestors of the University of Dhaka who were shot by the police. The students’ deaths during the fight for their mother language are now remembered as The International Mother Language Day.
The Shaheed Minar in Dhaka pays respect to those four protestors killed for the sake of their mother language. On International Mother Language Day UNESCO and other UN agencies take part in the events to promote cultural and linguistic diversity all around the world. They appreciate and encourage people to be knowledgeable about their mother language and provide them with awareness regarding the promotion of their language and culture towards other countries. In Bangladesh on International Mother Language Day people go to Shaheed Minar to pay tribute to the martyr of 21st February and sprinkle flowers on the monument. This is a time for Bangladeshis to celebrate their culture, traditions and their Bengali national language. The prizes are given to those who made outstanding performance in language and cultural diversity. International Mother Language Day is celebrated in memory of the four students who were killed while fighting for their mother language and is celebrated to tell them that we will never forget their sacrifices.
So, we love and respect our mother tongue and celebrate the 21st February with due solemnity and enthusiasm. I want to say in this article that we will love mother tongue certainly but we will not ignore other languages in the world for the sake of our own language, culture and development. We will have to learn other languages for beautifying our own language, culture and development. In the age globalization, the nations are giving importance of more connectivity among themselves for mutual benefits and cooperation. Either it may be in education, research, trainings or for any business, export-imports, diplomacy and foreign jobs.
For an example, if we want to take foreign degree in education, training courses with foreign curriculum, higher degree in profession and skill in foreign land, want to take foreign job, communicate easily with other nations, we must have to learn of hosting country’s language or by recognized international language. The countries are more developed which citizens are rich in diversified languages for getting jobs in other countries. We have many foreign training courses, terms & schedules which are not in our own language, names of imported machineries, technological ideas, science fictions, meanings and terminologies which are not translated in our mother tongue. So, we cannot ignore other languages. We will love our language without ignoring other languages for our own benefits and interests.
(Md. Muzibur Rahman, writes on development & economics issues, e-mail: muzibur64 @gmail.com)
