A. T. M. Nurun Nabi :
Movement for giving Bengali the status of an official language in India began its journey long before the creation of Pakistan. An English writer N. B. Holhed in the year 1778 published a book named ‘A Grammar of the Bengali Language’, (otherwise known as Holhed Grammar) in which he strongly advocated for making Bengali, dropping Persian, official language of Indian state of Bengal. He argued that the change would help the Company Government go close to the people and to run the administration smoothly
(Rashtrabhasha Andoloner Etihash by M. A. Barnik, page 23).
Nawab Ali Chowdhury, an eminent educationist, was the first Indian to have raised the issue of making Bengali the official language of Bengal. In the year 1911, he said at a ‘Provincial Education Conference’ in Rangpur that Bengali was the mother language of the Muslims. “This is our language,” he claimed. None showed so much courage as did Nawab Ali Chowdhury, writes Dr. Ali Newaj in his book under caption Nawab Ali Chowdhury in 1987. The Nawab said to the British, “Whatsoever is the official language of India, Bengali must be the official language of Bengal,” (Ref: Bangla Rashtrabhashar
Protham Prostabak Nawab Ali Chowdhury by Abu Md. Motahar).
Seven years later, Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah advanced a step forward claiming Bengali more resourceful than Hindi from the lingua point of view, and urged all to recognize it as the ‘People’s language’. At a meeting held at Calcutta Bishwa Bharati, he opposed Rabindranath Tagore’s advocacy for Hindi as common language of India and said, “It is Bengali having all the qualities required for becoming the People’s language.” In 1947, Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah wrote an article in the Dainik Azad on July 29 under caption Pakistane Rashtrabhasha Samashya (Language problem in Pakistan) and strongly pleaded for making Bengali state language of Pakistan. He wrote an identical article in Taqvir few months later.
It needs to mention that Dainik Azad played an important role for Bengali. In 1937 on April 23, the daily in its editorial under caption Bharater Rashtrabhasha viewed that Bengali had all the qualities of becoming state language of India in view of Hindi-Urdu conflict over lingua status. Abul Hashem, MLA, Secretary of Bengal Provincial Muslim League drafted a resolution in 1946 for making Bengali state language of the (proposed)
Pakistan.
The first organization to voice for Bengali was Tamaddun Majlish founded by Principal Abul Kashem on September 1, 1947. History has accepted Tamaddun Majlish as the originator of the language movement and its President Abul Kashem as the architect (Ref: Dainik Janakantha, Feb 5, 2004, Bhasha Andolon: Etihasher Aloke by M. A. Barnik). Tamaddun issued a booklet under caption ‘State language of Pakistan: Bengali or Urdu?’
Few months earlier on June 24, Abul Mansur Ahmad edited Dainik Millat categorically wrote that nothing would be more subservient than rejecting Bengali as the state language of Pakistan. But sadly the then civil and the military bureaucrats dominated by Muslim League Government of Pakistan failed to read the pulse of the Bengali-speaking people. Rather they tried in vain to discover the hands of India and the communists behind the lingua franca issue (It was a disease of all the governments of Pakistan to smell the hands of the communists and India in every issue). But this propaganda could not derail the movement; instead it began to intensify day by day.
Governor General Mohammad Ali Jinnah while visiting Dhaka in 1948 twice said, “Urdu and Urdu shall be the state language of Pakistan.” It was a dead blow to the hopes and aspirations to the Bengali people who sacrificed more than their Punjabi, Sindhi, Baluchi and Pathan combine brethrens for the cause of Pakistan. The Dhaka University students vehemently protested. They started agitation, joined by the mass; ignored curfew and bullets, and then courageously paraded the city streets. The language movement, thus, reached its peak on Feb 21, 1952 that claimed the lives of students and non-students.
The Sens who occupied Bengal in the 12th century branded Bangla as the bird’s chirping. They cautioned that the reading of the Purana, the Mahabharata and the Ramayana in Bengali language would be treated as a great crime. Dr. Dinesh Chandra Sen writes in his book ‘Bengali language and Literature’ that the Brahmans by hearts opposed Bengali and condemned Krittibus and Kashiram for translating the Ramayana and the Mahabharata into Bengali. Dr. Dinesh concluded as saying that Bengali found its fortunes with the advent of the Muslims in Bengal early 13th century. But the defeat of Nawab Siraj Uddowlah at Palassey clouded the horizon.
This is not the end of history. It will be injustice if we do not remember what happened on the 11 March 1948 and if we do not remember the East Pakistan Muslim Students League and the Tamaddun Majlish’s contributions to the language movement, and if we do not recall the input made by the leaders and the workers of the East Pakistan Muslim Students League. On that day, about 65 to 70 workers and the leaders including Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Architect of Bangladesh, were arrested to suppress the language movement.
(The writer is a senior journalist).
