by Md Saiful Haque

Fifty four years ago, on a spring day when scarlet Palash flowers together with other flowers were in bloom, a multitude of valiant youths, like surging waves of the ocean, paraded the Dhaka streets for the noble cause of the recognition of Bangla, their beloved mother tongue. Rafiq, Salam, Barkat, Jabbar and some others sacrificed themselves, dyeing the streets red with their blood, which permanently perpetuated the Bangla Bhasha on 21 February 1952. And that has been recorded in our annals as Amar Ekushey (Immortal Ekushey). The Language Movement was in effect the prelude to the liberation of Bangladesh because from it the struggle for rights and struggle against oppression started to take up steam, which ultimately led to independence struggle which had its successful culmination when on December 16th, 1971, this nation won freedom.
   For a long time, it was only us who remembered the language martyrs and their selfless sacrifice that gave us the right to speak our language. But, with the world fast becoming a global village, this unique event did not take time to catch the eye of others. Now, we celebrate 21st February as the international mother language day.
   Unesco, in 1999 in Paris, in a unanimous decision declared 21st February as International Mother Language Day. All 191 UN nations around the world would celebrate their mother tongues from the year 2000 while bearing in mind that promoting the dissemination of mother tongues will serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to develop fuller awareness about linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue. This noble cause of unifying, while at the same time promoting diversification, comes in the form of commemorating our martyrs.
   The Bangalees’ passionate devotion to Bangla Bhasha—their unique love of their mother tongue—has outshone that of any other linguistic groups of the world. Never before in history did people shed blood or lay down their lives for the cause of their mother tongue.
   The movement which was at the beginning a democratic protest took the shape of a well organized struggle. A ‘highly explosive political issue’, as Field Marshal Ayub Khan called it, the struggle gradually turned into an overwhelming mass upsurge. Consequently the colonial overlords of the central government of the then Pakistan compelled to admit to the reality giving in to the determination of the Bangalees, and Bangla Bhasha, was recognized as a State language.
   That was the beginning of an end. In fact, thru’ this bloody event simply for the inborn right of a people to their mother tongue the fascist and ugly attitudes of the Pakistani “barbaric and blockheaded” military rulers towards Bangalees were unearthed. Since then the seeds of hostility and disbelief were sown in the minds of Bangalees. And that continued unabated in all respects in public and social life. Bangalees except their (Pakistani despotic rulers’) collaborators, today’s Jamaat and pro-Jamaat people, suffered discriminatory practices everyplace by the Pakistani military ‘janta’. This gradually resulted in a backlash, which subsequently prompted our liberation. In fact we were forced into our independence, which began with the Language Movement of 1952. Finally in continuity of struggle, our emancipation from colonial subjugation found its fruition on 16 December 1971, when we have achieved our long-craved sovereign homeland Bangladesh.
   So, fifty-four years have elapsed since the tragic as well as heroic twenty-first day of February which afforded us valour and sew the seed of our ultimate liberation. But how unfortunate a nation is today, which is now bizarrely being ruled by those “foxes” as a chief coalition partner, who outright betrayed our language and liberation, and are still “covertly and cunningly” carrying out their activities to establish the Islamist militant rule in the country like Talibans. They were out to demolish the first Shaheed Minar (the martyrs’ tower) on Dhaka University premises. They do not recognize the supreme sacrifice of the 21st February heroes though they recently sometimes are going to Shaheed Minar merely for political reasons. This is deeply shaming for the nation. It is also shocking to find that quite a few fairly educated persons today do not know what their Bangalee culture and Bangalee literary tradition are.
   The Bangla Academy is a unique institution for sustenance and projection of the Bangalee culture. It predates a similar organization in West Bengal. The management structure and scope of the Academy’s function have changed over the years. At present the functional departments are research, book and manuscripts collection, and folklore department.
   Education is, most of all for the enlargement and the enjoyment of life. It is education that opens the window for the individual on the pleasures of language, literature, art, music, the diversities and of the world scene. Bangla Academy, as an educational institution and a window for enjoyment of that education, has been playing a key role to improve our approach to Bangalee culture and heritage.
   Sentiments, emotions can always be best expressed in one’s own language and dreams are always in one’s own tongue. One cannot but recognize this fact. But at the same time, learning and acquiring other languages can never be undermined. Language is the uniting bond that helps bring countless number of people together and share one another’s feelings, cultures and values. Those who live abroad can well realize the fact. People who live far away from home in another nation would make instant friends with others just because they speak the same language. Otherwise, they would not bother at all.
   Bangla is a language that is now spoken in other parts of the world as well, but is identified with Bangladesh as a nation. Many take up the language as a means of re-establishing cultural links or, as in the case of the growing numbers of non-Bangalees learning Bangla, for sheer enjoyment, interest, and exchanging personal views and ideas. Bangla courses are offered especially in some universities at UK and US in the form of exam (for GCE O and A levels, course units in degrees, etc). Renowned universities such as University of Westminster, UK, Cornell University, US, Columbia University, US, University of Toronto, Canada and Kingsway College, UK, offer Bangla in their language courses. At Dhaka University, we see people of foreign nationality applying to learn Bangla.
   We should uphold the spirit of Ekushey in all spheres of our national life. And what we need most at the moment is that our approaches to our public and social lives, tradition, heritage, and culture must change so we can rectify and discover ourselves. And the government should force all English medium schools into introducing Ekushey event/history, liberation war and our bejeweled heritage, whether in English or Bangla, in their academic curriculums, so that all our next generations can learn more about their rich heritage, culture and overall the nation; feel love for their motherland; and can discover themselves.