Aamar Ekushe

                                            BHASHA DIBASER SAHID DER SMARANE

AMAR EKUSHE

The 21^st of February has been a day of national mourning, pride, reflection and action. It was also the Language Martyr’s Day. It is 60 years ago on this day that among others, Barkat, Rafiq, Jabbar, Shafiur and Salam sacrificed their young precious lives for honour and preservation of mother language, Bangla.

It has been a day of pride for all people of Bangladesh, that the supreme sacrifice made on this day in 1952 has eventually led to the recognition of preservation of mother languages worldwide. Only in 1954, the United Front government of Abu Hussain Sarker declared a public holiday for this day.

This Day has become a milestone in recognition of the right to speak, promote and preserve all mother languages across the world.

International Mother Language Day:

At the initiative of Bangladesh government, it was 17th November 1999, the Paris-based United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO) adopted 21st February as the International Mother Language Day. For the first time, UNESCO observed 21st February, 2000 as the International Mother Language Day.

Scottish historian and essayist Thomas Carlyle (1795-1881) called the language “the body of thought”. This implies that if a mother tongue is crushed, thoughts and ideas will inevitably die.

About 6,912 mother languages are thought to exist today. But social, demographic and political factors are all contributing to possible disappearance of about 2,500 languages. Of the 2500 languages, 196 in India, 192 in the US, and 147 in Indonesia, are likely to disappear, according to a report of UNESCO.

Furthermore 199 languages are spoken by a few. For example, the language, Middle Chulym, now spoken by a handful in Siberian townsfolk (45 in number), has integrated into Russian language and once the last fluent speaker dies, the language will be extinct.

What is lost when a language is lost is another world, according to many language experts, valuable ethnographic and cultural information disappears when a language dies, leaving a gap in the understanding of the variable cognitive structures of which human brain is capable.

A Brief history of Language Movement:

On February 23, 1948 in the Pakistan Constituent Assembly in Karachi, Dhirendranath Dutta, a member of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly, made a speech calling for Bengali to be made one of the official languages of Pakistan. He stated as follows:

“I know, Sir, that Bengali is a provincial language, but, so far our state is concerned, it is the language of the majority of the people of the state. So although it is a provincial language, as a language of the majority of the people of the state it stands on a different footing. Out of six crores and ninety lakhs [69 million] people inhabiting this State, 4 crores and 40 lakhs (44 million) of these people speak the Bengali language.  So Sir, what should be the State language of the State of Pakistan?  The State language of the State should be the language which is used by the majority of the people of the State, and for that, Sir, I consider Bengali language the lingua franca of our State.”

However, .in 1948 on 19th March, Pakistan’s Governor General Mohammad Ali Jinnah, popularly known as Quaid-e-Azam, claimed at a gathering of students of Dhaka University that Urdu should be the only state language of Pakistan, ignoring the fact that Bangla is the mother tongue of 56% of the people of Pakistan.

Meanwhile in 1950, students formed the “Bangla State Language Action Committee” and worked tirelessly to make Bangla one of the state languages of Pakistan.

The immediate starting point of the tragedy of 21st February is that on 27th January, 1952, the then Prime Minister of Pakistan Khwaja Nazimuddin announced at a public meeting that Urdu alone should be the state language of Pakistan.

The students were infuriated at the announcement because Nazimuddin as chief minister of East Bengal in 1948 signed an agreement with the leaders of ‘Rashtrabhasa Sangram Parishad (State Language Action Committee) with a commitment to adopt a resolution of having Bangla as the other state language of Pakistan by the provincial Assembly. Many members of the Committee were non-students, such as, Professor Abul Kashem, Kamruddin Ahmed, (later Ambassador), Mohammad Toaha, Naimuddin Ahmed (later Advocate) and Abdur Rahman Chowdhury (later a Judge of the High Court).

It may be mentioned that subsequently students of the Dhaka University and Dhaka Medical College took a robust role in the cause of the Language Movement and took a crucial decision and defied the wishes of politicians to violate Section 144 (prohibiting an assembly more than five persons) on 21st February, 1952. . The then political leaders did not want to destabilize the political situation by lending support to students to violate Section 144 to delay general election in East Bengal, (later East Pakistan, now Bangladesh)..

On 21st February, 1952, agitated unarmed students of Dhaka University, violated Section 144  in protest, to proceed to the elected members of the East Bengal Legislative Assembly ( near SM Hall) and present their demand to  Nurul Amin, the Chief Minister.

On their way at the site of the Medical College students’ hostel number 12, at 3-30 PM, the police opened fire on the peaceful procession of students by an order of a Magistrate (a West Pakistani).

Jabbar and Rafiq died on the spot, while three others died later in hospital ( an impromptu monument had been set up by Medical College students on the site of the current Shaheed Minar )  It is believed that many more were killed including a ten year old boy, but their bodies were taken away by the police and were secretly buried. The rest is history.

Bangla language & Book Fair:

Of all the languages in South Asia, Bangla is the first to develop a literature of a very high order and still holds the model for other languages. Bangla language is unique in the sense that it has many varieties of ways to describe an object.  For example, in English an “eye” has only one expression to describe but in Bengali an “eye” can be described more than one way (akhi, nayan, chok, padmalochon etc).

Bangla writers in the past and present have enriched the language by transfusing Sanskrit, Persian, Arabic and English languages in it. Bangla was raised to its highest fame by Rabindranath Thakur (Tagore) when he was awarded in 1913 the Nobel Prize for Literature.

Every one in Bangladesh has a right to read and write Bangla, and unless free adult education for all ages of people with free learning equipment and school dress for poor children are provided, the purpose of the sacrifice of Bangla language will be defeated.

One educationist suggested that students from high school to university are to be engaged during their holidays to take one village in their charge to make all the villagers literate. Such a movement by students and literate village youth can easily turn into a literacy campaign under the government and NGOs. Within a few years all Bangladesh will be literate.

It is good to note that during the last two years, free text books are provided to all students and drop out from primary schools of poor students before secondary school stage has been reduced due to effective incentives for retention of students.

Many suggest language is a living thing and must be relevant for all people. Bangla Academy and educationists may convene a conference to discuss, debate and arrive at a decision of simplification and easy to make Bangla language access to all people in the country.

Bangla Academy may consider the following:  First, the grammar of Bangla language needs to be simplified. Second, some alphabets of Bangla need to be revisited as to whether all alphabets are necessary or not. Third, the spelling of Bangla is to be made easy and practical for writing. Fourth, monitoring in schools and training for correct pronunciation of Bangla words for teachers in schools may be undertaken.

Another fact we must not forget that learning of Bangla does not mean that we do not learn other languages, especially English. Multi-lingual skill is an asset for every one and English has turned into a language of trade and commerce.

Since 1979, the Ekushey February Book Fair was held at the Bangladesh Academy premises. This year, like last year, the book stalls are set up in spaces close to Bangla Academy.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina inaugurated the fair on 1st February. As many as 360 publishing houses and institutions including Dhaka Metropolitan Police have set up book stalls at the Fair. According to Bangla Academy, a total of 169 new books of different publications hit the fair on the third day and last year 3,600 books were displayed at the Fair.  It is reported that number of visitors to the Fair is on the rise and reading habits are on an upward curve.

For readers, the price of Bangla books has become very expensive because the printing paper and other materials are costly. The government may consider in exempting tax and custom duties on printing paper and other materials so as to make books easily available to readers at an affordable price. A knowledge- nation does not grow automatically. It needs to be carefully developed and nurtured.

Another matter to be considered by the Academy is whether the book fair can be held in various parts of the Dhaka metropolitan city for access to all. Traffic jam is one of the hurdles to attend the Book Fair at the Academy from all parts of the city, besides standing for a long queue to enter the Fair.

Finally, 21st February is more than a language movement for people of Bangladesh. Many historians think 21st February laid the seed of the foundation of a separate state of Bangladesh on the basis of Bengali nationalism that was aptly summed up by Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib when he said: “I am Bengali, my nationalism is Bengali.” The Constitution as amended last year in its Article 6 (2) describes “the people of Bangladesh shall be known as Bangalees as a nation and the citizens of Bangladesh shall be known as Bangladeshis.”

COURSTESY : Harun ur Rashid
Thursday, February 9th, 2012

DHAKA COURIER