Pictures of MUKLESUR RAHMAN

MUKLESUR RAHMAN

Language Movement Day

 

Language Movement Day or Language Revolution Day (ভাষা আন্দোলন দিবস Bhasha Andolon Dibosh), which is also referred to as Language Martyrs' Day or Martyrs' Day (শহীদ দিবস Shohid Dibosh), is a national day of Bangladesh to commemorate protests and sacrifices to protect Bengali as a national language during the Pakistani regime in 1952.

Background

Around 1950-52, the emerging middle classes of East Bengal underwent an uprising known later as the Bengali Language Movement. Bangladeshis (then East Pakistanis) were initially agitated by a decision by the Central Pakistan Government to establish Urdu, a minority language spoken only by the supposed elite class of West Pakistan, as the sole national language for all of Pakistan. The situation was worsened by an open declaration that "Urdu and only Urdu will be the national language of Pakistan" by the governor, Khawaja Nazimuddin

Protest

Police declared Section 144 which banned any sort of meeting. Defying this, the students of University of Dhaka and Dhaka Medical College and other political activists started a procession in February 21, 1952. Near the current Dhaka Medical College Hospital, police fired on the protesters and numerous people, including Abdus Salam, Rafiq Uddin Ahmed, Sofiur Rahman, Abul Barkat and Abdul Jabbar, died.

The movement spread to the whole of East Pakistan and the whole province came to a standstill. Afterwards, the Government of Pakistan relented and gave Bengali equal status as a national language.

Effects

This movement is thought to have sown the seeds for the independence movement which resulted in the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971.

Commemoration

To commemorate this movement, Shaheed Minar (শহীদ মিনার), a solemn and symbolic sculpture, was erected in the place of the massacre. The day is revered in Bangladesh and, to a somewhat lesser extent, in West Bengal as the Martyrs' Day.

UNESCO decided to observe 21 February as International Mother Language Day. The UNESCO General Conference took a decision to that took effect on 17 November 1999 when it unanimously adopted a draft resolution submitted by Bangladesh and co-sponsored and supported by 28 other countries.

Ekushey February: The International Mother Language Day

21st of February is the International Mother Language Day, an annual event in UNESCO member states to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. This is mostly the international recognition of Language Movement Day called 'Ekushey February', which is commemorated in Bangladesh since 1952, when a number of Bangla-speaking people were massacred by the Pakistani police and Army in Dhaka.

Shawon68 proudly says:

Ekush is Bangla for 21, and Ekushey means 21st. In Bangladesh, 'Ekushey' is synonymous with 'Ekushey February', the day when Bangladesh celebrates its Bangla Language Movement and honors those who sacrificed their lives in its name on 21st February, 1952.

Pinaki lists the fallen heroes and the contributors of the language movement.

A bit of history: In August 1947, dividing India, a new state called Pakistan, comprising two far-flung wings (1600 kms distance) in the west and east separated by India, emerged on the world map. The ideological basis of that strange phenomenon was the absurd and pernicious two nation theory of Mohammad Ali Jinnah that ignored such basic elements as language and culture and considered religion as a bond strong and sufficient enough to transform a people into a nation. The language of the people of eastern wing of Pakistan, and they were the majority, was Bangla. It had a rich tradition of literature of over a thousand years. The Bengalis also had a highly developed culture that had little in common with the culture of the people of western wing of Pakistan. When in 1952 the neo-colonial, power-hungry, arrogant rulers of Pakistan declared that 'Urdu and Urdu alone would be the state language of Pakistan, the people of East Pakistan underwent an uprising known later as the Language Movement. (Source 1, 2 )

To commemorate this movement and the fallen ones, Shaheed Minar, a solemn and symbolic sculpture, was erected in the place of the massacre. The monument is the symbol of Bangladesh Nationalism. Each year on 21st February, starting from early morning, hundreds and thousands of people walks in bare feet to pay their respect to the martyrs singing remembrance songs with garlands in hand at the Shaheed Minar. The men and women wear only black and white cloths.

Jahangir Alam posts some pictures of how Ekushey February is celebrated in Bangladesh.

The Ekushey Book Fair which has become a part of Bengali culture and tradition is arranged in the Bangla Academy premises in Dhaka city every February since 1972 in observance of the 'Ekushey February'. Ershad posts some photos of this year's Book fair.

About 27 percent of the world's languages are threatened to be extinct. The Foundation for Endangered Languages says 83 percent of the world's languages are restricted to single countries, making them more vulnerable to the policies of a single government.

The theme of International Mother Language Day in 2007 is the linkages between mother tongue and multilingualism.

The Makers of History: International Mother Language Day 

Fatemolla

This is to sketch the footprints of Shahid Minar from Dhaka to everywhere of the world, from 1952 to endless future of mankind.

The pioneer is Rafiqul Islam with remarkable politeness and a penetrating vision. A typical "Bangali Face", slim-built, and poetic eyes full of dreams, this man is too big to measure. No wonder that he is a Freedom Fighter as well in the battlefield against the Napak Army and his younger brother was killed in one of the face-to-face battles. He lives in Vancouver. He is from Comilla, Bangladesh.

It all started when he came to know that some languages of the world are simply not there anymore. He felt that some beautiful plants of this colourful garden of different human languages did not suffer natural deaths; they were simply killed by criminals in different disguises. With the strength of peace, he started his lonely crusade against this monster, which would soon leave a permanent mark towards the progress of peace for mankind in this planet. And soon, he was not alone anymore. Abdus Salam was there. Now let us walk through the dates of the developments.

1. 9 January, 1998. Rafiq wrote a letter to Mr. Kofi Anan, to take a step for saving all the languages of the world from the possibility of extinction and to declare an International Mother Language Day. Rafiq proposed the date as 21st February on the pretext of 1952 killing in Dhaka on the occasion of Language Movement.
2. 20 January 1998. From the office of the Secretary General, the Chief Information Officer Mr Hasan Ferdous ( A Bangladeshi and knowledgeable writer as well) advised Rafiq to propose the same from any member country of the UNO.
3. Rafiq established "A Group Of Mother Language Of The World" With Abdus Salam, 2 English, 1 Hindi, 1 German, 1 Cantonese, 1 Kachhi speaking people. They again wrote to Mr. Anan, with a copy forwarded to Mr. David Fowler, the Canadian Ambassador to the UNO. Rafiq-Salam continued communication with Canadian Government.
4. Mid 1999. Mr Hasan Ferdous advised Rafiq-Salam to contact the Director of Language Division of UNESCO Mr.Joseph Pod (?). Mr Joseph advised to contact Anna Maria of UNESCO. Anna Maria (all through played a very strong positively active role. We are grateful to this lady) advised them to formally place the request by 5 member countries, Canada, India, Hungary, Finland and Bangladesh.
5. Our Education Minister Mr. Sadek, Education Secretary Mr.Kazi Rakibuddin (also he was the Director General for National Commission for UNESCO), Professor Kofiluddin Ahmad, Director for the same, Moshiur Rahman, the Director of the PM's Secretariat, The Bangladeshi Ambassador to France Mr. Syed Moazzem Ali, Counsellor for the same Mr. Iktiar Chowdhury, Senior Advisor to the Secretary-General of UNESCO Mr. Tozammel Huque ( Toni Huque) of USA, and many other people got involved and active. They worked tirelessly to convince 29 countries to support the proposal. Rest of the Bangladeshis worldwide never knew what a drama was going on for the fight for peace. With Rafiq-Salam, whole Bangladeshi-Vancouver kept their fingers crossed. What a group of pioneers with what a dream!
6. 9 September, 1999- the last day of submitting the proposal to UNESCO. IT DID NOT ARRIVE YET! The restless Rafiq-Salam passed sleepless nights, did not move from the telephones, for the e-mails. In Dhaka, our Prime Minister needed to sign the document and she was in the Parliament on that day. By the time she would be done with the Parliament, the dateline for the proposal would pass. It won't reach UNESCO. The whole dream and effort would go to the drain.
7. PM instructed to fax the proposal to UNESCO Paris, pending her signature. The fax reached hours before the dateline.
8. 16 November 1999. The proposal was not raised (lack of time?) in the UNESCO meeting.
9. AND PASSED AS A DECISION.

Dear readers, making of history is never free. Lots of pain, time, money, energy, sleep, health, family life, social life, hobby have to be sacrificed for it. The invisible contribution of the wife/sons of Rafiq (Buli Islam, Jyoti Islam and Joyonto Islam) and Salam (Deena, Sami, Sadi) cannot be overemphasized. I will come up with their feelings in their own words latter. Let me end here with a few more lines repeated.

10. From now onwards, any conspirator against any culture of the world will think a hundred times before any action. Every year the

17 November. The proposal was raised, supported by 188 countries including Pakistan, not opposed by a single country,

INTERNATIONAL MOTHER LANGUAGE DAY will walk through every corner of the world as an ever-awake watchdog against this heinous

crime/criminals. What a progress towards peace! What an unique eternal gift to Mankind from a poor nation!

RAFIQ-SALAM OF VANCOUVER ARE NOT YET AWARDED THE "EKUSHE PODOK" (shame!), BUT LAST YEAR MR. AND MRS. RAFIQ AS HONOURABLE INVITED GUESTS ATTENDED THE GRAND CELEBRATION OF THE 1ST "MOTHER LANGUAGE DAY" ORGANISED BY UNESCO IN PARIS ON 21ST FEBRUARY

To:  UNESCO

The Director-General of UNESCO, Mr. Koïchiro Matsuura 

We are writing to bring your attention to the systematic suppression of the Azeri-Turkish language and the imposition of Persian by the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI). 

In most societies, the written and the spoken languages are the same. In such a society International Mother Language Day, February 21st, is a day of celebration and jubilation, but not for 35 million Azerbaijanis in Iran. 

Since 1925, Iranian governments have banned the usage of Azeri-Turkish in the educational system. Millions of children born to Azerbaijani parents do not even have one school in which they can study in their language. In its place, Farsi is forced on them as the only legitimate Iranian language. 

Currently in Iran, aside from three Azerbaijani provinces, Azeri-Turkish is spoken in the provinces and regions of Zanjan, Hamadan, Arak, Saveh and Northern Khorasan. Azeri-Turkish is also spoken by the Qashqayi Turks as well as various other Turkish-speaking peoples concentrated in the province of Fars and in central Iran. All of these people live under the Iranian administration with not a single course in their language available to them during their education from primary school to high school. 

Every year, the people of Azerbaijan have tried to obtain permission to celebrate February 21st as International Mother Language Day, but are constantly denied assembling permits. The IRI regime imprisons cultural-linguistic activists who are trying to raise awareness about one of our most basic and fundamental rights as a people. Journalists or writers who publish in Azerbaijani Turkish become victims of the secret police, Etelaat. They are constantly harassed and tagged with labels such as “Pan-Turks” or “Separatists”. 

Culture is a product of the history of a people and language is integral to culture. Subsequently, culture carries the entire body of values by which a nation comes to perceive themselves and their place in the world. By prohibiting individuals to study in their mother tongue, not only is language destroyed, but also the culture, history, heritage and economy of that people. 

We urge you to place a particular importance on this issue which affects more than 30 million people in Iran. On behalf of Azeris in Iran, we ask that you take action to protect our mother tongue.

Sincerely,

The Undersigned

History of international mother language day

In the year 2000, UNESCO declared 21st February as International Mother Language Day. Since then this day has been observed every year to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. According to the UN site, "Languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. All moves to promote the dissemination of mother tongues will serve not only to encourage linguistic diversity and multilingual education but also to develop fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue".

I am here to tell you, "Why 21st February?" Why has this particular day been declared as the International Mother Language Day? Because, on this very day the brave sons of a tiny nation took bullets in their hearts to save their mother tongue from exile. I'm talking about Bangladesh and this was in 1952. Bangladesh was not even in existence then. It was the then East Pakistan, dominated by West Pakistan.

The situation became agitating when around 1950-52 the Central Pakistan Government was taking measures to establish Urdu as the only national language and ignoring all others. Urdu was then a language spoken only by the elite class of West Pakistan. However, as rich and exquisite the Urdu language is, no one could deny the value of language Bangla. It was the language of a vast majority in East Pakistan and well-rich with its own literature and history.

The people of East Pakistan demanded Bangla to be recognized as a national language also. Otherwise, they feared, the language would be excluded from the curriculum and the future generation would be deprived of the great literature and expressions of their very own mother tongue. After all, what better ways to express yourself other than in your mother tongue?

The university students, civil society of East Pakistan started a movement called Language Movement to save Bangla from estrangement. On 21st February 1952, the movement was at its height. The government declared curfew on the people and banned any protest against any issue. Well, people of East Pakistan were there to protect their language and they bravely marched forward to express their feelings. As the rally marched forward demanding Bangla to be declared as a national language with Urdu, the police opened fired. They opened fire on the people marching forward claiming a rightful claim. Salam, Barkat, Rafique, Jobbar....these are reverend names of the martyrs who died on that mournful day.

As the movement became more powerful after this awful incident, the Central Government of West Pakistan, finally gave in. Bangla was declared as a national language along with Urdu.

Bangladesh has come a long way since then. However, 21st February is still celebrated and remembered with respect and love. If you happen to have set foot on Bangladesh on 21st February, you'll see people wearing black and white dresses, black badges to mark the day. However, it is no longer a mournful day. It is celebrated by rendering flowers under a monument built on the very spot where the martyrs had shed their blood. Thousands of people march on bare foot towards the monument in the early hours of 21st February to pay their respect.

Do join in. After all, it is no longer about one language only. It is for all the native and mother languages ever spoken on the face of this earth.

UNESCO celebrates International Mother Language Day in Indonesia on 21 February 2007

 

Diversity of language is an essential feature of our collective humanity in the World. Language is more than a tool; it is fundamental to our cultural heritage and demonstrates humanity`s great diversity.

"It is in the mother tongue that we utter our first words and express individual thoughts best. It is the foundation upon which all human beings develop their personality from the moment they draw their first breath, and which supports them throughout their lives. It is the school for respect for oneself, onefs history and one`s culture but, above all, for others and their differences" said Mr. Koichiro Matsuura, Director-Genera of UNESCO in his message for the International Mother Language Day on 21 February 2007.

On that day UNESCO Office Jakarta organized the celebration of the International Mother Language Day in Indonesia in cooperation with the Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO and the Embassy of Bangladesh. This event provided a meaningful opportunity for the debate of activities for the promotion of all languages spoken on our planet, in particular in Indonesia, aiming at promoting linguistic diversity and multilingual education.

"Currently there are 6,000 languages in the world and 50% of them already disappearing. By celebrating the mother language day, it is hoped that all of us care and participate in preserving these languages in this world, especially around 700 mother languages existing in Indonesia" said

Prof. Arief Rachman, Executive Chairman of Indonesian National Commission for UNESCO in his welcoming speech.

"This day commemorates the sacrifice of lives by many Bengalis on this day in the year 1952 to protect their mother language Bangla" said H.E. Salma Kham, Ambassador to the Peoplefs Republic of Bangladesh. In recognition of the Bangla Language Movement, the International Mother Language Day was declared in Resolution 12 of UNESCO`s 30th General Conference in 1999.

Many minority languages in Indonesia are in danger of extinction. It was reported by Mr. Dendy Sugono, from the Language Center of the Ministry of National Education that around 10 languages in the regions of Papua and Maluku were already extinct and 33 languages have less than 100 speakers. "Besides this, there are many languages whose speakersf number less than 1,000 and they are all in danger of disappearing" Mr. Sugono said. These languages are not coping with the current development of technology and globalization thus they may die out.

"In order not to lose these languages, each community needs to undertake effort to develop documents on the individual mother tongue", said Mr. Hasan Karta Djoemena, Vice chairmen of Yayasan Rancage, working for the preservation and development of mother tongues, recently established a library in Bandung under the auspices of the Center of Sundanese Study.

 

Prof. Arief Rachman said that the Indonesian education system should give opportunities to learn not only the national language and foreign languages but also our mother tongues.

Mr. Alisher Umarov, Education Officer presented the current UNESCO-MONE initiatives to further mother language integration in the literacy programme. He said that UNESCO will support all the efforts not only to accelerate the eradication of illiteracy but also to nurture the dignity of their own languages and promote cultural and linguistic diversity throughout society.

The event was attended by about 300 participants including representatives from embassies, UN agencies, NGOs, and officials from Ministry of National Education of Indonesia and the Ministry of Culture and Tourism as well as the media. The language and cultural diversity of Indonesia was demonstrated by the performance of 100 senior high school students, primary pupils, professional traditional artists and performers (e.g choir, dance, story-telling, puppet show, etc.). Further voluntary performances were given by from five countries: Bangladesh, India Korea, Philippines and Sri Lanka which added colour on the event.