International Mother Language Day

International Mother Language Day: Today is International Mother language Day. Seventy years ago, on 21st February 1952, We (Bengali)established our right to communicate in our mother tongue at the cost of our own blood. In Dhaka University, in a program, the president of Pakistan declared that “Urdu shall be the only state language of Pakistan”

Students straight away protested and Salam, BorkotRafique, and many more were shot dead by the police. When the news spread hundreds of people gathered in the premises of Dhaka Medical College in the evening of February 21, 1952, when they heard that a student was shot dead by a police officer. There were many people among them who didn’t give their consent for the language movement, and yet they came that day engaging themselves with the movement for their empathy and compassion towards the students. 

The selfless sacrificing act of the students for their mother tongue spread throughout the nation including the villages, towns, and cities, not just Dhaka itself. And the slogan, ‘We want Bengali as our national language in every stage in every level of our lives.’ became popular, along with a lot other. And the overall movement for our national language caused a dramatic turn for our literature, our culture, and also our politics.

You may know Bengal was colonized by the British in 1756 after two hundred years when the British left us Bengal divided into two country’s West Bengal and East Bengal. East Bengal became part of Pakistan west Bengal remained with India. After 25 years of Pakistani rules, we got freedom in 1971.

21st February is celebrated as International Mother Language Day. Currently, around 175 countries celebrate this day by singing the song “Amar bhaierRokteRangano, Ekushey February”

This certainly is an amazing achievement for the Bengali language. 

We Need the Proper Practice of Our Mother Tongue in Every Level, Every Stage of Our Country!! I am so glad and very grateful to live in a country in Wales where they could not able to speak their own language welsh. Now after a year, 2000 welsh are introduce here in wales and it is compulsory to learn Welsh in school. Imagine if we did not do the movement in 1952 we could have been lost our own mother tongue too. Here in Cardiff we established and practice the mother language. With the partnership of the Wales and Bangladesh governments, we built a mother language monument in Cardiff.

So the responsibility to establish language in our own lives is also ours. As our martyr gave their life today we remember them and pray for their soul in peace.

Here are a few links about the mother language celebration in Cardiff:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-46075610

https://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/local-news/monument-celebrating-diversity-been-given-10949021

https://cardiffjournalism.co.uk/intercardiff/global-city/celebrating-language-in-a-bilingual-city

https://jomec.co.uk/thecardiffian/2018/11/07/work-begins-on-international-mother-languages-monument-after-10-year-campaign/

Coach Yasin Chowdhury Layek

Cardiff, UK