Ekushey: The ever-inspiring spirit

Sixty five years  ago, in 1952, the language movement catalysed the assertion of Bengali national identity in the then Pakistan, and became a forerunner of Bengali nationalist movements, including the emerging awareness of self rule in 1954 general election, student movement in 1962,   6-point movement, mass-upsurge in 1969 and finally,  the liberation war in 1971. The supreme sacrifice of the martyrs in the language movement on February 21st (1952) became an epitome of self consciousness and self dignity of the Bengali people as a nation. 21st February was an epoch-making incident that later received global recognition with the observance of the day all over the world as International Mother Language Day. We as a nation feel proud today that Bangladesh, Bangla and the supreme sacrifice of our language martyrs are being admired and honoured worldwide.  
After the partition of India in 1947, Bengali-speaking people in East Pakistan (also known as East Bengal) made up 44 million of the newly independent Pakistan's 69 million people. The Pakistani administration, its civil service and military, however, were dominated by the West Pakistanis. In 1947, a key resolution at a national education summit in Karachi advocated Urdu as the state language. Opposition and protests ensued. Students from Dhaka rallied under the leadership of Abul Kashem (1920-1991), the secretary of Tamaddun Majlish, a Bengali Islamic cultural organisation. The meeting demanded Bengali as an official language of Pakistan and as a medium of education in East Pakistan. However, the Pakistan Public Service Commission removed Bengali from the list of approved subjects, as well as from currency notes and stamps. The central education minister of Pakistan made extensive preparations to make Urdu the only state language of Pakistan. Public outrage spread, and a large number of Bengali students met around the campus of the University of Dhaka on December 08, 1947 to formally demand the recognition of Bengali as the official language. They organised processions and rallies in Dhaka.  
The debate over the use of Bangla, the mother tongue of the people of Bengal, particularly of the Muslims, traces back to the seventeenth century, as documented in the poems of Abdul Hakim (1620-1690) of Swandwip, Noakhali. The seventeenth century bard was hesitant to classify, if not condemn, those who were born in Bengal but hated Bangla. From the mid-19th century, Urdu language had been promoted as the lingua franca of Indian Muslims by political and religious leaders. Khanbahadur Ahsanullah (1873-1965), an educationist and social reformer, pronounced strongly in 1918  in one of his oration on Bangabhasha o Musalman Shahitya (Bengali language and the Literature of the Muslims) that one  must respect Bangla and recognise its incomparability with other languages like Urdu. Ahsanullah made this observation in the event of some inventiveness of contemporary intelligentsias to establish Urdu as the lingua franca of Muslims in Bengal. As early as the late 19th century, social activists such as Roquia Sakhawat Hussain (1880-1932) chose to write in Bengali to reach out to the people and develop it as a modern literary language. Exactly 25 years before February 1952, two papers were presented at the First Annual Literary Conference (February 27-28, 1927) of the Muslim Shahittya Shamaj (Muslim Literary Society), on the appropriateness of using Bangla in muslim society in general in and for educational purposes, in particular. Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) inaugurated the conference. Abul Hussain ( 1896-1938), one of the founders of Shahittya Shamaj, which led the Shikha Movement, in his paper argued that the mother-language barrier was the major obstacle to social  development of the Muslims in Bengal.
Since then, leading Bengali scholars argued why only Urdu should be the state language. The linguist Muhammad Shahidullah (1885-1969) pointed out that Urdu was not the language of any part of Pakistan, and said, "If we have to choose a second state language, we should consider Urdu." The prolific writer Abul Mansur Ahmed (1897-1079) said if Urdu became the state language, the educated society of East Pakistan would become 'illiterate' and 'ineligible' for government positions.
 The first Rastrabhasa Sangram Parishad (National Language Action Committee), an organisation in favour of Bangla as a state language, was formed towards the end of December 1947. Professor Nurul Huq Bhuiyan  of the Tamaddun Majlish convened the committee. Later, Parliament member Shamsul Huq convened a new committee to push for Bangla as a state language. Dhirendranath Datta (1886-1971), a member of the East Bengal General Assembly proposed legislation in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan to allow members to speak in Bengali and authorise its use for official purposes. Datta's proposal was supported by several legislators of East Bengal. Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan and the Muslim League denounced the proposal as an attempt to divide the Pakistani people, thus the attempt towards legislation failed.
Students of the University of Dhaka and other colleges of the city organised a general strike on March 11, 1948 to protest the omission of Bengali from official use, including coins, stamps and recruitment tests for the navy. The movement restated the demand that Bengali be declared an official language of Pakistan. In the height of civic unrest, Governor-General of Pakistan Muhammad Ali Jinnah  (1876-1948) arrived in Dhaka on March 19, 1948. On March 21, at a civic reception at the then Race Course, he claimed that the language issue was designed by a "fifth column" to divide Pakistani Muslims. Jinnah further declared that "Urdu, and only Urdu" embodied the spirit of Muslim nations and would remain the state language. The Urdu-Bengali controversy was reignited when Jinnah's successor, governor-general Khawaja Nazimuddin, staunchly defended the "Urdu-only" policy in a speech on January 27, 1952. On January 31, the Shorbodolio Kendrio Rashtrobhasha Kormi Porishod (All-Party Central Language Action Committee) was formed in a meeting at the Bar Library Hall of the University of Dhaka, chaired by Maulana Bhashani (1880-1976). The central government's proposal of writing the Bengali language in Arabic script was vehemently opposed at the meeting. The action committee called for an all-out protest on February 21, including strikes and rallies. Students of the University of Dhaka and other institutions gathered at the university premises on February 04 and warned the government to withdraw its proposal to write Bengali in Arabic script, and insisted on the recognition of Bengali. As the preparation for demonstrations was going on, the government imposed Section 144 in the city of Dhaka, thereby banning any gatherings of more than four people at a time.
Although the language movement is considered to have laid the foundation for ethnic nationalism in many of the Bengalis of East Pakistan, it also heightened the cultural animosity between the authorities of the two wings of Pakistan.
Ekushey February played an important role in making the Bengalis aware of their cultural and national heritage that ultimately led to the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. Ekushey continues to inspire any movement against oppression, injustice, disparity and denying of civic rights.
Dr Muhammad Abdul Mazid,
former Secretary to the Government and Chairman, NBR. mazid.muhammad@gmail.com