Living up to Ekushey spirit

History unfolded in its resplendent rhapsody 61 springs ago on this day when a people on this part of the world made the ultimate sacrifice for the love of its language. A few brave sons embraced martyrdom for the love of the language the people of this land speak. Then rulers in Pakistan underestimated the deep bond that binds a people with its language. Their repressive and biased mentality made the ethno-cultural clash inevitable. In a sense, this early conflict helped the Bangalees and the Pakistanis to part their ways in the years to come. Language, ethnicity and cultural cohesion with a secular bend proved stronger and abiding for the people here, who made it a point that the best unity is in diversity. The Pakistanis were not convinced and they were after economic dominance, linguistic and cultural hegemony. So, the Bangalees had to rise up to the occasion to prove that their identity as a people was incomplete without language and culture. And they proved it in no uncertain terms. It is the Bangalees of the then East Pakistan who have laid down their lives to establish the rights to their mother tongue.
Surprisingly, what had to be defended at the cost of a pool of blood on the street of Dhaka in front of Dhaka Medical College is now subjected to mindless indifference. Over the past 43 years Bangla language has failed to fulfil its early promise. Although, the International Mother Language Day has gained its global recognition by the United Nations (UN) in commemoration of Bangladesh's Language Martyrs' Day, it does hardly point to any notable progress for the country's mother tongue. The language, complain none other than its practitioners, is not equal to the demanding knowledge of higher studies. What a shame! Language is like a living organism and it follows a positively evolving process provided that its speakers are committed to take it from one higher stage to another. When business and commerce and short-cuts to making money rule the roost, language hardly stands any chance of flourishing in its vibrant beauty.       
It is exactly at this point, this week's ruling by the High Court on ensuring the use of Bangla in advertisements on electronics media, vehicle's registration plates, signboards and billboards across the country makes a poor statement on the country's recent attitude towards its mother tongue. There is no harm in becoming multi-lingual and multi-cultural. But when the whole exercise is a naïve imitation and that too at the cost of one's own mother tongue, the shallow and silly mentality gets badly exposed. This is happening here. Pygmies, not stalwart linguists, complain about inadequacy of their mother tongue in writing books on fundamental science, philosophy, mathematics, life science and other branches of knowledge -let alone literature. Bangla is quite capable of containing the highest intellectual thought process if only an enabling system for language study and development alongside research and experiments in various branches of science are advanced simultaneously. Paying homage to the language martyrs has become only ritualistic now. The best way of doing it is to live up to the spirit the martyrs demonstrated and the values and ideals they cherished in their bosoms.