The inspiring power of Ekushey

The Bengali Language Movement  which witnesses the police firing on peaceful procession of students on the Dhaka University campus on 21st February in 1952,  was a socio-politico-cultural  eruption of the people in the then  East Pakistan, now Bangladesh. Later recognised as the Shaheed Dibash or Amar Ekushey, the day marked the martyrdom of students and common people who were demanding for Bangla the status of the state language of Pakistan.
Both the wings of Pakistan (East Pakistan, also called East Bengal, and West Pakistan) after its formation in 1947, were two regions culturally and linguistically poles apart. Geographically, too, they were detached from each other, with the vast territory of India located in-between.  In 1948, the government of Pakistan declared Urdu as the 'sole national language', sparking extensive protests among the Bengali-speaking people in East Pakistan. In the face of rising sectarian tensions and mass discontent over the decalaration, the government outlawed public meetings and rallies. The students of the University of Dhaka and political activists defied the law and organised a protest on 21st February, 1952. The students' protest march reached its climax when police opened fire on student demonstrators on that day. The deaths provoked widespread civil unrest in the province.
After years of turbulence, the central government relented and granted 'official status' to the Bengali language, or Bangla, in 1956. In 2000, UNESCO declared 21st February the International Mother Language Day for the whole world to celebrate, in commemoration of the historic Language Movement, the ethno-linguistic rights of the peoples around the world.
The Language Movement catalysed the assertion of Bengalees' national identity in the then Pakistan, and became a prelude to Bengalees' nationalist movements, including the emergence of the consciousness of self-rule in the 1954 East Bengal legislative elections, the student movement in 1962,   the six-point movement, the mass upsurge in 1969 and, subsequently, the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971.
The supreme sacrifices of the students in the Language Movement of 21st February  became a source of inspiration for Bengalees in sustaining self-consciousness and self-dignity as a nation. It eventually led to the creation of the nation-state of Bangladesh in which the Bangla language played a great role. In fact, the 21st February was an epoch-making incident which had been immortalised by its global recognition as the International Mother Language Day. We, as a nation, take pride in the fact that Bangladesh, Bangla and the supreme sacrifices of our Language Movement heroes are being discussed, admired, gratefully remembered and honoured worldwide.  
Bangla-speaking people in East Pakistan comprised 44 million of the newly formed Pakistan's 69 million people in 1947. The Pakistani government, the civil services, and military, however, were dominated by West Pakistanis. In October, 1947, a key resolution at a national education summit in Karachi advocated Urdu as the sole state language, and its exclusive use in the media and in schools. Opposition and protests immediately arose. Students from Dhaka rallied under the leadership of Abul Kashem (1920-1991), the secretary of Tamaddun Majlish, a Bengali Islamic cultural organisation. The meeting stipulated 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 gathered around the campus of the University of Dhaka on 8 December, 1947, to formally demand that Bengali be made an 'official language'. To promote their cause, Bengali students organised processions and rallies in Dhaka. It was not an instantly initiated movement. The demand and the protest had a long historical backdrop.
The day-to-day use of Bangla, the mother tongue of the people of Bengal, can be traced back to the seventeenth century, as documented   in the poems of Abdul Hakim (1620-1690) of Sandwip. The seventeenth century bard was hesitant to recognise, if not condemn, those who were born in Bengal but hated Bangla. From the mid-19th century, the Urdu language had been promoted as the lingua franca of Indian Muslims by political and religious leaders. Meanwhile, Khan Bahadur Ahsanullah (1873-1965), an educationist and social reformer, pronounced strongly in 1918, in an oration Bangabhasha O Musalman Sahitya (The Bengali Language and Literature of the Muslims) that one  must respect Bangla and recognise its incomparability over other languages like Urdu etc. Ahsanullah made this observation in the event of the initiatives by some members of the contemporary intelligentsia to establish Urdu as the lingua franca of Muslims in Bengal. As early as the late 19th century, social activists such as the pioneer of Muslim women's reform Begum Rokeya Sakhawat Hussain (1880-1932)  were choosing to write in Bangla to reach out to the people and develop it as a modern literary language.
Exactly twenty-five years before 21st February, 1952, two papers were presented on the second day of the two-day First Annual Literary Conference (February 27-28, 1927) of the Muslim Sahittya Samaj, the Muslim Literary Society, on the appropriateness of the use of Bangla in Muslim society in general, and in education in particular. Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam (1899-1976) inaugurated the conference. Abul Hussain (1896-1938), the secretary and one of the founders of the Sahittya Samaj, which led the Shikha Movement, in his paper put forward that the mother language barrier had been the major obstacle to the way of social development of the Muslim community in Bengal.
The leading Bengali scholars argued why only Urdu should not be the state language. The linguist Dr Muhammad Shahidullah (1885-1969) pointed out that Urdu was not the native language of any part of Pakistan, and said, "If we have to choose a second state language, we should consider Urdu." Litterateur Abul Mansur Ahmed (1898-1979) 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 Bengali 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 Bengali as a state language. Dhirendranath Datta (1886-1971), a member of East Bengal Legislative Assembly, proposed legislation in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan to allow members to speak in Bengali and authorise its use for official purposes. Mr 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 legislation was defeated.
On March 11, 1948, students of the University of Dhaka and the city's colleges organised a general strike to protest the omission of Bengali language 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 19 March, 1948. On 21 March, at a civic reception at the Racecourse Ground, he claimed that the language issue was designed by 'fifth columnists' to divide Pakistani Muslims. Mr Jinnah further declared that "Urdu, and only Urdu" embodied the spirit of Muslim nations and would remain as 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 Kendriyo Rashtrobhasha Karma Parishad (All-Party Central Language Action Committee) was formed at 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 21st February, including strikes and rallies. Students of the University of Dhaka and other institutions gathered on 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.
The Language Movement laid not only the foundation for ethnic nationalism of the Bengalis of East Pakistan, it also increased the cultural gap between the authorities of the two wings of Pakistan. In fact, the Ekushey played an important role in making Bengalees aware of their cultural and national heritage, and ultimately it led to the creation of Bangladesh in 1971.
The writer is former secretary to the government and chairman, NBR.
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