Language Movement

Encyclopedia : L : LA : LAN : Language Movement

Shaheed Minar, or the Martyr's monument, located near Dhaka Medical College, commemorates the struggle for Bangla language

The Language Movement (Bangla: Bhasha Andolon) was a cultural and political movement in the former East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1952.

After the formation of Pakistan in 1947, the West Pakistani rulers, who dominated the Government, intended to make Urdu (spoken mostly in West Pakistan) the national language of the whole Pakistan. The Bengali population, which was an ethnic majority in erstwhile Pakistan, was not in agreement with this and started a movement to provide equal status for their own language, Bangla. The matter worsened in February, 1952 when Khawaja Nazimuddin, governor of East Pakistan, reiterated the government position on the national language.

Police declared Section 144 which banned any sort of meeting. Defying this, the students of Dhaka University 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, Rafique, Barkat, 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 equal status to Bangla.

This movement is thought to have sown the seeds for the independence movement which resulted in the liberation of Bangladeshhttp://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/bg.html in 1971.Rahman, T. 1997. Language and Ethnicity in Pakistan, Asian Survey, Vol. 37, No. 9. (Sep., 1997), pp. 833-839.Oldenburg, P. 1985. "A Place Insufficiently Imagined": Language, Belief, and the Pakistan Crisis of 1971, The Journal of Asian Studies, Vol. 44, No. 4., pp. 711-733.

To commemorate this movement, Shaheed Minar, a solemn and symbolic sculpture, was erected in the place of the massacre. The day is remembered as the Language Movement Day in Bangladesh and is a national holiday.

In 1999, February 21 was declared the International Mother Language Dayhttp://www.pmo.gov.bd/21february/index.htm by the United Nations.

References