We mustn’t forget to honour our mother language Bangla: Hasina

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has urged Bangladeshis to uphold the dignity of the mother tongue and emphasised using Bangla in all levels to retain the Bengali traditions.

Senior Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 21 Feb 2018, 05:26 PM
Updated : 21 Feb 2018, 05:26 PM

“We upheld the dignity of our mother tongue with blood. We must not forget to practise the language. We must bear the tradition in ourselves as Bengalis,” she said at a programme in Dhaka on Wednesday.  

The International Mother Language Institute organised the programme to mark International Mother Language Day.

Hasina said Bengalis sacrificed their lives to protect the honour of their mother language on this day, Feb 21, in 1952.

“The culture, language, and literature are always attacked when someone wants to destroy a nation. That was what the Pakistani rulers conspired about,” she said.

The prime minister recalled how the Pakistani rulers tried to hit Bangla until independence. “They first banned writing Bangla using Bangla letters and asked us to write Bangla using Arabic scripts. Later, writing Bangla using Roman letters was ordered.”   

“Another ban was slapped on reading Rabindranath Tagore’s works. (Pakistani rulers) said our Muslimness would vanish if we read Rabindranath,” Hasina said.

“Even Kazi Nazrul Islam’s poems were changed to make those more Muslim-oriented. The famous line ‘We will liven up crematories’ was changed to ‘We will liven up graveyards’,” she said.   

Hasina recalled how the Bengalis protested against the then governor-general Muhammad Ali Jinnah’s announcement made in Dhaka on Mar 21, 1948, that only Urdu and no other language will be the state language of Pakistan.

His successor Khawaja Nazimuddin reignited the debate by defending Urdu as the only state language in a speech on Jan 27, 1952.

Later in the same month, the Sorbodolio Kendrio Rashtrobhasha Kormi Parishad was formed to coordinate the protest against the move to make Urdu the sole state language.

The Parishad called protest programmes for Feb 21 that year.

The Pakistani government banned all sorts of public gatherings in Dhaka on that day to foil the programmes.

However, the Bengalis defied the ban, leading the law enforcers to open fire, killing many including Rafiq, Salam, Barkat and Jabbar.

Thus the Ekushey February (21st of February) spirit became immortal. Bangladesh observes the day as Language Movement Martyrs’ Day. In 1999, UNESCO recognised it as International Mother Language Day.    

Recalling the events, Hasina said, “Ekush teaches us not to bow down.” 

She also mentioned efforts by her government to save mother tongues of different ethnic groups. According to her, the government has distributed around 50,000 books among pre-school children of different tribes to give them the opportunity to learn in their own languages.

State Minister for Technical and Madrasa Education Kazi Keramat Ali, UNESCO Country Representative Beatrice Kaldun, International Mother Language Institute Director General Jeenat Imtiaz Ali, among others, delivered speeches at the programme chaired by Education Minister Nurul Islam Nahid.

WMPG Wickramasinghe, Secretary to the Sri Lankan Ministry of National Co-existence Dialogue and Official Languages, presented the keynote paper.