Language Movement began in 1948 and reached its climax in the killing of 21 February 1952, and ended in the adoption of Bangla as one of the state languages of Pakistan. The central leaders and the Urdu-speaking intellectuals of Pakistan declared that Urdu would be the state language of Pakistan, just as Hindi was the state language of India. But the students and intellectuals of East Pakistan, however, demanded that Bangla be made one of the state languages. After a lot of controversy over the language issue, the final demand from East Pakistan was that Bangla must be the official language and the medium of instruction in East Pakistan and for the central government it would be one of the state languages along with Urdu. The first movement on this issue was mobilised by Tamaddun Majlish headed by Professor Abul Kashem. Gradually many other non-communal and progressive organisations joined the movement, which finally turned into a mass movement. The central government of Pakistan was being taken preparation under the initiative of Fazlur Rahman, the central education minister, to make Urdu the only state language of Pakistan. On receipt of this information, East Pakistani students became agitated and held a meeting on the Dhaka University campus on 6 December 1947, demanding that Bangla be made one of the state languages of Pakistan. The meeting was followed by student processions and more agitation. The first Rastrabhasa Sangram Parishad (Language Action Committee) was formed towards the end of December with Professor Nurul Huq Bhuiyan of Tamaddun Majlish as the convener. Dhirendra Nath Datta, a member from the East Pakistan Congress Party, moved an amendment motion to include Bangla as one of the languages of the Constituent Assembly. He noted that out of the 6 crore 90 lakh population of Pakistan, 4 crore 40 lakh were from East Pakistan with Bangla as their mother tongue. The central leaders, including liaquat ali khan, prime minister of Pakistan, and Khwaja Nazimuddin chief minister of East Bengal, opposed the motion. On receiving the news that the motion had been rejected, students, intellectuals and politicians of East Pakistan became agitated. Newspapers such as the Azad also criticised of the politicians who had rejected the motion. On 11 March 1948 a general strike was observed in the towns of East Pakistan in protest against the omission of Bangla from the languages of the Constituent Assembly. Strikes were observed from 12 March to 15 March. muhammed ali jinnah, the governor general of Pakistan, came to visit East Pakistan on 19 March. He addressed two meetings in Dhaka, in both of which he ignored the popular demand for Bangla. By the beginning of 1952, the Language Movement took a serious turn. Both Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan were dead-Jinnah on 11 September 1948 and Liaquat Ali Khan on 16 October 1951. Khwaja Nazimuddin had succeeded Liaquat Ali Khan as prime minister of Pakistan. The people of East Pakistan started losing faith in the Muslim League. A new party, the Awami Muslim League-which would later become the awami league-was formed under the leadership of maulana abdul hamid khan bhasani in 1949. On 27 January 1952, Khwaja Nazimuddin came to Dhaka from Karachi. Addressing a meeting at Paltan Maidan, he said that the people of the province could decide what would be the provincial language, but only Urdu would be the state language of Pakistan. There was an instantaneous, negative reaction to this speech among the students who responded with the slogan, 'Rashtrabhasha Bangla Chai'. A strike was observed at Dhaka University on 30 January. The government imposed Section 144 in the city of Dhaka. A meeting of the Central Language Action Committee was held on 20 February under the chairmanship of abul hashim.The students were determined to violate Section144 and held a student meeting at 11.00 a.m. on 21 February on the Dhaka University campus. When the students emerged in groups, shouting slogans, the police resorted to baton charge; even the female students were not spared. Three young men, Rafiq Uddin Ahmed, Abdul Jabbar and Abul Barakat (an MA student of Political Science) were fatally wounded. The language movement continued until 1956 and ended in the adoption of Bangla as one of State language of Pakistan by the Assembly. Since 1952, 21 February has been observed every year to commemorate the martyrs of the Language Movement. With UNESCO adopting a resolution on 17 November 1999 proclaiming 21 February as international mother language day. *** *** *** |
Bangladesh Studies
