We Bangladeshis take pride in Ekushey February (21 February).  On this day, 72 years ago, 8 youths laid down their lives in Dhaka streets to achieve recognition of our mother tongue Bangla as one of the state languages of Pakistan. The demand was more than justified. Above 55% of Pakistan's population spoke Bangla. Poet Tagore won Nobel prize and there were many other contributors to Bangla literature. Poets Kazi Nazrul, Sukanta, Jibananandas, Mir Mosharraf and novelists Bibhutibhushan, Sarat Chandra, Tarashankar, Syed Mujtaba Ali are to name a few. But the arrogant Pakistani authorities would not listen to any logical argument. They were bent upon establishing Urdu as the only state language of the country.

Their neo-colonial attitude was evident right from the creation of Pakistan. The Bangalees of East Pakistan rose against the West Pakistani dominated central government, protesting the decision of imposing Urdu on them as the only state language. Movement for establishing Bangla as one of the state languages of the country was led by Tamaddun Majlish and Sarbadadaliyo Rashtrabhasha Sangram Parishad. The movement reached its climax on 21 February 1952 and Pakistanis tried to subdue it by bullets. The shedding of blood infuriated the Bangalees so much that from the next day, the movement attracted all and sundry and the authorities had to give in. Bangla was finally given its due status.

The victory in the language movement became the source of inspiration for the Bangla speaking East Pakistanis to rise against all unfair practices of the Pakistani regimes. The Pakistani elites refused to hand over power to Awami League. They tried their best but failed to intimidate Awami League. Finally, the military junta planned a military solution to a political problem. They launched a genocidal military campaign against the Bangalees. Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had no other option except declaring the Independence of Bangladesh in the early hours of 26 March.

Thus began the glorious war of Liberation of Bangladesh. The freedom fighters started to fight and getting organised simultaneously. The horrendous genocide also continued. Finally, after nine months of glorious fighting, the Freedom Fighters of Bangladesh won the war under the able leadership of their Government in exile in Mujibnagar. Of course we were supported all the way by India, backed by USSR and the socialist bloc countries. During this great war of Liberation too the spirit of Language movement's success was a driving force. The price paid was too high. The so called martial race had to surrender publicly and unconditionally to the joint forces of Bangladesh and India. A country having Bangla as its mother tongue was born.

Bangalees of Barak valley fought in 1961 for securing Bangla as one of the state languages of Assam. They too had to sacrifice 11 young Martyrs to achieve their goal. It was on 19 May 1961 in Shilchar. One of the eleven was Kamala Bhattacharya, the first lady martyr for Bangla. Manbhum Bangalees were amongst the first to fight for their mother tongue. The mostly Bangla speaking Manbhum, Singbhum, Dhanbad areas were made parts of Bihar. As such, Hindi was their medium of education and Bangla had to take a back seat. They too had to struggle a lot and shed blood before a big chunk of Bangla speaking Bihar (now Jharkhand) came to join West Bengal as Purulia district.

To destroy an ethnicity or a group of people, their culture is targeted. Language is the basis of cultural identity. Once language is lost, the culture is lost and the people of the group go into oblivion. We can cite the example of rich Aztec, Inca and Maya cultures. The colonial Spanish administration destroyed their culture and language and ruled them for centuries. In the contemporary world too we can see how the Kurds, Catalans, Basques are suffering from identity crisis. It is estimated that about 7,000 languages are still surviving in this world. Approximately 1,500 have already got extinct. With them, gone are folklore, literature and lifestyle of those people. Diversity and heritage is lost in the process. It had to stop.

Having the success of Bengali Language movement in mind, some Bangladeshi youths living in Vancouver, BC, Canada combined with their friends of different other nationalities to form an association named Mother Language Lovers of the World Society. The lead was taken by two Bangladeshi expatriates to Canada Mr Rafiqul Islam and Mr Abdus Salam. They started communicating in 1998 with the UN to declare 21 February as the International Mother Language Day. Finally Bangladesh Government had to be involved. Rigorous correspondence, lobbying and persuasion by Government of Bangladesh and MLLWS finally brought in the desired result. In its 1999 sessions at Paris, UNESCO took up the proposal by Bangladesh for discussion. It was co-proposed by 21 other countries. The proposal was adopted unanimously. It was decided that all member countries of UN will observe 21 February as International Mother Language Day starting from 2000. All countries will put in all efforts so that no more language anywhere goes extinct. All languages are a part of a treasure possessed by mankind.

May all the existing languages in the world survive and flourish for ever!

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The writer is a columnist