THE BLOODY 1952

Saturday, August 4, 2012

The 21^st February is a red letter day in Bangladesh. Every year on this day the whole nation comes to the martyr’s monument and the ritual seems to effect a purification of souls.

On this day in 1952, the brave son’s of ‘Mother Bengal’ laid down their lives to protect the interest of the mother language. After the birth of Pakistan the ruler of the West Pakistan wanted to impose ‘Urdu’ on the Bengali speaking people as state language of Pakistan. But everybody, especially the students of the then East Pakistan demanded Bengali as the state language. As a result the Language Movement took place and on 21^st February, 1952 Rafiq, Salam, Barkat, Zabbar, Shafiq, and so on sacrificed their lives. Many were injured and hundreds were arrested.

There are millions of martyr’s monument in Bangladesh. Every year on this day people come to these monuments and offer their respect to the martyrs. The government, different organizations and institutions arrange programmes to celebrate the day. Besides, according to a singular decision of the UNESCO on Nov. 17, 1999, this day is now the International Mother Language Day. The 1^st  International Mother Language Day has been observed all over the world with due respect in 2000. On this day in a massage UN Secretary General Kofi Anan said, “This day will help to raise awareness among the nation of the world about the enduring value of their languages.”

This day possesses a great influence for the whole nation as it did in the past. This will go on in the future too. In fact, this movement influenced and led the nation to it’s liberation. However, yet we find inspiration from the dreamy blue of this movement.

The language movement on 21^st February is a unique event in the history of human civilization. We are really glorified by the declaration of the UNESCO that turned a national celebration to an international event. We are proud of our language martyr’s.