International Mother Language Day
International Mother Language Day
is observed annually on 21st February
worldwide. It promotes the awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity. It
was first announced by UNESCO on 17th November, 1999. It was also
formally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly. International
Mother Language Day originated as the international Language Movement Day,
which has been celebrated in Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) since 1952. On
21st March 1948, Mohammed Ali
Jinnah, the Governor General of Pakistan, declared that Urdu will be the only
official language for both West and East Pakistan. But most of the people of
East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) whose first language was Bangla, started to
protest against this. Then in February 21, 1952 (8th Falgun, 1359 in the Bangla
calendar) a number of students of Dhaka University called for a strike. In that
time the government declared a limited curfew to prevent this. The Pakistani
police fired on the students despite these peaceful protests and some of the
students were killed in Dhaka during Bengali Language Movement protests. Some people
of them was namely Abdus Salam, Rafiq Uddin Ahmed, Abul Barkat and Abdul
Jabbar. This day has a great impact on our life as well as national history. We
feel proud for the desire of that students.
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