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. 