Wednesday, March 4, 2009

patwary

21st February
21st February

"They stood up togetherto protect the honor of the soundthat issued from the lips of a new-born babechurning the very core of his existence,the utterance that sanctified for himhis first lesson of humanity"


“We are Bengalis first and then Muslims!” They said – “God can hear the prayers of the people in any language. For the children of God, for the human beings to have an intimate communication with each other, they need their mother tongue. No foreign language can ever fulfill the purpose of expressing the spontaneous flow of one’s tender sentiments. It will never satisfy the heart-felt needs of the masses.” So spoke the students, laborers and the common masses of East Bengal as they roared in protest against the imposition of a foreign language on their beloved country. It was the only war in history to be fought for the right to keep one's mother tongue as the official language of their country. May the Great Almighty shower His Supreme blessings on the magnificent, melodious, sweetest land of Bengal! - WPA




There are certain days which remain ever memorable and sacred to certain communities. This applies to the 21st February. On this very day the people of East Bengal attained martyrdom by fomenting a revolution to save Bengali language as the official language of their country.


India was divided into Pakistan and Hindustan on the basis of communalism / fundamentalism. The eastern part of Bengal became a part of Pakistan by taking on the name East Pakistan. However, East Pakistan was nothing more than the colony of West Pakistan. Mr. Jinnah, the founder and first ruler of Pakistan, declared Urdu language to be the national language of Pakistan. Urdu imperialists could not grasp the deep internal sentiment and thought waves of the people of East Pakistan, i.e., East Bengal. Fifty-six percent of the total population of East Pakistan were Bengalis (Hindus and Muslims) and 44 percent were Muslims and other communities from the western part of Pakistan. The Baluchis of Baluchistan and Pathans of the North-Western Frontier provinces were greater in number than the Urdu-speaking population of Western Punjab. In 1948, Liaquat Ali Khan, the Prime Minister of Pakistan had declared Pakistan as an Islamic country in the Parliament of Pakistan. He declared the Urdu Language as the official national language of Pakistan. Mr. Dhirendranath Dutt stood up in the Pakistan Parliament and strongly protested the removal of Bengali as the official national language of East Pakistan, despite the fact that it was the language of the majority. However, the Urdu imperialists considered East Bengal merely as their colony, and therefore they forcefully imposed Urdu as the national language on the shoulders of the entire Bengali-speaking population of East Pakistan.


The students, laborers and the common masses of East Bengal roared in protest against the forceful imposition of Urdu language. They declared, “We are Bengalis first and then Muslims!” They said – “God can hear the prayers of the people in any language. For the children of God, for the human beings to have an intimate communication with each other, they need their mother tongue. No foreign language can ever fulfill the purpose of expressing the spontaneous flow of one’s tender sentiments. It will never satisfy the heart-felt needs of the masses.”
In the fifth and sixth decades of the twentieth century, the litterateurs of East Bengal roared in protest against the disrespect shown to their mother tongue, Bengali. Among the litterateurs who joined hands in protest were Samsul Rahaman, Azad Hafij, Indu Saha and Nirmalendu, to name a few. Apart from them was Abdul Gaffar Chaudhury Khan, who said - “21st February is reddened by the blood of my brothers. Can I forget it?”


When East Bengal was outraged due to the oppression of their mother tongue, during that very period of widespread agitation, the representative of Urdu imperialist power, Nijamuddin, poured butter into the fire. He declared in a boastful, menacing manner, at an open meeting in Dhaka, “Urdu is the only language of Pakistan!”

The students of East Bengal forthwith plunged into the “Save the Bengali Language” revolution. On the 21st February 1952 the students violated the prohibition of Section 144 of the Pakistani constitution in front of Dhaka Medical College. The barbaric police forces meted out inhuman torture on the revolutionaries by opening gunfire. Several students were killed on the spot and many more seriously wounded. Among those students who attained martyrdom for their Bengali mother tongue were Rafiq, Barkat, Jabbar, Salam and Abdul, to name the few. Barqat and Rafiq were residents of West Bengal.

When the revolution became reached overwhelming proportions in 1955, the Urdu imperialist forces were finally compelled to recognize Bengali as the second national language of Pakistan, and accepting their mistake.

East Bengal’s blood-spattered revolution of 21st February had crossed the borders of East Bengal and dashed into the gates of Kachar District in Assam, which is within the border of India. Until today, we have not forgotten this event.

The provincial government of Assam had restricted the use of Bengali in the education of the Bengalis of Assam, despite that Bengali was their mother tongue. For this reason, on 19th May 1961 the Bengali students and youth plunged into revolution in Shilchar in order to protect their mother tongue. Again, that day the brutal Assamese police killed 11 spirited students and youth by open gunfire. Nevertheless, due to constant pressure from the Bengali students and youth, the Assamese provincial government, then led by the Congress party, was likewise compelled to recognize Bengali as the second official language of the state.

The revolution of 21st February was solely to protect the dignity of the Bengali language in East Pakistan. Later in 1971, under the leadership of Sheikh Mujibur Rahaman, the courageous people of East Pakistan, after an extended and brutal battle, heralded the sovereignty of a Bengali nation and established an independent country by the name of Bangladesh. It is a matter of pride that in the year of 1999, the UNESCO declared the day of 21st February as The International Mother Tongue Day as a day to be commemorated for all time.

This unique language movement, a one and only revolution that was based on fighting for one’s mother tongue, taught the lesson that no nation can be destroyed by conspiracy to oppress their mother tongue. A nation’s mother tongue is equally as powerful as mother’s milk. The national character of Bengalis existed in the past; exists in the present, and will remain alive even more vigorously in the future. Even after being divided into pieces due the exploitation of imperialist powers, the socio-cultural legacy of the Bengali remain predominant in today’s world.

However, it is a matter of misfortune that a particular community of West Bengal by the name of so-called Neo-Bengalis is extraordinarily interested in teaching their children to address the elders as mommy, daddy, uncle and aunty instead of teaching them to address their elders as Ma, Baba, Pisima, Masima, Mama, Kaka, Mamima or Kakima. The state government of West Bengal even until today has not provided any encouragement to use Bengali in their official work and in the signboards all over West Bengal. It is the West Bengal government itself that has kept the Bengali language, which is the eighth largest spoken language in the world, and the language that created world-famous litterateurs like Rabindranath, Najrul and Sukanta to name the few, in the sordid seat of negligence and indignity.

It will be a disgrace if the Bengali community of West Bengal becomes like parasites. The Bengali community all over India will have to remain vigilant against any heinous attempts by Hindi imperialist powers to suppress either their glorious language or rich, traditional culture. Bengali students and young people will have to be ever alert and conscious to protect the dignity of their mother tongue. Any attempt to destroy the social, linguistic and cultural legacy of Bengal, any attempt to snatch the right of expression of the mother tongue, must be vehemently resisted. Those who sacrificed their valuable lives for safeguarding the dignity of Bengali language on 21st February of 1952 conveyed a special message to all of us. Fight for the right of one’s mother tongue.
It will not suffice to simply sing, dance deliver lectures and garland the statues of martyrs by calling meetings to commemorate the Language Day or Martyr’s Day on 21st February every year. Rather, like ever-vigilant soldiers, all Bengalis of the world must unitedly take a sacred oath to protect the dignity of Bengali language and culture.

The Bengalis of India in particular have a special responsibility towards their mother tongue of Bengali. This responsibility should be realized today. It is also the responsity of all the rational people of the world to come forward with their help to build up a new self-sufficient socio-economic zone - Bangalistan.