Mother Language Day: Why Promoting Urdu In Bengal?

February 21st or "Ekushey" is celebrated as International Mother Language Day to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. Languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage.

The date Feb 21st corresponds to the day in 1952 when students from the University of Dhaka, Jagannath College and Dhaka Medical College, demonstrating for the recognition of Bengali as one of the two national languages of East Pakistan, were brutally shot dead by police -then under Pakistan government, near the Dhaka High Court in the capital of present-day Bangladesh.

Ironically while Bengalis of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) fought and resisted Urdu, Government of West Bengal is now aggressively promoting Urdu. Poignantly, Bengalis of West Bengal have no clue any more of their Mother Language or heritage or history.