In the famous words of Kobiguru Rabindranath Tagore, “moder gorob, moder aashaa, aamori Bangla bhashaa… ” (Bengali language is our pride… Bengali is our identity…)

February 21st is a very significant day, its regarded as the International Mother Language Day but for Bengalies all over this has immense importance as on this day, in 1952 on the streets of then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) people protested the imposition of Urdu language upon the large number of Bengali speaking Muslim community. The diktat by the Pakistan government had spread huge uproar among the students of Dhaka University. They decided to defy the order and take out a protest march.

The Government of the Dominion of Pakistan in 1948, ordained as part of Islamization and Arabization of East Bengal that Urdu language would become the sole national language. It said that the Bengali writing alternatively in Arabic script or Roman script that was also called the ‘Romanisation of Bengali’ or Arabic as the state language of the whole of Pakistan was also proposed.

Abdus Salam, Rafiq Uddin Ahmed, Sofiur Rehman, Abdul Barkat and Abdul Jabbar along with many others protested on the streets of then Dhaka. The agitation took that was dormant till then took momentum and it turned out into Bengali Language Movement.

Since then February 21 is observed as a solemn day. The day is also called ‘Omor Ekushey’ (Immortal 21). Poets, writers, and philosophers over the years have written songs, poems, and even created dramas as a mark of respect to these martyrs who raised their voices against the autocratic diktat and protected the respect and dignity of the Bengali language.

“amar bhai r rokte ranga ekushey February, aami ki bhulte pari…” (February 21st is red with my brother’s blood, can I ever forget the day…), mark the day.