Not enough books on Language Movement

The world will celebrate International Mother Language Day today along with Bangladesh, which will also play glowing tributes to the Language Movement martyrs on “Shaheed Dibash” (Martyrs Day).

There is significant enthusiasm among the people every year when they go to the Shaheed Minars and pay respect to the heroes of the 1952 movement who made the ultimate sacrifice on February 21 of that year so that the Bengalis can have Bangla as their mother tongue.

However, the tendency to learn about the proud history of that day has been dropping gradually among the young generation. Keeping up with the tradition, the Amar Ekushey Book Fair is likely to witness a record number of visitors today, as many will go to the fair in Suhrawardy Udyan and Bangla Academy premises after paying tribute to the martyrs at Central Shaheed Minar on Dhaka University campus.

But the fair is not prepared to welcome the readers and booklovers with enough books on the Language Movement, the second most important historic event in Bangladesh’s history after the 1971 Liberation War.

Around 2,281 books have been released at the month-long fair so far and only a handful of them are on Language Movement. On Monday, around 100 books were published but none of them was on the movement.Publishers said that people have lost their interest in learning about the movement and its history. At the same time, very few writers have managed to gain popularity among readers after author Ahmed Rafiq.

This is why publishers do not want to publish books on the movement as they do not see many sales at the book fair. The dropping number of readers, lack of writers and absence of better content are the main reasons behind the downturn of books on the 1951 movement, they said.

Not enough readers, no popular writers

Md Amjad Hossain Khan Kajal, a senior executive of the publishing house Oitijjhya, said, “There is no popular writer on Language Movement in the country. The readers do not bear interest in knowing the history.

“On the other hand, the authorities concerned have no notable plan to make the books popular among the young generation.”

Md Jafirul Islam, supply and sales officer at Kathaprokash, said, “When Ahmed Rafiq used to write books on Language Movement, people used to come to buy them because they used to read books more.

“But he is not writing anymore and the books that are coming out are not gaining popularity among the readers. It feels like people have lost their love for the history of the movement.”

“Since there are not enough readers, publishers do not want to publish such books due to the fear of incurring losses,” he added. Agami Prokashani is one of the few publishing houses that have come out with some books on Language Movement at this year’s fair.

Agami Prokashani stall in-charge Amirul Islam said they are selling at least 20 books on the movement. Three of them were published recently.

“We are seeing some demands for these books among the school and college students and libraries. We hope the books will gain popularity among the readers,” he said.

Prominent writer Nazneen Haque Mimi said, “The number of readers is reducing gradually. Most of the daily visitors do not come to the book fair to buy books but only to explore and spend time with friends and family.”

The need for a movement has risen to inspire the young generation to read more books on the country’s history. These books need to be added to the education system to this end, she said.