Home ›› 20 Feb 2023 ›› Opinion
After partition of India, Pakistan came into being on 14 August 1947. Pakistan was a bifurcated state with two regions – West Pakistan and East Pakistan. East Pakistan was a thousand miles away from West Pakistan. In between the two parts of Pakistan there lies India.
Soon after the birth of Pakistan people of East Pakistan came to their senses that they were subjected to a near colonial rule in place of the British colonial rule. The peoples of the two parts had nothing in common except their religion.
It was by the time clear that only religion couldn’t constitute a nation. Language is a pre-requisite for a national unity. Otherwise smaller nations get subjugated to the grater nation. Exactly it was what happened in the case of Pakistan.
In the multi-lingual and multi-cultural state of Pakistan the two parts – West Pakistan and East Pakistan - varied greatly both in culture and language. What usually happens in a capitalist country when multi-nations exist the same thing happened in the East Pakistan: The East Pakistan became victims of discrimination economically, culturally and linguistically.
The first attack came on the cultural front i.e. the language. Only 3.3 percent of the total population of Pakistan had Urdu as their mother tongue. On the other hand, Bengali was the language of more than 54 percent population. But the central government of Pakistan ignored the claim of Bengalis to recognize Bengali as one of the national languages of Pakistan. It was understandable to the people of East Pakistan that the attack on economic front would follow the suit soon.
West Pakistan lacked cultural cohesiveness. Punjabis, Pathans, Sindhis and Baluchis and Kashmiris are the major ethnic groups of people who can be identified both as linguistically and culturally. But as the people of East Pakistan speak only one language – Bengali - and people of East were more in number they could put up a strong resistance against Pakistan what others couldn’t do.
The seed of language movement can be traced back in 1940 after the adoption of Lahore Resolution known to be Pakistan Resolution too. It reached its zenith on 21st February 1952.
As the dream of Federal India under a single constitution failed Muslim League at its Lahore Resolution demanded a separate Muslim state which would later be named as Pakistan. Soon after that the demand for Bengali as a state language began to surface in the writings of intellectuals, journalists, linguistics and
educationists.
Even as early as 29 July 1947 Dr Muhammad Shahidullah (1885-1965), the linguist and doyen of Bengali language and literature, said: “If Urdu or Hindi instead of Bengali is used in our law courts and universities that would be tantamount to political slavery.”
Author, scientist and journalist Qazi Mothar Hossain in an article in Shawagt in 1947 wrote in a note of warn: “Any attempt to impose Urdu on the Bengali Hindu-Muslims by physical force will be found to fall because, rising discontent cannot be kept suppressed for long. In that case, the relation between the East and the West will soon cease to exist.”
After Lahore Resolution the issue came to the fore again in the month of February in 1948 during the adoption of the Draft Rules of Procedure in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. As per the rule the Constituent Assembly members were allowed to speak either in English or in Urdu. Dhirendranath Dutt, a Congress member, gave a note of dissent calling for Bengali to be made one of the official languages of Pakistan along with English and Urdu. And he moved an amendment. Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan opposed it.
Muhammad Ali Jinnah, then governor general of Pakistan, came to Dhaka in March 1948. While addressing a gathering of students on March 24 he declared that Urdu and Urdu alone would be the state language of Pakistan resulting in an impromptu protest from the student community leading to the historic February 21 general strike.
No single party led the Language Movement. Different political parties, groups of people and students and socio-cultural organizations got involved in the movement. As the days passed by, involvement of people of all classes increased. The demand for Bengali as a state language was first raised by a Dhaka University-based cultural organization Tamuddin Majlish. Others gradually got involved.
The organizations that played pioneering role in the language movement are Youth League, East Pakistan Muslim Students League, East Pakistan Awami Muslim League, Tamuddin Majlis, All East Pakistan Students League, East Pakistan Mohajir Society, Communist Party of Pakistan, some student representatives from different schools and colleges and prominent citizens of Dhaka.
Later in order to lead the movement the Dhaka University All-Party State Language Committee of Action was formed. Mainly this organization of students spearheaded the movement. A similar All-Party State Language Committee of Action was also formed. Such committees were formed across East Pakistan.
Maulana Bhashani, founding president of Awami Muslim League and founder of National Awami Party (NAP), was the prominent leader in the Language movement. It was Bhashani who after the Dhaka University State Language Committee of Action formed the All-Party State Language Committee of Action on January 31, 1952. It was the time when Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was in jail. From his imprisonment he constantly kept in touch with the leaders of the party and activists and gave his instruction.
After the death of Jinnah, Prime Minister Khwaja Nazimuddin on 27 January 1952 reiterated that only Urdu would be the state language of Pakistan creating resentment among the people of East Pakistan leading to the movement to its climax on 21 February 1952.
Dhaka University State Language Committee of Action protesting the declaration called a hartal (general strike) throughout East Pakistan on 21 February 1952. The same evening the All-Party State Language Committee of Action supported the strike. On the day of February 21 section 144 was imposed all through the Dhaka city. Police in riot gear cordoned off the Dhaka University so that students couldn’t bring out protest procession.
Students began to gather at Amtala (under mango tree) of the DU from as early as 8am. After a discussion among themselves student leaders decided to break the 144 in groups of 10. Accordingly they began to come on to the streets in groups of 10 one after another. As they came out chanting slogans demanding Bengali as the State Language police whisked them into their truck. As the rush was uncontrollable police opened fire on protesting students in front of the Dhaka Medical College Hospital.
In police firing Rafiquddin Ahmed, Abul Barkat, Abdul Jabbar and Salam embraced martyrdom. Many more were injured. The general strike continued till February 25. Gradually the language movement turned into a movement for independence and finally culminated in the 1971 Liberation War.
The writer is a journalist. He can be contacted at [email protected]
