21st February

United Nation's declaration of 21st February as the International Mother Language Day has brought fresh glory and prestige to Bengalis as 21st February is a day connected to the Bangla language. On February 21, 1952 the Pakistan police opened fire on unarmed demonstrators who were protesting the imposition of Urdu as the one and only state language of Pakistan. Five people died and many were injured. Since then, the people of Bangladesh have been observing every year the 21st day of February as their glorious and unforgettable Language Martyrs' Day or Shaheed Dibosh.

Background:
Immediately after its creation in 1947, Pakistan faced the question as to what would be its state language. The central leaders and the Urdu-speaking intellectuals of Pakistan declared that urdu would be the state language of Pakistan, just as Hindi was the state language of India. Bengalis strongly resisted attempts to impose Urdu as the sole official language of Pakistan and demanded that Bangla be made one of the state languages. That was the beginning of the Language Movement or Bhasha Andolon , which began in 1948 and reached its climax in the killing of Bangali protesters by Pakistani rulers on 21 February 1952. This movement ended in the adoption of Bangla as one of the state languages of Pakistan and led ultimately to the creation of the sovereign state of Bangladesh.

UNESCO (United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization) decided to observe February 21 as International Mother Language Day. The UNESCO General Conference took a decision to that took effect on 17 November 1999 when it unanimously adopted a draft resolution submitted by Bangladesh and co-sponsored and supported by 28 other countries.

Tidbits:
On 19th May, 1961, in Silchar, a small town of South Assam in North East India witnessed another fight for the Bengali language and 11 people died in police firing to protest against the forcible imposition of Assamese on the Bangla speaking people there as a state policy. The martyrs of 19th May gave their everything for the language and later the Government had to back down.

On 21st July, 1986, in another momentous day in the struggle for the Bengali Language, two bengalis gave their life in Karimganj, a small town in Southern Assam, protesting against yet another attempt by the state government to impose Assamese on the local Bengali population. The two martyrs gave their life when police opened fire on unarmed protesters. This was the pivotal incident that forced the government to withdraw their unpopular legislation.