The people who fight for language in the world, write names in history

Ekushey February is a red letter day in our national life. It inspired us to achieve legal right. One 14 August, 1947 Pakistan became independent. The rulers of West Pakistan started to exploit East Pakistan from the very beginning. When Tamaddun Majlish demanded the recognition of Bengali as a state language, the demand for the Bengali language turned into a movement when a proposal of Bengali language by Dhirendra Nath Dutta was rejected, on 28 February, 1948 a student strike was observed. On the 2nd March 1948 Sarba Daliya Sangram Parishad was formed. In a general strike the police beat the students with sticks in a procession and arrested several student leaders on 11 March. After that Governor General Mohammad Ali Jinnah proclaimed that Urdu and only Urdu shall be the state language of Pakistan in a public meeting on 21 March. He uttered the same in the convocation ceremony of Dhaka University at Curzon Hall on 24 March. The next three years 11 March was observed as the state Language Day everyware in East Pakistan. On 9 March, 1949 East Pakistan Government formed, ‘East Bengal Language committee’ headed by Maulana Akan. In 1949 demanded Bengali as a state language. In 1950 Liaquat Ali Khan proclaimae in the General Assembly that Urdu shall be the state language. On 26 January 1952 Prime Minister Khawaja Nazimuddin proclaimed that Urdu shall be the state language OF Pakistan. This made the people of East Pakistan grieved much. On 30 January a student’s strike was observed. Sarba Daliya Sangram Committee decided to observe students strike on 4 February and general strike on 21 February as State Language Day, ‘on 20 February Nurul Amin Government enforced 144, a clause, and banned and advanced to the Provincial Assembly House. The students assembled at Medical College police stared. At one stage the police shot fires, Jabbar, Rafiq, Barkat, Salam and other were martyred and many others were wounded.

Since then we observe ‘Ekushey Februry’ as Shaheed Dibas in memory of the martyrs of the Language Movement.