Mother Language
Kazi Nazrul Islam A gem of Bengali literature UNESCO's declaration of 21st February as the International Mother Language Day had brought fresh glory and prestige to Bangladesh which is making significant strides towards peace, progress and prosperity at home and discharging International obligations abroad. After 1952, the people of Bangladesh have been observing the 21st day of February as their glorious and unforgettable Language Martyrs Day. What happened on 21st February 1952 is widely known. Still let me very briefly recount the fateful happenings of that day and the circumstances that led to and followed them. In August 1947, a new state called Pakistan, comprising two far-flung wings in the west and east, separated by 1600 kilometers of foreign territory, emerged on the world map. The ideological basis of that strange phenomenon was the absurd and pernicious two nation theory of Mr. Jinnah that ignored such basic elements as language and culture a...