February 21, 1952.
A day, that will always be burning in Bangladesh history.
The day, that lit the light for all the people in the world and brought the right to speak in their own mother language.
Bangladesh, earlier known as East Bengal or East Pakistan, (1947-1971) was a province of Pakistan. In 1948, Pakistan decided that Urdu, and only Urdu, will be the sole national language for all communication. This news built a huge tension in the Bangla speaking people that sparked protests among the Bangla speaking people in East Pakistan. The government outlawed the protests. On February 21, 1952, students at the University of Dhaka, Dhaka Medical College and other activists organized another protest followed by a huge procession. The police opened fire at the demonstrators and killed the major leaders that were heading the procession. These students' deaths in fighting for the right to use their mother language are now remembered on International Mother Language Day. Every year, we, the Bangladeshis, along with many other nations from all over the world, celebrate this day in honor of those martyrs who sacrificed their lives to let us express our emotions, feelings, in our own language. In our mother language. I feel proud to say that I speak in Bangla.
International Mother Language Day was proclaimed by the General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) in November 1999 (30C/62). (Source: United Nations) This year's theme for the day is:
Linguistic diversity and multilingualism count for sustainable development
Idea nurtured and developed by my little bro, Mahabub, we thought, it would be a great idea to show our respect for the language martyrs in our own language.
I invite all the people in Connect to make a short video, in their own language and post it here by February 15, 2018. (Please ignore the photo in the album. I had to add the photo to create the album. Once I get some videos, as well as I post mine, I will delete that existing photo). All you have to do is, say your name, country's name and "....... is my mother language" at the end in your own language. And make sure you add a subtitle at the bottom of your video in English, so that people know what you are saying. The collaborated video will be posted on February 20, on the eve of the International Mother Language Day.
তোমার আমার সুর মিলেই হবে আমাদের সুর.....
@ErmesT, @KarenVChin, @YK1001, @HelloSamsonR, @OSAMA, @LucioV, @AnuradhaP, @MuhannadK, @AlejandraMaria, @NatalkaR, I would feel honored to have your contribution to this activity.
2022
