[🇧🇩] 21st February---Our Language Movement Day

Date of Event: Feb 21, 2025

Source: https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/president-ca-pay-homage-language-heroes-3829691

President, CA pay homage to language heroes

Photo: PID

President Mohammed Shahabuddin and Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus have paid rich tributes to the martyrs of the historic Language Movement, marking the Amar Ekushey and the International Mother Language Day.

They separately paid homage by placing wreaths at the Central Shaheed Minar in the capital after 12:01am today, reports BSS.

The president and chief adviser stood in solemn silence for some time as a mark of profound respect to the memories of the Language Heroes.

Dhaka University Vice-Chancellor Professor Niaz Ahmed Khan welcomed them upon their arrival at the Central Shaheed Minar.

Advisers to the interim government, chief justice, chiefs of the three services, freedom fighters, diplomats and high civil and military officials were present on the occasion.

Photo: Rashed Shumon/Star

Later, the Shaheed Minar was opened to the public when hundreds of people from all walks of life placed flowers to recall the supreme sacrifice of the language heroes on this day in 1952.

The day will also be observed around the world since UNESCO recognised the 21st February (Ekushey February) as the International Mother Language Day on November 17, 1999.

This year's UNESCO topic of the day is "Make Languages Count for Sustainable Development".

Earlier, Chief Adviser Professor Muhammad Yunus today issued a message paying rich tribute to people of all languages in the world, including Bangla, on the occasion of the great Martyrs' Day and the International Mother Language Day-2025.

In his message, he said the Bengali nation, which had endured centuries of enslavement and domination, achieved its first victory in its struggle for independence on February 21, 1952.

The language movement holds special significance in the history of the Bengali nation's liberation movement, he added.

Photo: Rashed Shumon/Star

The day's programmes include: paying respect to language martyrs by placing wreaths at the Central Shaheed Minar beside Dhaka Medical College and Hospital and other local Shaheed Minars across the country at one minute past zero hour, holding discussions highlighting the significance of February 21, wearing black badge, keeping national flag half mast, hoisting black flag atop the buildings, paying tributes to the martyr's graves in City's Azimpur and bringing out "Provat Feri".

The day is a public holiday.

In observance of the day, the Central Shaheed Minar premises was decorated with paintings, graffiti, buntings and selected verses in the mother language.

Tight security measures have been enforced around the Central Shaheed Minar, its adjoining areas and Azimpur graveyard of the language martyrs.

Different political, social, cultural, professional bodies have taken various programmes including cultural functions to observe the Amar Ekushey in a befitting manner.

The national flags will be kept half-mast at all the buildings of government, semi-government, autonomous and private organisations and educational institutions.

All educational institutions, local government bodies, district and upazila administrations, Bangladesh missions abroad will take proper measures to observe the day.

Fateha and Qurankhwani will be offered at Azimpur graveyard and special prayers will be arranged at mosques and all other places of prayers across the country seeking eternal peace of the souls of the language martyrs.

On the occasion, road islands and other important places in the capital will be decorated with festoons inscribed with letters of different languages including Bangla.

Public and private media will air special programme while newspapers will publish special supplements marking the day.

Bangladesh missions abroad will organise different programmes, including placing wreaths at Shaheed Minar, discussions on Bangabandhu and Language Movement, and book and photo exhibitions where diplomats of different countries and Bangladeshi expatriates will join.

Marking the day, Bangla Academy, Bangladesh Shilpakala Academy, Kabi Nazrul Institute, National Book Centre, Islamic Foundation, Bangladesh National Museum, Department of Archaeology, Department of Public Libraries, International Mother Language Institute, Department of Archives and Library, Bangladesh Folk Art and Crafts Foundation, Bangladesh Shishu Academy, Small Ethnic Groups Cultural Institute, three districts in hill tracts, Tribal Cultural Academy in Birishiri of Netrokona, Rajshahi Divisional Ethnic Minority Cultural Academy (RDEMCA), Manipuri Lalitkala Academy, Cox's Bazar Cultural Centre and other organisations and institutions will organise various events.

On February 21 in 1952, Salam, Rafique, Shafique, Jabbar and Barkat embraced martyrdom in police firing in front of the Dhaka Medical College and Hospital (DMCH) as they took to the street to intensify the campaign to establish Bangla as the state language of the then Pakistan, sowing the seeds of subsequent movements for the country's independence.

They were killed as police opened fire on students demonstrating under the All-Party Students Action Committee against conspiracies of Pakistani rulers to declare "Urdu" as the only state language.

The movement for Bangla, however, did not stop and Pakistan government on February 29, 1956 was compelled to recognise Bangla as one of the state languages besides Urdu.

The decision, however, could not stop the movement against repression and misrule of Pakistani government that subsequently led the Bangalee to the War of Independence and the emergence of Bangladesh.​

 

[Saif]

Dying mother tongues, cultures

The 1952's language movement was a political struggle to establish Bangla's status as a state language. In consequence, it also gave rise to the linguistic nationalism, a variety of identity politics. So, language movement was not one of preserving Bangla as an endangered language since it is spoke

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Dying mother tongues, cultures
SYED FATTAHUL ALIM
Published :
Feb 24, 2025 23:52
Updated :
Feb 24, 2025 23:52

The 1952's language movement was a political struggle to establish Bangla's status as a state language. In consequence, it also gave rise to the linguistic nationalism, a variety of identity politics. So, language movement was not one of preserving Bangla as an endangered language since it is spoken by more than 260 million people in Bangladesh and the State of West Bengal in India. Unlike Bangla and other major languages of the world, there are scores of languages that are spoken by fewer people. According to the Foundation for Endangered Languages, a British non-profit, out of some 6,000 languages spoken around the world, between 500 and 1000 are endangered as a handful of humans speak them. And every year about 50 of these languages go extinct. These are indigenous languages. But the way humans have preserved the relics of the past civilisations and empires, they have not done so for the languages that are going extinct.

Languages go extinct when its last speaker dies. Consider the case of Rangmitca, an indigenous language of the southern district of Bandarban, which is critically endangered. A recent report says, among the majority Mro speaking people of Krangsipara village under Sadar Union of Alikadam upazila in Bandarban, four people speak Rangmitca. But according to experts, this language is not a dialect of Mro. Reports further say, there are only three other speakers of this language who live in three different villages in the Sadar upazila and neighbouring Naikhongchhari upazila. Even other family members of those seven people, who are aged between 58 and 79, cannot speak Rangmitca. During the Ethno-Linguistic Survey' conducted between 2013 and 2018, there were 40 speakers of this indigenous tongue. That means, within a decade, 80 per cent of the people speaking the language has died. Clearly, the fate of Rangmitca is doomed and the organisation responsible for protecting and preserving endangered languages, the International Mother Language Institute (IMLI), should act fast to record and document the spoken version of the language from its speakers still alive. According to another report, only two people have been found who still (2025) speak a near-extinct indigenous language, Khariya.

The IMLI, it is believed, will also not allow Khariya to die with the death of its last speakers. The said linguistic survey identified 14 such indigenous languages in Bangladesh that are endangered. These include Munari, Matto, Kheying, Khumi, Kol, Chak, Pangkhwa, Pattra or Laleng, Lusai, the earlier mentioned Khariya, Shoura, Koda, Kando and the first mentioned tongue, Rangmitca. But little has been done so far to preserve these languages. Of the 40 ethnic languages existing in Bangladesh, 18 have written form. Even so, they may one day die out because if there is no adequate arrangements to educate the children of the indigenous communities speaking those languages, then they would in course of time forget their mother tongue and adopt the dominant speech of the broader society, Bangla. The government needs to extend necessary support to protect and preserve those languages. Now, one might question the necessity of preserving a minor language. British writer and broadcaster, Kenan Malik, for instance, thinks it is an 'irrational' exercise to preserve all the world's languages. The last speaker of the Bo, an 85-year-old member of the Bo tribe in the Andaman Islands owned by India, died in 2010. With him the Bo went extinct. Though sad, to Mr Malik, it was natural because that is how cultural forms are getting extinct all the time.

However, with the death of a language, thoughts, culture and more importantly, the history of a people is lost forever. But the pressure of globalisation and cultural homogeneity is causing many languages of the world to die depriving the planet of their rich linguistic diversity. However, protecting an indigenous language or culture does not mean that the people who speak it should not join the march of progress. They must. But their traditions and histories deserve to be preserved.​

 

[Saif]

Exploring the richness of Dhakaiya Subbasi dialect

Subbasi is a Bengali-influenced dialect that is now spoken by original residents of Dhakaiya community

www.thedailystar.net

Exploring the richness of Dhakaiya Subbasi dialect

I thought that Urdu and Hindi were analogous to some extent -- a totally misread perspective, which changed when I did a bit of research on Dhakaiya people's vernacular or street dialect.

"We Dhakaiyas have two styles of speech that we converse in, one is ancholik Dhakaiya Bangla and the other is Dhakai Sukhbas, Subbasi or Khoshbas," says Akter Jahan, a writer who composes stories in her original Dhakai Sukhbas dialect.

The real meaning of Sukhbas, an Urdu word, is well-off or happily settled, and relates to the language spoken between the then locals and the overseas merchants, whose native languages were different. "Thus, Sukhbas or Subbasi is a Bengali-influenced dialect known as Dhakaiya Urdu and Hindi, and is now spoken by the original residents of Dhakaiya community, and it is often mistaken for Urdu," Jahan clarifies.

The dynasty rule of invaders in Bengal led to the amalgamation of their original speaking tongue of Urdu, Sanskrit, a base of Hindi, Persian, Arabic, and Turkic loanwords to the dialect of Bengali. This made Hindustani an Indo-Aryan language, as a lingua franca or communication mode in the streets of old Dhaka.

The 65-year-old energetic, nature-loving matriarch was born and brought up and even married in Amligola Mahalla, near the Kella area. Prior to her retirement, she ran the family business of plastic industry with her husband. However, the retired couple now lives a tranquil life in Kathaltoli Pukur paar in Keraniganj. Surrounded by greenery, and in sync with nature, Akhtar Jahan is honing her writing skills.

Her mother was educated in Urdu and Persian, as was the medium in those years, but she was the first generation Dhakaiya who were schooled in Bangla.

"My buri ma or grandmother always sat us kids down in her courtyard for 'kejcha kahani ashor' or storytelling sessions. Her vivid description in our Dhakaiya Subbasi language, with the precise tonal emphasis, gave our imagination wings. Our Dhakaiya culture is colourful and rich, we have geets in our dialect for every celebration, be it wedding or bathtime," quips Akter's daughter Ishrat Jahan, adding that the stories of her great grandmother were not found in any fairytale books she read.

"I am trying to document our old stories in Subbasi language, or as we say Dhakai jobane boyan. Our kids are teased in school for the way they speak, and as a result, they shy away from the original dialect. I want the golod or mistake that our noya postan or new generations are making to be corrected. They should know their roots and social landscapes. If this lingua franca is not documented, then it will be lost to time," Jahan shared..

Peheli or dha dha, which are riddles, kohut or proverbs, rhymes, and songs in Dhakaiya Subbasi tongue; were common practice in cultural gatherings at old Dhaka. Now, this sort of ashor or cultural session are lost.

Akhtar Jahan's short stories like "Din Badler Sedma", "Zendegir Bioscope", "Mohabbater Qissa", and "Fakarer Bolli" were published in reputed dailies and literary magazines.

"Akhtar Jahan's writing in this Dhaka regional language is not only a new addition to Bengali literature, but in her stories, we find a realistic picture of Dhaka society and culture in the post-independence period since the partition of the country," Ishrat adds.

"We as kids sang songs for the rain to stop and the sun to shine. We went around houses knocking on doors singing aloud and our neighbours gave us grains as favours, and we cooked community meals. Everything we did had a fun factor in it. Dhakaiya people are financially well off and love showdowns and celebrations. We took aristocracy from the Mughals and trading as our career choice from the merchants. Being a Dhakaiya is something you cannot copy from TV serials or Bollywood movies. It is in our DNA," Akhtar Jahan says boldly.​