International Mother Language Day

At the partition of India in 1947, the Bengal
province was divided according to the
predominant religions of the inhabitants. The
western part became part of India and the
eastern part became a province of Pakistan
known as East Bengal and later East Pakistan.
However, there was economic, cultural and lingual
friction between East and West Pakistan.
These tensions were apparent in 1948 when
Pakistan's government declared that Urdu was
the sole national language. This sparked protests
amongst the Bengali-speaking majority in East
Pakistan. The government outlawed the protests
but on February 21, 1952, students at the
University of Dhaka and other activists organized
a protest. Later that day, the police opened fire at
the demonstrators and killed four students. These
students' deaths in fighting for the right to use
their mother language are now remembered on
International Mother Language Day.
The unrest continued as Bengali speakers
campaigned for the right to use their mother
language. Bengali became an official language in
Pakistan on February 29, 1956. Following the
Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, Bangladesh
became an independent country with Bengali as
its official language.
On November 17, 1999, UNESCO proclaimed
February 21 to be International Mother Language
Day and it was first observed on February 21,
2000. Each year the celebrations around
International Mother Language Day concentrate
on a particular theme.

Symbols:

The Shaheed Minar (martyr's monument) in
Dhaka, Bangladesh, pays homage to the four
demonstrators killed in 1952. There have been
three versions of the monument. The first version
was built on February 22-23 in 1952 but the
police and army destroyed it within a few days.
Construction on the second version started in
November 1957, but the introduction of martial
law stopped construction work and it was
destroyed during the Bangladesh Liberation War in
1971.
The third version of the Shaheed Minar was built
to similar plans as the second version. It consists
of four standing marble frames and a larger
double marble frame with a slanted top portion.
The frames are constructed from marble and
stand on a stage, which is raised about four
meters (14 feet) above the ground. The four
frames represent the four men who died on
February 21, 1952, and the double frame
represents their mothers and country. Replicas of
the Shaheed Minar have been constructed
worldwide where people from Bangladesh have
settled, particularly in London and Oldham in the
United Kingdom.
An International Mother Language Day monument
was erected at Ashfield Park in Sydney, Australia,
on February 19, 2006. It consists of a slab of
slate mounted vertically on a raised platform.
There are stylized images of the Shaheed Minar
and the globe on the face of the stone. There are
also the words "we will remember the martyrs of
21st February" in English and Bengali and words
in five alphabets to represent mother languages
on five continents where people live.