International Mother Language Day:  The Quest For Linguistic Identity

• In 1954,  Bengali was adopted as an official language of Pakistan along with Urdu.

• In India, language has played an important role in establishing regional identity

• Outlook’s May 2022 issue, Hindistan, looked at the socio-political narrative in which Hindi was being pushed by the Centre as ‘Rashtra Bhasha’.

On February 21, 1952, when students from Dhaka University tried to storm the Assembly building of East Pakistan, police opened fire killing numerous students. The day  was recognised by the UNESCO as International Mother Language Day, observed worldwide to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.

However, the sacrifice and fight for language, identity and respect not only defined a cultural struggle for Bangladesh’s (then East Pakistan’s) people but also the country’s journey towards independence and recognition.

In 1948, the Government of the Dominion of Pakistan declared that Urdu would be the national language of the state, triggering protests among the Bengali-speaking populace of East Pakistan (now, Bangladesh). The demand to add Bengali as at least one of the national languages was raised by Dhirendranath Datta from East Pakistan in 1948, in the constituent Assembly of Pakistan. The proposal soon led to mass protests where large sections of Bengali students from Dhaka University organise demonstrations demanding the recognition of their language.

Following the protests and public outcry, the constituent assembly resolved, with the Muslim League's support, to grant official status to Bengali in 1954. Bengali was adopted as an official language of Pakistan along with Urdu.

Further, the Bangla Language Introduction Act, 1987 statute ensured all records and official correspondences must be written in Bangla all courts, government or semi-government offices, and autonomous institutions in Bangladesh.

In India, language has played an important role in establishing regional identity shaped by collective consciousness, traditions and the politics of memory. However, across decades, across the breadth of the country the voices against Hindi imposition have only grown stronger. Outlook’s May 2022 issue, Hindistan, looks at the socio-political narrative where Hindi is being pushed by the Centre as ‘Rashtra Bhasha’.

As Garga Chatterjee, language activist and general secretary of Bangla Pokkho, a Bengali rights group, argues in his piece, India or Hindia, that owing to the fact that Hindi is not the national language of India, “either Hindi is denied special status at the Union level; or all of Tamil, Bangla, Marathi, Telugu, Malayalam, Kannada, Odia, Assamese, Punjabi have the exact same legal status and rights as Hindi, in the Union of India.”

In the piece, Body for Soil, Life for Tamil, writer and activist Meena Kandasamy looks at the Anti-Hindi movement and grassroots and feminist struggle for Tamil pride, where she mentions Periyaar’s immortal words:  “Tamil Nadu is for Tamils”—not out of linguistic pride or chauvinism, but to fiercely stand up against the colonisation and domination of Tamil people, to counter the attempts to subjugate them by the imposition of Hindi.”

Aazhi Senthilnathan, coordinator of Campaign for Language Equality and Rights, in the piece Can You See the Whole Picture speaks of the historical context of ferocious Dravidian protests against Hindi imperialism and thread it to the present and the youth’s stance against New Delhi’s discriminatory stance towards the demands of non-Hindi language rights, as well as the Union government’s new-found aggression on the language fron

As the two-language theory gained momentum with DMK’s long march against language imposition, and remains more than relevant today, and also with contemporary outfits like Bangla Pokkho advocating for the same, the issue interrogates the clash between the activism for upholding linguistic identities and the threat of internal decay, presenting a look into the historical and current contexts of resistance and resilience.