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(Academic) The Language Movement of 1952

Preprint · August 2021

DOI: 10.13140/RG.2.2.15457.02408

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 HIS103.25 ASSIGNMENT

“The Language Movement”

Name: Taseen Islam

Course instructor: Dr. Md. Humayun Kabir

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 Figure 1: An artwork representing the Bangladesh language movement of 19521

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Source: http://blog.nigurha.com/what-is-international-mother-language-day/

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Abstract

The language theme is one of the most important events of our Bangladeshi culture. This
was the first step towards the growth of Bangladeshi nationalism and for a unique and separate
identity as a Bangladeshi. One of the critical reasons for the occurrence of this event is the
oppression of the West Pakistanis upon the East Pakistani people. Through my research
assignment, I will try to answer what caused the buildup of such movement. Besides, I will also
try to answer the events during the language movement and how these events still affect our
traditions and culture. Finally, I will try to answer what the significance or aftermath of this
language movement is.

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Introduction

The partition of 1947 caused the birth of two nations: India and Pakistan. Pakistan was also
comprised of West Pakistan and East Pakistan (which is now Bangladesh). Even though the
partition took place mainly based on Mohammad Ali Jinnah's two-nation theory, nothing seemed
to favor the East Pakistani people as they were deprived of all basic rights. The first five-year
rule of Pakistan from 1947 to 1952 worsened East Pakistan's economy. Not only that, the
average living conditions of the East Pakistani people, both in terms of an individual's financial
condition and basic living necessity, deteriorated significantly. To make the situation worse, the
exclusion of the Bengali language from the state language was also done by the West Pakistanis.
This was the main reason for the start of the language movement. The language movement has
mainly two phases: the initial buildup in 1947 and 1948, which was more of a constitutional one,
and the other one was of 1952, which was fiercer and more intense.

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Research Questions

This research is done in order to analyze the significance and importance of the language
movement. As for the research materials, the results will be produced solely based on the
secondary resources: online articles and journals. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it is not
possible to take any surveys or any interviews. The crucial areas of the research include the
initial reasons for which this language movement took place. The research analysis will help to
reveal whether the language movement was caused by a particular reason or for multiple reasons.
Another key research area will deal with the events during the language movement and the
extent to which they are significant. Thus, the main inquires of the research will include the
causes of the language movement and the various phenomenon that occurred during the language
movement and their impact on our culture and tradition.

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Methodology Overview

In order to conduct the research, authentic online journals and articles will be used. The
resources will be thoroughly checked to avoid any misleading information. If deemed necessary,
every data will be cross-checked with different sources to keep the data's authenticity. These data
will then be used for analytical investigation in order to come to an unbiased conclusion. For
further analytical investigation, the research results will be cross-checked with previously
researched so that the integrity of the research results remains valid.

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Main Body

Discussion and Analytical Part

After the partition of 1947, East Bengal came to know as East Pakistan. When they
were given a choice in 1947 to stay with either India or Pakistan, they chose the latter, hoping
that a Muslim majority region would benefit East Bengal rather than India. However, their hopes
for East Pakistan soon fell as they realized that the West Pakistanis were making economic
policies only in their favor (Niaz Asadullah, 2006).

Despite the poor conditions of East Pakistan finance and national services caused by
the deportation of the Hindus during the partition, the West Pakistani people did nothing about it.
On top of that, they started to exploit East Pakistan for the development of West Pakistan, which
is quite similar to the two decades of colonization of the British people (Ahmed, 2019). It was
pretty clear that the creation of Pakistan was nothing but purely political as country division
based on religion is a very insufficient justification (Ahmed, 2019). Hence, the country would
have been better positioned if there was secularism in politics instead of communalism.

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 Figure 2: Some Economic Indicators during the Pakistan Rule2

As we can see in figure 2, foreign aid allocations, civil service jobs, and military jobs
were always focused towards West Pakistan by a huge difference. Besides that, between 1948-49
and 1968-69, a massive amount of wealth was transferred to West Pakistan. Hence, the ignition
of the language movement was also backed up by the economic oppression of the West
Pakistanis.

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Source: Pakistan Statistical Yearbooks and Pakistan Economic Survey for the various years, Government of East
Pakistan (1963), Papanek (1967), A.R. Khan (1970), Interim Reports (May 1970), and Forum (February 27, 1971)

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 One of the government's objectives after the formation of Pakistan was the setup of an
official language. The government favored Urdu solely because this language was used during
medieval age Muslim rulers of India and Bengal (Day Translations, 2018). However, the
percentage of the language spoken across united Pakistan says otherwise. While Urdu was only
the language of only 7% of the population of United Pakistan, the percentage of Bengali
speaking individuals was 54% across United Pakistan (Fathema, 2019). This led to the formation
of Tamuddin Majlis in September 1948 to make Bengali one of Pakistan's state languages. Thus,
on February 25, 1948, Dhirendranath Datta proposed about Bengali being one of the state
languages of Pakistan in Karachi. He did this at a very significant personal risk, and his proposal
is considered the stepping stone towards the creation of Bangladesh (Correspondent, 2018). The
then-president of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah, believed that it was essential for a country to
have a single language to maintain unity. His famous and most well-known quoting from his
speech in 1948 at Race Course, Dhaka was:

“Let me make it very clear to you that the state language of Pakistan is going to be Urdu
and no other language. Anyone who tries to mislead you is really the enemy of Pakistan.
Without one state language, no nation can remain tied up solidly together and function. Look at
the history of other countries. Therefore, so far as the state language is concerned, Pakistan’s
shall be Urdu.” (Fathema, 2019)

Jinnah also believed that it was essential to exclude the Bengali language as it was
"Sanscritized". While it is true that the Bengali language emerged from the Indian Subcontinent,
it does not justify the statement that the Bengali language is related to a specific religion (Jubayer
Shahadat, 2011). It was pretty clear that Jinnah had fears of losing his powers, and thus his
objective was to use religion to exploit and remain in power as long as possible. To make matters
worse, Mohammad Ali Jinnah passed away in September 1948 without giving any permanent
solution. His death was followed by the assassination of Liaquat Ali Khan in 1951, and as a
result, Khawaja Naziumuddin became the prime minister (Jubayer Shahadat, 2011).

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 However, things did not seem to change as Nazimuddin added more fuel to the fire by
repeating the same statement of Urdu being the only state language of Pakistan in one of the
meetings in Paltan Maidan, Dhaka (Ahmad & Ishwaran, 2017). In response to such kind of
oppression by the West Pakistanis, it was decided that a strike was to be held on February 21,
1952.

Figure 3: The procession march of February 21, 19523

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Source: https://steemit.com/freedom/@delowar4181/52-language-movement-took-shape-71-of-the-freedom-
movement

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 However, the Pakistan government was too clever to let the situation get out of hand as
they knew very clearly that the students' passion for this issue was enough to remove them from
power. As a result, the government banned all kinds of procession under Section 144, and the
aim of this move by the government was quite clear to everyone (The Daily Star, 2014). Despite
the ban, the students still went out with their non-violent procession. However, the police used
the official ban as an excuse and decided to open fire at the students around the Medical College
hostel. This led to some protesters' death, including Rafiquddin Ahmed, Mohammad
Salauddin, Abul Barkat, Abdus Salam, and Abdul Jabbar (Jubayer Shahadat, 2011).

Figure 4: The sculpture of language movement martyrs

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 Thus, the language movement was placed as a very significant event of our history, and
to remember and pay respect to the martyrs of the language movement; the Shaheed Minar was
constructed. However, there were several obstacles towards the construction of Shaheed Minar
as it was a primary target for the Pakistani Army (Jubayer Shahadat, 2011). This just shows the
amount of hatred the West Pakistanis had towards the Bangladeshi people. It was
constructed and destroyed several times before it was reconstructed in 1973, a few years after the
liberation war (Jubayer Shahadat, 2011).

Figure 6: A picture of the modern Shaheed Minar

As we have previously seen that the partition of 1947 was never meant for the betterment
of different religious people instead it was more of a tactical and political scheme of Jinnah to
take power and control. The root of all problems is allowing religion-based politics. All these
problems would not have arisen if strict secularistic politics existed in the first place. Jinnah's
main goal was to take power in West Pakistan and exploit East Pakistan as much as possible
since he never intended to take in East Pakistan. It was effortless for him to do it since he was
able to expose the weakness in non-secularistic politics. In other words, they were kind of
"Forced" to take East Pakistan with them. This is why we can see that the initial build-up of the
language movement, more like a catalyst of the event, was the injustice that the Pakistani
government was causing to East Pakistan's economic and social development.

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 When the language issue arose, Jinnah realized that introducing the Bengali language as
the state language may plant the seed of Bengali nationalism among the East Pakistani people.
As a result, he tried to sabotage that opportunity by making Urdu the official state language. For
this to happen, he used the hoax religious excuse of labeling the Bengali language as something
that Muslims should not use, that is, "Sanscritized". It is also notable that the language
movement's significant contributors were the students, as the politician's contribution was
comparatively low. The politicians were only supporting the language movement to secure a
rigid position in the election, whereas the students were the main driving force of the language
issue (Jubayer Shahadat, 2011). The events of the Language movement are considered to be the
stepping stone towards the creation of Bangladesh as the reaction of the Pakistani government
was enough to prove that there was a need for an autonomous and separate country for
East Pakistan. Finally, after much struggle, the Bengali language was officially accepted as one
of the state languages of Pakistan on May 7, 1954 (LS Desk, 2019), and many years later, in
November 1999, UNESCO recognized the Bangladeshi Language movement as an international
event.

The importance and significance of the international mother's language day are
enormous. It not only allows us to recognize and respect the martyrs of the language movement
but is also equally crucial for the continuation and cultural development of a nation. According
to UNESCO's official website, about 40% of the world's total population does not have the
privilege of getting basic rights to education in their mother tongue (UNESCO, 2018). Thus, this
event is internationally important for the recognition of language diversity across the globe.

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Conclusion

So, to sum up, it can be said that the official language issue mainly caused the language
movement startup, and apart from that, the suppression of East Pakistan's economy and social
development is also a major contributing factor. The Pakistani government did everything in
their power to oppose the idea of the Bengali language as the state language by using religion as
an excuse. They even stooped so low that open-fired at the students' peaceful protest, all because
of fear of losing their power to exploit. These wrongdoings are enough to suggest that East
Pakistan could no longer develop under the then Pakistani government and that an autonomous
and separate state was necessary for East Pakistan and thus the commencement of the path
towards the creation of Bangladesh. In addition to all these, the aftermath of the language
movement was the creation of Shaheed Minar, which has a unique place in the history of
Bangladesh, and the international mother's language day that serves as a source of preservation
of languages across the world.

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References

Ahmad, A., & Ishwaran, K. (Eds.). (2017, October 5). Bhasha Andolon (Bangladesh language

movement 1948-1952) - Khwaja Nazimuddin maintains Urdu stance - History of

Bangladesh. Retrieved from Londoni website: http://www.londoni.co/index.php/24-

history-of-bangladesh/1952-bhasha-andolon/211-bhasha-andolon-bangladesh-language-

movement-1948-1952-khwaja-nazimuddin-maintains-urdu-stance-history-of-bangladesh

Ahmed, F. (2019). The struggle in Bangladesh. Critical Asian Studies, 4(1), 2–22.

https://doi.org/10.1080/14672715.1972.10406271

Correspondent, S. (2018, March 25). Martyr Dhirendranath Datta remembered. Retrieved May 4,

2021, from The Daily Star website: https://www.thedailystar.net/city/martyr-

dhirendranath-datta-remembered-1553047

Day Translations. (2018, May 23). The Importance of Studying the Urdu Language Now.

Retrieved from Day Translations Blog website:

https://www.daytranslations.com/blog/studying-urdu-language/

Fathema, K. (2019, February 21). Why was there a battle of Urdu-Bangla? Retrieved from New

Age website: https://www.newagebd.net/article/65472/why-was-there-a-battle-of-urdu-

bangla

Jubayer Shahadat, M. (2011). Language Movement Museum and Library, Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Retrieved from University of Massachusetts Amherst website:

https://scholarworks.umass.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1780&context=theses

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 LS Desk. (2019, February 19). Another Falgun. Retrieved from The Daily Star website:

https://www.thedailystar.net/lifestyle/special-feature/news/another-falgun-1703962

Niaz Asadullah, M. (2006). Discussion Papers in Economic and Social History. Retrieved from

University of Oxford website:

https://www.nuff.ox.ac.uk/economics/history/paper63/63asadullah.pdf

The Daily Star. (2014, February 20). Section 144 based on falsehood. Retrieved from The Daily

Star website: https://www.thedailystar.net/section-144-based-on-falsehood-12140

UNESCO. (2018, October 4). International Mother Language Day. Retrieved from UNESCO

website: https://en.unesco.org/commemorations/motherlanguageday

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