Language Movement of 1952

Ushering Bengali Nationalism

Dr. M. Emdadul Haq

Professor, DHP, NSU
Symbols of
Bengali
Nationalism in
Bangladesh
 Contents

 Language as a vehicle for forming Bengali nationalism.

 The Pala & Sultani Heritage of Bangla Language:
 Survival of Bangla under the Mughal & British era.
 Politics of Language in post-independent Pakistan & India:
 Shifting from Religious to Secular Linguistic Identity:
 Events leading to the Language Movement of 1952:
 Emergence of Bengali Nationalism since 1952:
 Concluding Remarks:
 Key Questions & Concepts
 How did Bangla Language historically emerge & sustain
through a competition with other major languages in sub-
continent over centuries?
 What were the major concerns of the Bengali people in East
Pakistan for launching the Language Movement in 1952?
Concepts:
Buddhist Pala Rulers, Charyapada Poetry, Nalanda University,
Lashkari Zaban, Lingua Franka, Direndra Nath Dutta, Tamuddun
Majlish, Bengali Nationalism
 Pala Patronization
 Bengali language has evolved through a long process of struggle
encountering Sanskrit, Hindi, Urdu, Persian, Arabic & English in
the Bengal delta region for about 1,300 years.
 Since 7th century AD, Bengal political history had witnessed the
rise & fall of many dynastic rules along with their patronization of
diverse religions & languages in line with their political supremacy.
 The Buddhist Pala rulers, for the first time, facilitated the
emergence of Bangla language to contain the religious influence
of Sanskrit or Brahmanical Hinduism throughout the region from
750 to 1120AD.
 Outstanding grammarian of the 8th century AD Acharya
Chandragomin wrote Bangla grammar deviating from the
traditional Sanskrit vocabulary mostly used by the upper caste
Brahmins.
 Pala Patronization
 Early linguistic composition of Bangla took place as a
confluence of some ancient languages of the Indian sub-
continent. i.e., Sanskrit, Maghadi, Prakrit & Paly etc.
 Big Monasteries or Mahabiharas like Vikrmshila, Sompuri,
Kanakasputa, Agrapuri, Jagddala, Odantapuri were important
centers for devising Bangla language by Buddhist Monks.
 Monks known as Siddhacharya wrote Lyrics and songs in an
ancient form of Bengali Language.
 Poems known as Bouddha Gan O Doha was the first ever
written poetry in the history of Bengali.
 Sitting in the monasteries in different parts of Bengal, the
Buddhist Monks created Charyapada poetry in a language
spoken by the common people from 10th to 12th centuries.
 Pala Patronization
 Early Bangla literature was unique combining lyrical verses,
Buddhist thoughts about their society & surrounding nature.
 Refinement of the Bangla language was continued for several
centuries till the non-Buddhist lyrics came forward for the
composition of Vaisnava Padabali during the 15th to 16th
centuries.
 Along with their religious preaching, the Buddhist teachers
devoted themselves for devising & teaching signs of early
Bangla alphabets to their knowledge hungry pupils.
 Nalanda University in Bihar built by the Pala rulers attracted
scholars from all over Asia for pursuing higher education for
almost 500 years.
 Buddhist Monks run their basic religious education & preaching
on humanism largely based Bangla language.
 Sena Repression
 After establishing their ascendency in Bengal in 1193 the orthodox
Sena rulers attempted to wipe out the fabrics of the Buddhist
Monks as well as their crafted Bangla language.
 The strict adherence of the Senas to Sanskrit as a religious
language, demolished the social ethos of the Bangla language
nourished under the Pala Age.
 Facing Sena oppression, a sizable number of Buddhist Monks
fled to Nepal, Tibet & neighboring countries with their literary
works & manuscripts, including religious texts written in Bangla
language.
 Following survival strategy, many of them either came back to
Hinduism or camouflaged to evade Sena suppression & atrocities.
 The Sultani Protection
 Very soon after the Muslim rule was founded by Turks in Bengal
in 1206, Bangla was made the state language by replacing the
Sanskrit supremacy.
 In turn, the Turkish rulers were addressed by the local people as
Sultans, meaning ‘strength’ or ‘authority’.
 Instead of imposing their native language Turki among the local
population, Turks recognized the importance of Bangla, spoken
by the common people.
 Sultan Nasiruddin Mohammad Shah, Sultan Alauddin Hossain
Shah, Sultan Ilias Shah etc. provided generous support to this
act.
 Reducing the influence of Sanskrit language traditionally used by
the Brahmins, however, the Sultani rulers patronized the Arabic
language as a vehicle for Islamic education, besides Bangla.
 The Mughal Indifference
 After establishing the Mughal rule in Bengal by Akbar’s army in
1576, changes occurred in the domain of official language.
 For introducing their cultural supremacy, in line with Delhi,
Mughals introduced Persian as official language in Bengal,
allowing the commoners to speak Bangla.
 Emperor Akbar is credited, however, for patronizing the Bengali
culture by his adoption of a new Bangla calendar in 1584.
 For the convenience of command system in a multi-lingual
Army, the Emperor Akbar adopted Urdu as a ‘lashkari zaban’ or
‘camp language’.
 Originating in Lucknow in Uttar Pradesh & ‘Delhi Bazar’ in India,
spoken Urdu has lots of similarities with Hindi, but its alphabets
are mostly drawn from Persian & Arabic languages.
 British Triviality
 After their colonial takeover, the British government allowed
Persian & other native languages to prevail for some decades.
 In their official communication system, the colonial government
used English, but patronized Sanskrit & Arabic in line with their
pursuance of Divide & Rule policy in the Indian colony.
 A Baptist Missionary William Carey founded the Srerampore
College (1818) & then University in Shillong in India for the
promotion of Christianity as well as English education.
 The British made English as state language in 1838 by replacing
the Persian language for the convenience of running their
colonial administration.
 For promotion of the Bangla language, however, Iswar Chandra
Bidwasagar in 1855 wrote a textbook Barna Parichay for the
school going children in Bengal.
 Language Politics in Pakistan :
 The initial concerns for establishing Bangla as state language had
been raised by Syed Ismail Hossain Siraji during early 20th century.
 The influence of the Bengali Renaissance & literary activities
across the spectrum founded a strong basis for the recognition of
Bangla as one of important languages in the region.
 In July 1947, a debate between Dr. Ziauddin, the VC of the Aligarh
University, & Dr. Mohammad Shahidulla of Dhaka University
started on the future state language issue of Pakistan.
 To settle the issue, post-independent Indian government adopted
Hindi as a state language, which was spoken by 40% Indians,
defying the fierce protest in Assam & Tamil Nadu,.
 As a colonial legacy, however, Pakistan government started using
English in the civil-military establishments & promoting Urdu in the
educational institutions, keeping Bengali aside after 1947.
 Language Politics in Pakistan:
 Muslim League vs. Awami Muslim League political dichotomy
over the language issue during the formative phase of Pakistan.
 Muslim League leaders generally defended Urdu, but Awami
League, student bodies & civil society groups demanded Bengali
as state language.
 Formation of East Pakistan Muslim Students League in 1948 &
then Awami Muslim League in 1949, ushered a new aspiration
for bringing back the heritage of Bengali language.
 They attempted to transform Jinnah’s Islamic nationalism to
secular Bengali identity & overcome communalism of the early
twentieth century.
 Creation of Independent United Bengal Movement in 1946
provided renewed inspiration to the Bengalis in East Pakistan.
 Language Politics in Pakistan:
The constitution framing body Basic Principles Committee (BPC)
was concerned over many conflicting issues, including the
language debate

Bengali was spoken by

56.3%, while about 7.3%
spoke Urdu.
 State Language Movement:
 Due to their Bengali paranoia, the Punjab centric leadership tried
to adjust the Bengali & non-Bengali relationship by introducing
Urdu as state language, justifying it equally advantageous &
disadvantageous for both the regions.
 On 23rd February 1948, Chief Minister Khawaja Nazimuddin
pleaded in the Provincial Legislative Assembly that the people of
East Pakistan must accept Urdu as their state language.
 Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, as the founding President of the East
Pakistan Muslim Students’ League, & others immediately rushed
in protest activities to the Muslim League’s tenacity to make Urdu
the only state language of Pakistan.
 Debate politically sharpened on 25th February 1948 after the
Congress MNA Direndra Nath Dutta demanded in the National
Assembly to make Bangla as the state language of Pakistan.
 State Language Movement:
 Refuting Direndra Nath Dutta, Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan
maintained Urdu as the ‘lingua franca’ of the Muslim nation.
 On 2nd March 1948, in a meeting held at Fazlul Huq Muslim Hall
an All-Party State Language Action Committee was formed to defy
the government decision.
 Sheikh Mujib, along with some other student activists, were
arrested on 11th March, while they were picketing in front of
Secretariat building in observance of the `State Language Bangla
Day,’ but were released after four days on student protests.
 On 21st March, Mohammad Ali Jinnah in a huge public rally at
Paltan Maidan declared that ‘Urdu & only Urdu was to be the
linguafranka of the ‘Muslim nation’ of the Indian subcontinent.

 State Language Movement
 Jinnah reiterated his declaration in the Dhaka University
Convocation at Carzon Hall that ignited sharp reaction among the
students & Bengali political leaders.
 The Dhaka University students continued their struggles
intermittently during the subsequently years to press the
government to accept their demand.
 Supporting the students, the Tamuddun Majlish led by Principal
Abul Kashem remained at the forefront of the movement.
 On 26th January 1952, after becoming PM of Pakistan, Khawaja
Nazimuddin declared at a public meeting in the Paltan Maidan that
Urdu would be the only state language of Pakistan.
 On 21st February 1952, in defiance of a curfew enforced by the
authorities, agitated students brought out procession to press their
demand to make Bangla one of the state languages of Pakistan.
Leading to Bengali Nationalism
 With Bloody incident of 21st February 1952, Salam, Barkat,
Rafiq, Jabbar, Shafiur & some others were killed when police
fired on a rally & then the language issue flared up as the
demand of the Bengali people.
 The language issue help influenced the creation of a linguistic
nationalist identity among the Bengali people in East Pakistan.
 In a belated attempt, the Pakistan government recognized
Bangla as a state language under the constitution of 1956, but
that was too late as a political attempt after the damage was
already done.
 Through the subsequent political movements in 1962, 1966,
1969 the ultimate independence of the country came in 1971.
 Leading to Bengali Nationalism
 Nationalism in Bangladesh can be termed as the ‘we feeling’, or
‘state of mind’ of the people of this country based on their
homogeneity, racial or ethnic origins, diversity in religious belief,
common language, cultural values, perceived history,
geographical identity, economic interests in the global arena.
 Bengali Muslim identity had emerged during the partition politics
led by Hindu ‘bhadroloks’ from 1905-’11 & then continued
through the Jinnah’s Two Nation theory until 1947.
 Secular Bengali identity came into being with the Language
Movement led by Abul Kashem, Maulana Bhashani, Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman, Oli Ahad, Gaziul & many others to the
eventual creation of independent Bangladesh in 1971.
 Leading to Bengali Nationalism
 Bangladesh achieved it independence in 1971 on the basis of
Bengali nationalism.
 Given the post-independent realities, the people of Bangladesh are
now geographically & constitutionally identified as Bangladeshi.
 There are three characteristics of the current Bangladeshi identity,
which are as follows:
(i) Rooted in ‘identity politics’: The current national identity has
evolved through a long process of transformation of the political
history, culture & traditions of the people of the country.
(ii) Seek control over territory: It suggests to uphold the national
sovereignty & independence of the country by denying the foreign
or cross-border influence over the internal affairs.
(iii) Economic advancement: To secure & maximize economic
interests from the global economy to move forward in the 21st
century.
 Concluding Remarks
 Language movement of 1952 was the political embryo from
which the independent sovereign Bangladesh was borne in 1971.
 For the Pakistani leadership, it was a strategic game to keep the
majority Bengali people under the minority domination.
 For the Bengalis, it’s was struggle for their socio-economic &
political survival & emancipation from the Punjabi hegemony.
 While Bengali nationalism led by the Hindu bhadraloks during
early 20th century & Jinnah’s Two-Nation theory during the 1940s
were communal, the renewed Bengali nationalism during the
1950s was secular in nature.
 UNESCO declared 21st February as International Mother
Language Day on 17th November 1999.
 As Bengalis, we need to respect the languages spoken by the
ethnic minorities in the country.