Bengali, as a language has its own uniqueness that consists of sanguinary political history and both national and international recognition. Its not uncommon that nations throughout the history, fought wars and struggled to achieve independence and autonomy. But, Bengali is the only language and Bangladesh is the only nation, that required renunciation and blood, only to preserve the right to speak in it. After the Battle of Plassey, the 190-year long history of British occupation in the then Bengal and Indian sub-continent is the history of subservience of Bengali language and ethnicity towards foreign occupiers. When the movement of Independence of India from British occupation started, the discussion to decide language for the multi-lingual land started consequently. During the early initiation of India's Self-Rule movement Mahatma Gandhi sought edification over a letter from Nobel lauriet Poet Rabindranath Tegore in deciding linguistic policy for the country. Tagore opined in favour of Hindi, but in a public meeting, famous sub-continental linguist Dr Muhammad Shahidullah opined otherwise. He favoured for three languages instead of one- Hindi, Urdu and Bengali, which probably laid the vision of three different independent states based on three lingual-ethnicities.
Language is the main and the most important medium of expression for human. One of the most efficient and rapid way to develop a nation depends on its application of mother-language among its people and state. Probably, realizing this reason, the Pakistani rulers of Bengal tried to control and curb the use of Bangla among its mostly Bengali-speaking population. At that time, 60 percent of the total population of the then East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) were Bengali, and the rest were mostly Urdu-speaking people.
Though Indian Congress were decisive about the language of India, but before coming into any conclusion, Muslim league- the main Pakistani political party at that time got a whole new country- Pakistan (East & West), that had two major and different lingual population. The dominance of Urdu-speaking West Pakistanis in the authority led towards the dominance of Urdu over Bengali and resulted to a systematic oppression against the right of Bengali speakers to speak their own language. The West-Pakistani rulers intended to establish the dominance of Urdu in all sphere of life and consequently tried to make it the only official language of Pakistan. This oppressive idea became evident by time, when the Urdu-dominated West Pakistani authority started prioritizing Urdu in official usage over Bengali. To oppose, a tiny and comparatively new political party- Tamadduin Majlish published a small book titled as “Is the state Language Urdu or Bengali” in September 15, 1947, which can be treated as the starting point of the Language movement in East Pakistan.
During the end of 1947, one Secretary of Civil Service of Pakistan, published a list of language including Sanskrit & Latin- two obsolete language for the region. Surprisingly the list excluded Bengali. Professor Abul Quashem- a renowned member of civil society protested the incident, which was published at the Daily Ittehad alongside a special report at that time and resulted mass agitation. In a session of Pakistan assembly in 1948, member of Congress Mr Dhirendranath Dutt proposed Bengali as one of the main official language in Pakistan which was rejected by the assembly. In a demonstration at Dhaka on January 27, 1952, the East Pakistani Prime Minister Khaja Najimuddin declared Urdu to be the only official language of Pakistan, entirely denying the plea of Bengali-speaking population that resulted a stern public protest throughout East Pakistan. Following the mass protest, a demonstration was scheduled to take place on February 21st, 1952 throughout Dhaka. This protest result a violent response from the oppressive regime of Pakistan and led to the death of many people, who only demanded the right to speak in their mother tongue-Bengali and thus built a unique piece of history where people wilfully laid down their life for the right to speak in their own language. They bought this right with their blood.
Basically, the book that was published by Tamaddun Majlish founded the pillar of the Bengali movement towards independence. And through this, the West Pakistani occupiers understood that they could not hold the occupation for long in East Pakistan. Through this movement for language, Bengalis became mentally prepared for their independence, which led to a historic war in 1971-the war of Independence of Bangladesh.
On March 12th, 1975, the founding father of Bangladesh the then President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman introduced Bengali as the official language by issuing a governmental decree, where it was stated that “The official and national language of Bangladesh will be BENGALI”.
Five months later after issuing this decree the Bengali language was assassinated again when he got assassinated in a coup in 1975. Through that coup, the age-old conspiracy to throw Bengali from the life of its people started again during the time of another military junta Major General Ziaur Rahman, when he introduced the priority of English over Bengali through an infamous change in the constitution of the country. This also initiated the oppression of a complete alien language and culture to the region-Arabic, aiming to systematically rule out Bengali.
Alike 1952, some Bengali migrants initiated resistance against the new phase of oppression against the hard-earned right to speak Bengali and decided to achieve international recognition of the language movement initiated in 1952. As a consequence, two Bengali expatriate Mr Rafiq and Salam- similar to the name of two language movement martyrs in 1952, proposed in the General Assembly of United Nation in November 17th, 1999 to recognize 21st February as the International Mother Language Day. Hundred eighty-eight member states at the UN directly supported the resolution and thus UN declared 21stFebruary to be observed as the International Mother Language Day through all of its member states as a token to pay homage to the glorious struggle of Bengali people for their language.