International Mother Language Day: Use Bangla in all spheres

The day 21 February is now International Mother Language Day. This day bears an emotional significance for Bangalees as it reminds one of the right to mother tongue and the honour of the language for each community across the world. The day of 21 February is 'soaked with the blood of language martyrs'. On this day in 1952, the youths of the country sacrificed their lives in Dhaka demanding Bangla to be state language. We solemnly remember and pay homage to Salam, Shafiq, Barkat, Rafique and others. The sacrifices they made are priceless.

We become so emotional with the advent of 21 February, but this is not reflected throughout our activities round the year. Our love and devotion to Bangla can be reflected through its use at each sphere of state and society, but, in reality, it did not happen. Bangla is neglected in many crucial sectors. There are numerous instances that clearly show our failure to realise the glory of our mother tongue. Bangla is not used on invitation cards of various ceremonies and in the receipts or list of items at shopping malls.

Why such negligence of the mother tongue? Does this question haunt us? One of the reasons is globalisation, but many countries still maintain communication with the outer world prioritising their own language. Despite the impact of English and several other colonial languages, Asians whose mother language include Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Thai, Tamil, Telegu and so on, are enriching their language. Why cannot we? Why do the educated people of the country deem English more 'respectable' than Bangla? Why families of rich culture, arts and literature too prefer English medium educational institutions?

This is a day of celebration and also of retrospect. The enthusiasm we express for our language during February should provide us with the energy and encouragement to initiate the use of Bangla in all spheres. Bangla must be developed to become a complete language which enables it to be used as the medium of communication in education, state and institutions. A proper terminology must be developed. We must do this to make a meaning to all the ceremonies we observer on 21 February. There should be a grand scheme to initiate the use of Bangla in all spheres.

Five decades have passed since independence, but we could not much progress in this regard. We must assess this failure too. Paying tributes to the language martyrs is possible only when initiate the use of Bangla in all spheres. Apart from Bangla-speaking people, all who uses other languages here should also strengthen initiatives to develop their mother tongue. This is the essence of International Mother Language Day.