Lesson 3 : International Mother Language Day - 1

21 February is a memorable day in our national history. We observe the day every
year as International Mother Language Day. The day is a national holiday.
On this day, we pay tribute to the martyrs who laid down their lives to establish
Bangla as a state language in undivided Pakistan in 1952. This is known as the
Language Movement.
The seed of the Language Movement was Sown on 21 March 1948 when
Mohammad Ali Zinnah, the then Governor General of Pakistan, at a public meeting
in Dhaka declared that Urdu would be the only official language of Pakistan. The
declaration raised a storm of protest in the eastern part of the country. The protest
continued non-stop, gathering momentum day by day. It turned into a movement and
reached its climax in 1952. The government outlawed all sorts of public meetings and
rallies to prevent it.
The students of Dhaka University defied the law and they brought out a peaceful
protest procession on 21 February 1952. When the procession reached near Dhaka
Medical College, the police opened fire on the students, killing Salam, Rafiq, Barkat
and Jabbar. This enkindled the sparks of independent movement of Bangladesh.