Ekushe (the twenty-first): part 1

As part of a generation who didn't exist in 1952, 21st February has always been mystical. A band of young students voicing their society's rebellion against the forced enforcement of a language as the national language seemed surreal. In Presidency College, Calcutta, I used to participate in different writing programmes held on this date every year. But, the very fact of being in 2002/3/4 made the history of the date distant; yet, the idea created unfathomable bubbles in the mind then. It continued to do so for a long time.

Limbs like me? Volatile? Ignited ? Lamp by the cauldron that caught fire perhaps.

The fear of anything that doesn't conform to the mass has besieged the human mind for as  long back as history goes. In September, 1947 (Bangladesh was then East Pakistan) a booklet was published by a cultural society debating which language should become the state language of Pakistan - Bengali or Urdu. The opinion that Bengali remain a state language along with Urdu was not bizarre and irrational. With the overwhelming population in East Bangladesh (54 percent) being Bengali, it was not only a just demand but also a rational one.

The issue of language however never is an issue of language after all.Mohammad Ali Jinnah gave a speech at the Dhaka University Karjon Hall on March 4, 1948. It was on occasion of the convocation ceremony at the University. While Jinnah conceded the "right of the people of this province to choose Bengali as their official language if they so wished", he clearly stated that, "(t)here can be only one State language, if the component parts of this State are to march forward in unison, and that language, ..., can only be Urdu" (Ref). This was not the voice of the "friend" he claimed to be at the beginning of his speech. What could have been an innovative constitutional change instead became a political struggle in its own right.

Afraid of words I and you are. Scared to death that death will come. Words'll bring them?

On February 20, 1952, a day before organised student groups and political activists had called for a general strike, an order banning processions and meetings in Dhaka City came to force under Section 144 of the Criminal Procedure Code.This was now an expression of political might and repression. On February 21, 1952, students meet at the Dhaka University premises to defy Section 144. And then what happened is not only unfortunate but inhumane.  

Put on that armour of pride and kill. It takes time to throttle lungs. Fire is pure. Rain!
 
The events of February 1952 was carried forward in spirit as Bangladesh fought its independence battle against Pakistan. Within a year less than two decades, Bangladesh won its independence.

It was long after the writing programmes at Presidency College on February 21st, that I came to know that in 1954 Pakistan recognised Bangla as a state language.  

Now you have a voice, so be quiet. Now you have a voice, I beg you, speak. Now, you have a voice, don't think of  rains any more.


Note:
To know about the timeline of the Bangla Language Movement, come here.

Itlaicised lines are parts of a poem I am working on.