Bengali “Language Movement” for Dummies
Myth vs Reality (not exhaustive)
Myth 1: The “Language Movement” wanted the eradication of Urdu
Reality: the political activists participating in the “Language Movement” wanted Bengali to be side-by-side with Urdu as national languages of United Pakistan. In their official demands, they did NOT call for the eradication of Urdu from East Bengal.
Myth 2: West Pakistani leaders wanted to force Urdu language on East Pakistani Bengalis
Reality: Not just West Pakistan-based non-Bengali leaders, but also popularly elected East Pakistani Bengali leaders wanted to have Urdu as the sole national language of United Pakistan**. Moreover, each province would have their official provincial language(s), such as, Punjabi for Punjab, Bengali for Bengal, Pushto-Baloch for Pathan-Baloch areas, and so on.
Two important Pakistani politicians in power at that time most associated with dealing with the “Language Movement” were both Bengalis: Iskandar Mirza and Khwaja Nazimuddin.
So neither were only non-Bengali West Pakistanis supporting Urdu as sole national language, nor was any language forced on anyone from the government.
**some Bengali politicians, including Ghulam Azam and others were in favour of Bengali as another national language, besides Urdu, based on Bengalis being the largest ethnic group of Pakistanis.
JeI later withdraw participation in the movement sensing larger agenda of leftists (but still favoured Bengali national language)
Myth 3: East Pakistani Bengalis fought a war against West Pakistani non-Bengalis to “save” Bengali language
Reality: in 21 Feb 1952, certain political activists demonstrated and called for Bengali to be a national language of United Pakistan (as if Bengali as official provincial language was not enough). This was the official political demand. But the
unofficial political rhetoric was that this was a “struggle to save the eradication of Bengali”, which was a complete lie. However the lie lives on in the minds of many Bangladeshis even today, owing to our culture of ignorance and a tendency to surrender to the fascist leftists.
Myth 4: the 1971 India-Pakistan war was a war between East Pakistan (Bangladesh) and West Pakistan (Pakistan) based on language
Reality: United Pakistan already adopted Bengali as one of two
national languages of United Pakistan back in 1956. The other national language was Urdu.
Bengali was made national language of United Pakistan, even though it was unfair. It’s because Bengali was a provincial language (its use is limited to Bengal). whereas Urdu was a pan-South Asian language; Urdu has been used throughout South Asian subcontinent.
Myth 5: Muhammad Ali Jinnah was against Bengali people and hurt the sentiments of Bengali people
Reality: M.A. Jinnah’s party’s most important electorate province was Bengal and some his closest colleagues were Bengali. M.A. Jinnah was a leader of a party that itself was founded in Bengal. And neither was Quaid-e-Azam against Bengalis nor did he hurt Bengalis’ sentiments, except the “sentiments” of a few politically charged radicals, by declaring Urdu to be the ONLY national language of United Pakistan. M.A. Jinnah arguably was aware of Bengal’s culture and the importance of Urdu in Bengal.
Myth 6: Urdu was a West Pakistani language
Reality: Urdu is the mother tongue of only 10% of the people of today’s Pakistan (former W. Pakistan), and most of that 10% have background in India, Bangladesh and even Burma. The most spoken first language of former West Pakistan is Punjabi.
Urdu has been present in Bengal roughly in its current form since around 1600s, as it did throughout other parts of North India and up to Punjab and beyond. Since Urdu developed from much before in forms like Khariboli, its presence in Bengal is much older. Bengal’s people and culture influenced the formal Urdu language itself, and also created informal variants such as the Urdu dialect associated with Old Dhaka and a Laknawi offshoot associated with Calcutta.
Myth 7: 21st February marks a day when brave but ordinary students expressed their love for mother tongue
Reality: 21st February marks a day when certain political activists or political cadres expressed their hate for a mother tongue and a literary language of Bengal and Bengalis, i.e. Urdu.
The 21st February agitation was a political operation that was aimed at arousing hatred for a Muslim heritage of Bengalis. This was done by certain radical quarters who aroused anti-West Pakistan and anti-Bengali-Muslim sentiments at the same time. They hoped to take advantage of the high illiteracy of Bengali Muslims, to distance Bengali Muslims from their roots and to destroy any Muslim identity in Bengal. they hoped to distance the Urdu-speaking Bengalis from the non-Urdu-speaking ones, to distance Bengalis from non-Bengalis.
The 21st February agitation led to mass hatred and violence on a language and people. The UN International Mother Language day which is on the same day still does not acknowledge the mass crimes committed, and a culture of intolerance and ignorance developed around the Bengali “Language Movement” on which the date of the UN day is based on. Ironically, the intolerance and ignorance is towards other languages of Bangladeshis.
"(Re)Constitution of Muslim Selves in Colonial Bengal" by Samantha Arnold in
Identity and Global Politics (2004) -
Identity and Global Politics: Theoretical and Empirical Elaborations - Google Books
http://storyofbangladesh.com/ebooks/wastes-of-time/132-chapter-eightteen.pdf
http://storyofbangladesh.com/ebooks/wastes-of-time/121-chapter-seven.pdf
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