Salam, Rafiq Barkat, Aiyub gave their life for mother tongue Bengali in 1952. What are we seeing today? Now days we and our children are always speaking in Hindi except Bengali. Politicians, bureaucrats and school students are not left out. So why did the language martyrs give their lives for the Bengali language in 1952?

The Language Movement or Bhasha Andolan was able to retain the script and establish Bangla as the state language for use in government affairs, in media, currency, stamps, and also as a medium of education.

From the student unrest had emerged a new leader, Sheikh Mujib-ur-Rehman, who went on to become the founder of Bangladesh when it attained freedom in 1971 with help from India.

February 21 is a national holiday in Bangladesh, and commemoration of the day as the Shahid Dibash (Martyrs’ Day) is its greatest festival.

And the festivity is not limited to Bangladesh. West Bengal celebrates the day as Bhasha Divas with equal reverence and enthusiasm. At Shantiniketan, the day is celebrated in a big way every year, when students from Bangladesh are joined by others in singing the ‘Ekushe February’ anthem, ‘Amaar bhayer rokte… An event takes place at the Lipika Auditorium on the morning of 21 February when the students offer flowers in memory of the language martyrs.

In our country of 92% Muslims, Urdu is ahead of Hindi and Bengali in understanding the Qur`an, Hadith and Islamic literature in that time even today. However, there was a strong appeal to the concerned authorities to introduce Bangla language in all cases.