International Mother Language Day

[Francis Hult]

China View

 

International Mother Language Day 

 

Bangladesh observed on Saturday the International Mother Language Day with other countries around the world. 

 

The International Mother Language Day is also called the Language Martyrs' Day in Bangladesh. It is commemorated to the martyrs who fought in 1952 language movement and sacrificed their lives to establish Bangla as the state language of Pakistan which Bangladesh was part of. 

 

On Feb. 21, 1952, many brave youths of the then east-Pakistan, now Bangladesh, embraced martyrdom in police firing in the streets of Dhaka, now the capital of Bangladesh, while protesting the then Pakistani rulers' declaration that "Urdu and only Urdu" would be state language, a language that virtually few people knew in east-Pakistan. 

 

Full story:

http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-02/21/content_10861782.htm

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