International Mother Language Day--Bangladesh

[Harold Schiffman]

 Forwarded From:  edling at lists.sis.utsa.edu






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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 Harold F. Schiffman

Professor Emeritus of
 Dravidian Linguistics and Culture
Dept. of South Asia Studies
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA 19104-6305

Phone:  (215) 898-7475
Fax:  (215) 573-2138

Email:  haroldfs at gmail.com
http://ccat.sas.upenn.edu/~haroldfs/

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