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"Ekush" is the Eternal Safeguard of Our Independence

Abdul Gaffar Chowdhury
Seventy-one has an umbilical connection with the “Ekush” (21 February 1952). One is inseparable from the other. The 21 February of the year 1952 was the pole-star of our liberation. The Bangalis have advanced following that guided path and achieved freedom through the bloodbath of 1971. This Ekush has built the character of our independence also. This character is non-communal, secular and liberally nationalistic. Humanity is its religion and democracy is its power.
There have been many movements in Bangladesh and the Indian subcontinent since the British regime. But none of these movements was as purely secular as that of the Language Movement of 1952. Based on the Language Movement, the character and appearance of all the movements taken place later in the semi-colonial Pakistani era were also non-communal.
The protection of the Bangla alphabet, fight for Tagore songs, demand for introducing a united electoral system, attainment of the full regional autonomy and the struggle for the six-point demands - all these movements had an identical flow and their common characteristic was secularly nationalistic. We have seen in the all-out expansion of the language movement in the Pakistani regime how identical a struggle can turn out to be in a country for the protection of political and cultural existence. Ekush united all the Bangalis of Bangladesh under the banner of the Bangalis, making them forget their differences in religion, caste, creed and class, and pushed them inevitably towards the independence in 1971.
What would have happened if we had been defeated in the 1952 Language Movement and if the non-Bangali rulers had been able to snatch away our mother tongue from our mouth? Our cultural existence, pride and rights would have been perished. We would have been a dumb nation of slaves. In order to turn the Bangalis into such a nation of slaves, a Hindu-Muslim division or communal divide was created. A communal conflict was made to be continued. It was propagated that the language, culture and civilization of the Bangalis were all anti-Islamic. At that time even a scholar named Mohammad Wazed Ali raised the question, “Are all the customs of the Bangalis including their meals of rice and fish, and their women’s dress like sarees anti-Islamic?” There was no answer to this question.
The 1952 Language Movement did away with all the conflicts of the Bangalis’ or especially the Bangali Muslims’ identity crisis or all conflicts of self-identity. It taught the Bangalis that religion is a matter of personal belief and language is a bond of collectivity. A nation is not created on the basis of religion. If such a thing had been possible, a nation would have emerged on the basis of Islam in the Middle East. Then many countries and nations like Arabia, Yemen,
Turkey, Iraq and Iran would not have come into being. As the Arab community has developed on the basis of the Arabic language, so Persia (Iran) has developed on the basis of the Persian language. Religion could not make Saudi Arabia and Iran one nation.
In Bangladesh also, the Bangla language has created a single national identity obliterating the religious and communal differences. As the basis of this national identity, Bangladesh has a thousand years' long tradition of secular literature, culture and civilization. No nation can retain their existence ignoring these resources. The Bangalis of Bangladesh also could not have done it. That is why, the foreign rulers have always tried to separate them from their cultural roots in order to tread them down. They were also able to turn some Bangalis into slaves to assist this conspiracy. These ‘slaves’ were engaged in a heinous campaign against the Bangla language and culture with the words taught by the non-Bangali rulers. Even in that ancient period, a Bangali Muslim poet raised his voice against these campaigners. He wrote, “If anybody bom in Bengal looks down upon Bangalis, nobody can ascertain who begot them.”
It is, therefore, natural that the character of the movement to safeguard the existence and rights of the Bangalis’ secular language and culture would be like that of a mass movement Although this movement was initiated by the student community and a progressive part of Bangladesh’s elite class, it soon spread among the common people. It was only because the urge to protect their own language of speech (not only their bookish language) was bigger than the movement for food and clothing. They understood that their mother language was as energizing as their mother’s breast milk. Without this energy, their existence would not be safe. That is why their minstrel sang, “They want to snatch away my mother language.”
It is the Language Movement which urged the people of Bangladesh to create an independent Bangali national identity on the basis of language and geography. It has continuously pulled them towards independence with a fixed aim like the pole-star. Those who sacrificed their lives without any hesitation in the Language Movement were none of our scholars; they were all common students, clerks or the common people who took part in the language demonstration. The martyrs Barkat, Salam, Jabbar and Rafiq were not from our high social class; they were all from ordinary families. Nobody knew even their names before their martyrdom in the Language Movement Through the self-sacrifice of the common people, the Language Movement was able to attain the status of a mass movement and the Liberation War also turned into a people’s war. The independence of Bangladesh was achieved at the cost of three million people’s self-sacrifice.
Great leaders emerge from mass movements. There was a widely-spread series of movements in Bangladesh beginning from the peasants’ movements in the British period to the Language Movement in the Pakistani era; and from this very series of movements emerged Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the architect of the Bangalis’ independence. He was not a leader coming back from England. He was the child of an ordinary Bangali family. But in him we find the greatest Bangali of thousand years. No other leader of the country has attained a bigger achievement than that of his. He presented the nation a sovereign state. He restored their identity of Bangalis. He restored the name ‘Bangladesh’ and established it as an independent and sovereign state on the map of the world. Above all, Bangla is now an internationally recognized prestigious language. The Language Day of 21 February is now the International Mother Language Day.
Ekush is, therefore, the most unique day in our national life. As Rabindranath brought international honour for the Bangla language by winning the Nobel Prize for literature, Bangabandhu established Bangla internationally by delivering the first Bangla speech in the Assembly of the United Nations. From Ekush to Seventy-one - the name involved in everything from the safeguard of existence and rights to the final establishment of an independent land is the name of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
Attacks are now coming from various corners on the non-communal and free democratic existence of the Bangalis. At times anarchy lurks behind the national psyche. But a bright star shows them path even in the dark cloud of despair. This star is the pole-star of the 21 February of 1952. This star will show path to the people of Bangladesh forever.
A foreign observer has rightly said about Bangladesh, “On the independence and non-communal state policy of Bangladesh, there are still some direct and indirect attacks from communal and religious fanatics, local reactionary groups and foreign dominating forces; but the Bangladeshis have also four powerful safeguards to resist these attacks. One, their secular Bangla language and culture; two, the defensive wall of language and culture spreading from the Charyapada (the ancient lyrical poetry dealing with the Buddhist religion and contemplation) to Tagore and Naznil; three, the annual arousal of the language movement and four, the foundation of a secular Bangla laid by the selfsacrifice of Sheikh Mujib.”
We can only add one thing to this statement. These four foundations of the Bangalis’ national identity are strongly bound together by the fixed pole-star of the 21 February of 1952. And it will keep its hold eternally.
Translation: Mi Jahurul Islam