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Twenty-first of...

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government. The minister only said that the recommendations were being considered by the government. Only that much; then discussions on other subjects were started in the assembly.
It was difficult to conjecture what was in store for the next day, the 21 of February, which proved to be a massive explosion in an apparently peaceful environment. But it could be understood from later events that the government was ready for such an outburst. This demand for making Bangla the state language was also raised from different localities of the country’s mofiissil areas.
The news about opening of fire on the students on 21 February spread like wildfire almost instantaneously. The speed and swiftness with which the news of 21 February of Dhaka spread from one village to another in rural Bangladesh, and the protests, agitations and anger it generated thereby heating up the entire nation was quite unimaginable. All-out strike was observed in Narayanganj in support of the demand for state language Bangla on 21 February. The intensity of the discontent generated when news of firing reached the place in the afternoon was impossible to measure. From then on, a deep unrest gripped Narayanganj manifest through agitations, protests and movements and its intensity gradually increased. It would not be an exaggeration to state that the centre of movement was shifted to Narayanganj from Dhaka for some time. Strike was also observed in Comilla for making Bangla the principal state language. When a large procession was moving around the town, a group of ‘Urduspeaking people’ attacked them; this news was published in the daily ‘Azad’ on 22 February. When news about the killings by the police reached Comilla, a public meeting was held almost immediately at the town-hall under the chairmanship of Meer Zahirul Haque. The barbaric attack of the police was sharply criticised during the meeting and demands were put forward for resignation of the Nurul Amin cabinet, granting the status of a state language to Bangla and taking punitive measures against the Mohajirs or immigrants.
The East Bengal legislative assembly was in session on 20 February, where the chief minister Nurul Amin was placing his budget. The session was adjourned for that day to be reconvened at 3.30 pm on 21 February. Immediately after the resumption of that session, Moulana Abdur Rashid Tarkabagish informed the assembly that there was no point in sitting for the session when the future hopes of the country - the students - were being shot dead by the police. First, there should be an equiry, and only then the house could continue, he said. Dhirendranath Datta said almost simultaneously that the police had killed the students by entering the hospital compound and had arrested over 200 students. One could not participate in the session’s proceedings in that situation. Manoranjan Dhar asked, what was the crime of the students? They wanted recognition of Bangla as the main state language. Should the administration be run by trampling the corpses of students? In between these arguments and debates, chief minister Nurul Amin told a shameless lie that the police did not enter the hospital compound. Nurul Amin did not spell out through his mouth that anybody had died due to bullets fired; he only spoke about injuries. Despite repeated efforts by the opposition members, he did not agree to undertake a visit to the hospital for observing the situation on the ground. Nurul Amin tried to separate the issue of language from the clamping down of section-144 and subsequent firing incidents. He argued, whether imposition of section-144 was justified was a different matter. There were many means to raise questions about it - but when it was actually imposed, none should have broken it. In his language, ‘The question was not that of language, the question was that of law’.
It can be clearly understood that the chief minister Nurul Amin tried to divert the language question as well as the course of language movement in a different direction after the incident. That is why he proposed a resolution in the afternoon session of 22 February to recommend according recognition to Bangla as the state language. But his address over radio on 24 February exposed the detestable ploy Nurul Amin resorted to for poisoning the minds of the majority people of the country and providing a distorted and ugly explanation for the overall language movement. Meanwhile, the whole of Bangladesh was boiling with rage. Innumerable public meetings, processions and protests were being held in villages, ports, towns, sub-divisions and districts. The streets were bustling with a flood of angry processions. The ‘All-Party State Language Action Council’ was constituted during a public meeting in Mymensingh. Presided over by Fakhruddin Ahmad, thousands of people staged protest demonstration at this meeting in an unprecedented manner. Some proposals put forward by Rafiquddin Bhuiyan without the permission of the chair were supported by the masses with thunderous applause. Immediate resignation of the cabinet was also demanded.
The extent of profound dissatisfaction and intense excitement flowing through the whole of Bangladesh can be gauged if an incomplete list of the protest meetings, processions and strikes organized at different places after the 21 February episode is provided. Public meeting was held at Chasharha of Narayanganj under the chairmanship of labour leader Foyez Ahmad. Protest meetings were organized at Tangail, Brahmanbaria, Shibchar of Faridpur, Char Atrai, Maizdi of Noakhali, Sonaimuri, Porshuram, Khilpara, Gaibandha of Rangpur, Dhalgachhi, Ishwarganj of Mymensingh, Dharmakurhe, Tilakpur of Bogra, Panchbibi, Chandpur of Comilla, Khulna, Bagerhat, Pabna, Sirajganj, Shahjadpur, Hatia and Sandwip of Chittagong, Barisal, Rikabibazaar of Dhaka, Joydebpur, Baida, Sreepur, Fenchuganj, Netrakona, Momin-pur of Kushtia, Kumarkhali, Kishoreganj, Daudpur, Shayestaganj, Magura of Jessore,
Pirolistan Gaon, and Ramkrishnapur of Tripura. This list is not complete, neither is a complete list required. It is sufficient to understand that all segments of the population of Bangladesh were directly participating in the process of struggles in the language movement.
Within one week of 21 February, the nervous and panicked ruling coterie in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country staged barbaric episodes one after another in the country; similarly public opinion in favour of the language movement was also swiftly cosolidated at the same pace. The movement reached such a peak and its pressure inflated with such speed that the Muslim League became bewildered and dumbfounded as a party. On 23 February, the MLA of Habiganj Nurul Momen Khan issued a statement condemning the police atrocities. On 27 February, Shamsheruddin Sikdar of Barisal resigned from the League Parliamentary Party. Two days prior to that, the vice-president of Mymensingh District Muslim League Mosadder Ali Khan also resigned from his post. The students of Lahore also demonstrated in support of Bangla language and wore black badges as a sign of mourning. The most prominent newspaper of West Pakistan - ‘Dawn' expressed strong support for the language movement. All these events took place within one week of 21 February.
The nervousness that overtook the ruling party after 21 February could not be tolerated by many in that party. It was also true that they could see the cruelty, inhumanity, illogic and immeasurable heartlessness in the behaviour of the ruling party. At a public meeting held in Chittagong on 27 February, member of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly Abul Quasem said that he would try his best to make Bangla the state language. It has already been pointed out that he was not the lone example. But more curious was the statement by Khan A. Sabur. Part of his statement was like this:
When the government and the students are all seeking to make Bangla the state language, then where is the conflict? Why is section-144 needed as well? ... Mr. Nurul Amin appears to have been driven by the mean advices given by a third class daily of Dhaka in committing series of tortures on the students and people's leaders by raising the bogey of foreign ghosts and Indian agents, and especially of a Hindu conspiracy. By shunning power-mongering and thinking rationally, he could appreciate where he was taking the country to under the spell of egoism.
After that, he said after advising for taking lessons from the lives of Mussolini and Hitler:
I would request him with all humility not to hit cruelly the honour of millions of patriots in the country by being driven by the advices of those handful and so-called patriotic salaried persons.
It must be said that it was not possible to express condemnation in a more stern language. But Sabur Khan realized within one week that he was standing on the wrong track. For that reason, he had to issue a statement through the daily Azad on 5 March with the title ‘Today’s Duty’. The content of that statement was not far from that daily which he had contemptuously described as third class.
The Nurul Amin government was looking for a way out to save itself from the wrath of the masses. He did find a way. From then on, this path became a fabricated road for the ruling party. The speech that Nurul Amin delivered over radio on 24 February provided clear indications about which track the government would follow to foil the movement, save its skin, present a distorted explanation of the language movement and sow seeds of discord, dissatisfaction and doubt among a large segment of the population. Nurul Amin said at the very start of his radio address:
If public opinion is expressed about language or any other problem in accordance with the constitution, then the government has no intention to silence anyone.
After that he brought allegations of confusing the people and misleading them against some Kolkata newspapers and said:
It is seen from the situation evolving from last Thursday that it is essential to uncover more information about the significance of that event and expose the motives of those people who had been instigating or planning such an event. ... The demand of the language movement was nothing; a destructive conspiracy was hatched to disturb the peace by breaking law and discipline; the incidents and circumstances following the imposition of section-144 proves that.
The people of the ruling party then started to composedly sing the tune of the chief minister. It could be deciphered that power, politics and class interests were much bigger than the dictates of conscience, country’s welfare, religious spirit and the sense of justice. The provincial revenue secretary Tofazzal Ali urged the countrymen to help detain the anti-state elements through his radio address. At a meeting in Dinajpur, Moulana Abdullahel Baqui issued warnings against the opportunists of language movement; Mufti Azam Alhaj Aminul Hossaini called for self-defence against the conflicts of language and province, and advised caution against the enemies of Islam. By leaving behind its exceptionally glorious role, the daily Azad also concentrated on vilifications by capitalising on the need for safeguarding the solidarity of Pakistan and cautioning against anti-state conspiracies. Quotations from the speech of Nurul Amin started to be incorporated in the newspaper editorials. The new public safety act was also passed with amendments.
There was no reason to think that the storm of language movement was stopped after this flow of a reverse-tide. It took much more time to halt that storm; and that happened not because of the false publicity and repressive policies of the government, but because of realizing tangible goals of the movement. □ (Abridged)
Translation: Dr. Helal Uddin Ahmed