Language Cannot Be Islamic or Christian

By Syed Badrul Ahsan

February 12, 2013

The report of the Basic Principles Committee seemed to inject fresh new energy into the movement for Bangla. The progressive political classes clearly felt the need to sustain the struggle. However, it was the students of Dhaka University who underscored the significance of the movement through their concerted action in the defence of the mother tongue.

In April 1951, a group of students with leftist political leanings -- and they were all members of the Dhaka University State Language Committee of Action -- prepared a letter arguing for Bangla as a state language. Copies of the letter were sent to all members of the constituent assembly then meeting in Karachi. Excerpts from the letter, reproduced below, demonstrate the increasingly radical nature of the movement:

“We, the students of Dacca University, who initiated the language movement in East Pakistan three years ago (and) who are now more determined than ever to secure for Bangla the status of state language of Pakistan, will take this opportunity, while you are assembled at Karachi, to press once more our legitimate claim . . .

We refuse to believe that any language under heaven can be Islamic or Christian or heathen. If Urdu is Islamic, Bengali is equally so. Nay, it is more Islamic as a large number of Muslims speak Bangla . . .”

The letter went on to serve warning that the adoption of Urdu as the language of the state would give rise to a privileged class in the country, with very negative consequences for the majority of the population. Such a move, it was pointed out in the letter, would "strike at the root of national integrity without which there is no future for our country."

The closing words of the letter were to be noted for their forcefulness:

“We have given a tough fight and are prepared to fight to the last. We shall never accept Urdu as the only state language. We are sworn to expose the great conspiracy which aims at reducing East Pakistan to the state of a colony. We remind the people's representatives that until and unless the claim of Bengali is fully established in the province as well as the centre, the students of Dacca University shall not rest.”

Source: http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/news-details.php?nid=268800

URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-culture/language-be-islamic-christian/d/10380