BhashaAndolan - A Precursor to the 1971 war of Liberation
Sun Online Desk
19th February, 2021 06:30:52
The first major conflict between erstwhile East and West Pakistan occurred over language and February 21 is a milestone in that struggle. This date is commemorated worldwide as International Mother Language Day, and draws its significance from the ‘BhashaAndolon’ or language movement in which the people of erstwhile East Pakistan were demanding equal status for the Bengali language. The BashaAndolan was the culmination of systematic negation and nullification of the ‘Bengali’ language the regional identity of Bengal.
Nearly 98% of the population, and virtually 100% of the urbanized, educated population, in East Pakistan comprised a single ethnic group of Bengalis, constituting about 55% of Pakistan’s overall population. Despite this the central government of Pakistan started the unilateral use of Urdu in moneyorder forms, postal stamps, currencies, coins, railway ticke