International Mother Language Day is observed every year on February 21 to honour those in Bangladesh who sacrificed their lives to protect their mother tongue, Bangla, against the then rulers of West Pakistan and to honour the ethno-linguistic rights of individuals across the world.
Language movement
The transition from East Pakistan to Bangladesh has a blood-stained story behind it. For the first time in world history, a mother tongue became the focal point for an independence movement. In March 1948, just months after the birth of Pakistan, Pakistani leader Mohammad Ali Jinnah declared that the state language of Pakistan would be Urdu. All official communication from then was to be in Urdu and the language was made compulsory in schools. Meanwhile, Bangla, which is a completely different language, was removed as a subject in schools and from stamps and currency.
