Language Movement Day – February 21, 2025

History of Language Movement Day

Language is a powerful tool that enables us to communicate easily with others. The bulk of our communication is done through verbal means. Thought to be as old as 1.8 million years, the early forms of language were primitive and action-based. Back then, communication was mainly intended to coordinate hunting, sharing food, finding mates, and collecting herbs. But as humans evolved, our intelligence improved dramatically. The language developed along with human civilizations. Spoken language began to flourish around 50,000 years ago. Although we can never be sure, as words do not leave any fossil records.

By around 3000 B.C., the first written languages were developed. Sumerian is generally considered the oldest written language in the world. Other ancient civilizations also witnessed the development of written languages like Egyptian, Sanskrit, Tamil, and Hebrew. These languages further developed into new regional dialects as human politics spread across the Asian and European continents. The Bengali language was derived from Magadhi Prakrit, a spoken language in 1000 A.D.

With over 300 million native speakers, Bengali is one of the most spoken languages in the world. After the end of the colonial era, the British were forced to leave the Indian subcontinent. Britain partitioned India into three dominions: India, East Pakistan, and West Pakistan. East and West Pakistan were once a single entity, with political power concentrated in West Pakistan. They had few ties with the Bengali language, whereas it was the major language of East Pakistan. Tensions between the two units erupted over the matter of official language. The Bengali Language movement started to resist the idea of Urdu as the only national language. Subsequent riots and conflicts resulted in police killing student protesters. The movements succeeded and paved the way for a nationalistic feeling that ultimately led to the formation of Bangladesh.