International Mother Language Day 21 February

International Mother Language Day 21 February

International Mother Language Day (IMLD) is an overall yearly recognition hung on 21 February to advance familiarity with etymological and social assorted variety and to advance multilingualism. First declared by UNESCO on 17 November 1999,it was officially perceived by the United Nations General Assembly with the appropriation of UN goals 56/262 Multilingualism in 2002. Mother Language Day is a piece of a more extensive activity "to advance the safeguarding and security of all languages utilized by people groups of the world" as embraced by the UN General Assembly on May 16, 2007 in UN goals 61/266, which additionally settled 2008 as the International Year of Languages.The thought to observe International Mother Language Day was the activity of Bangladesh. In Bangladesh 21 February is the commemoration of the day when Bangladeshis battled for acknowledgment for the Bangla language. 

History 

Parade walk hung on 21 February 1952 in Dhaka 

21 February was announced to be the International Mother Language Day by UNESCO in 1999. It has been watched all through the world since 21 February 2000. The announcement came up in tribute to the Language Movement done by the Bangladeshis (at that point the East Pakistanis). 

At the point when Pakistan was made in 1947, it had two topographically separate parts: East Pakistan (as of now known as Bangladesh) and West Pakistan (presently known as Pakistan). The two sections were altogether different to one another in feeling of culture, language, and so forth. The two sections were additionally isolated by India in the middle. 

In 1948, the then Government of Pakistan announced Urdu to be the sole national language of Pakistan despite the fact that Bengali or Bangla was spoken by most of individuals consolidating East Pakistan (presently Bangladesh) and West Pakistan (presently Pakistan) The East Pakistan individuals dissented, since most of the populace was from East Pakistan and their mother language was Bangla. They requested Bangla to be at any rate one of the national languages, notwithstanding Urdu. The interest was raised first by Dhirendranath Datta from East Pakistan on the 23 February, 1948, in the constituent Assembly of Pakistan. 

To annihilate the dissent, the legislature of Pakistan prohibited open gathering and rallies. The understudies of the University of Dhaka, with the help of the overall population, orchestrated enormous assemblies and gatherings. On 21 February 1952, police opened fire on rallies. Salam, Barkat, Rafiq, Jabbar and Shafiur passed on, with several others harmed. This is an uncommon episode ever, where individuals relinquished their lives for their mother tongue. 

From that point forward Bangladeshis commend the International Mother Language Day as one of their deplorable days. They visit the Shaheed Minar, a landmark worked in memory of the saints and its reproductions to communicate their profound distress, regard and appreciation to them. 

International Mother Language Day is a national holiday in Bangladesh. The goals was recommended by Rafiqul Islam, a Bengali living in Vancouver, Canada. He composed a letter to Kofi Annan on 9 January 1998 approaching him to make a stride for sparing the world's languages from elimination by proclaiming an International Mother Language Day. Rafiq proposed the date as 21 February to honor the 1952 killings in Dhaka during the Language Movement."21st February – The International Mother Language Day". 

Languages are the most remarkable instruments of saving and building up our substantial and elusive legacy. All moves to advance the dispersal of mother tongues will serve not exclusively to empower etymological assorted variety and multilingual training yet in addition to create more full familiarity with phonetic and social customs all through the world and to rouse solidarity dependent on getting, resistance and discourse. 

—  From the United Nations International Mother Language Day microsite

Rafiqul Islam's proposition was presented in the Bangladesh parliament and at the appropriate time (at the command of Prime Minister Sheik Hasina) a conventional proposition was submitted to UNESCO by the Government of Bangladesh. The way toward shepherding the proposition through UNESCO's administrative framework was attempted by Syed Muazzem Ali, at that point Bangladesh minister to France and Permanent Representative to UNESCO, and Tozammel Tony Huq, his antecedent, who was then a Special Adviser to UNESCO Secretary General Federico Mayor. At last on seventeenth November 1999 the 30th General Assembly of UNESCO collectively settled that "21st February be announced International Mother Language Day all through the world to celebrate the saints who relinquished their lives on this very day in 1952.