Bismillahir Rahmanir Rahim

Ekushey February, soaked in my brother's blood, Can i forget

Today 21st February is a historic day for the Bengali nation. Today is a glorious day for the people of West Bengal and all Bengali speaking countries including Bangladesh. On 21st February 1952 (Bengali: ভলগুন 1358) many students were martyred in police firing on students agitating for making Bengali the state language.

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Among these martyrs we know some special people they are Abdus Salam, Abdul Jabbar, Rafiqul Islam, Shafiul Islam. So this day is marked and celebrated as Martyr's Day. The United Nations adopted a resolution on August 5, 2010, in accordance with which the 21st of February is observed annually as "International Mother Language Day" worldwide.

If we look at the history, we can see that the Bengali nation first started language demonstrations in the capital Dhaka in November 1947 to make Bengali the state language of present day Bangladesh in East Pakistan. Then there was a small movement in March 1948 and the main movement started on 21st February 1952.

On the morning of 21st February 1952, the students of Dhaka University took to the streets in violation of Section 144 and started chanting slogans like "I want Bangla as the state language, I want Bangla as the state language". Police fired on the protesters, due to which many were martyred. The names of some special people have been mentioned above. The people of Dhaka started a movement in protest of this incident and they gathered in front of Dhaka Medical College.

The next day, on 22nd February, the students as well as the general public took to the streets for the movement and were subjected to various forms of torture. But no one backed down from the movement. All the agitators participated in the funeral procession held in front of Dhaka Medical College for the martyrs. And built a memorial for the martyrs in one night. That pillar was demolished on 26th February. In the wake of all this, the movement gained momentum.

The United Front won the provincial council elections in 1954. After the victory of the United Front, Bengali was recognized as one of the state languages ​​of Pakistan in the session of the Constituent Assembly on 7 May. Then on 29 February 1958, the constitution was amended and Bengali was declared as the second state language of Pakistan.

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In the history of the world, we Bengalis are the only nation that has given its life for language.

Wishing everyone a happy International Mother Language Day and Martyr's Day, I am ending here like today.