Ekushey -- the word itself is enough to inspire thousands of emotions inside the minds of the Bangali populace. On this historic day 70 years ago, on the morning of February 21, 1952, students and protesters gathered at the premises of Dhaka University, defying Section 144 of unlawful assembly, in order to protest the imposition of Urdu as the only state language. Our brave students laid down their lives, for one truth and one truth only: “Let us speak in our own language,” they said. “Let us be the people we are meant to be.”
With the recognition of Ekushey as the International Mother Language Day, the prominence of this day has been accepted all around the globe, to remember Ekushey and all that it stands for. And while the core ethos of Ekushey was language, what we really fought for was our freedom. Freedom to express ourselves. Freedom to take our destinies into our own hands. Freedom to be Bangladeshis and curate our own ideologies. It is that freedom of expression that we must hold on to. We are progressing as a nation every year, and as that happens, there is no reason to doubt that we ought to also become more free as a population, able to voice concerns against injustice, just as our students did all those years ago.
Moreover, in keeping with this year’s theme for International Mother Language Day -- Using technology for multilingual learning: Challenges and opportunities -- we must pledge that we shall explore the opportunities that education provides in better educating the future generations, while simultaneously embracing the challenges that technology continues to pose. We must remember that we want to build an equitable Bangladesh, and technology must stand as being a bridge, not a divider. Education has suffered the most over the nearly two years of the pandemic’s existence, and to that end, let us take this opportunity to prioritize it, and ensure that our future generations are not left behind.
We live in a world that is constantly changing, and with it, our identities are changing as well. Yet, the spirit of Ekushey, and the values it represents, are what we can always keep with us, for all times. 70 years ago, students protested against oppression, against injustice, against the silencing of an entire nation, and against the suppression of democratic values. Unfortunately, all these years later, these are issues that remain relevant, both for us as a nation and also for the collective global order.
It is imperative that we adhere to the values our students and protesters had in 1952 today, using the values and the spirit of Ekushey to guide us towards becoming a better Bangladesh.