There are moments in a nation's history when a language becomes much more than a means of communication. It becomes a symbol of identity, dignity, and collective struggle. For Bangladesh, Bangla is precisely such a language.
The blood shed during the Language Movement of 1952 transformed the demand for linguistic rights into one of the defining chapters of the nation's history. More than seven decades later, the question is no longer whether Bangla has a place in the global linguistic landscape. It is whether that place can now be reflected in the world's foremost multilateral institution -- the United Nations.
The United Nations began its journey in 1945 with five official languages: English, French, Russian, Spanish, and Mandarin (Chinese). Arabic was added in 1973, bringing the total number of official UN languages to six. Initially, only English and French were used as the working languages of the Security Council from 1946. Russian and Spanish were added in 1969, while Mandarin was adopted for that purpose in 1974. Although Arabic became an official UN language in 1973, its use in the Security Council began only in 1982.
Spanish is the official language of 20 countries worldwide, most of which are located in Latin America -- specifically Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. However, although Spanish is widely spoken in the United States, it is not the country's federal official language.
The history of these languages offers an important perspective on the question of Bangla. Russian and Spanish waited 23 years after the establishment of the United Nations before becoming Security Council languages, while Mandarin waited 29 years. Arabic, by contrast, was adopted as a Security Council language nine years after becoming an official UN language.
The official languages of all five permanent members of the Security Council (USA, UK, France, Russia, China) are also UN languages. At the same time, no Arab country or Muslim-majority member of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has yet secured a permanent seat on the Security Council.
Although Bangla ranks sixth worldwide in terms of the number of speakers, it enjoys official-language status in only a limited number of jurisdictions. Russian, ranking eighth, has attained official UN language status, bypassing Bangla (ranked sixth) and Portuguese (ranked seventh).
Historically, imperial powers extended the influence of their languages in tandem with the expansion of their empires. Today, four European languages are among the official languages of the United Nations, while English serves as the official language of both the United Kingdom and the United States. Arabic, meanwhile, holds official status in numerous countries across Africa and the Middle East. Against this historical and geopolitical backdrop, the inclusion of another major Asian language remains an unresolved issue.
Bangladesh's heads of state or heads of government deliver speeches in Bangla at the United Nations General Assembly every year. Bangla's international profile received a major boost in 1999, when UNESCO proclaimed February 21 International Mother Language Day. What began as a commemoration of the language martyrs of Bangladesh has since become a global observance of linguistic diversity and the right to speak one's mother tongue.
The recognition gave Bangladesh a unique opportunity to place Bangla within a broader international discourse on language, culture, and identity. Yet international recognition and institutional recognition are not the same thing.
The price of recognition
One of the most frequently cited obstacles to making Bangla an official UN language is cost. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has previously indicated that Bangladesh would need to commit at least $60 million annually to meet the additional expenses, particularly for translation and interpretation within the UN system.
By comparison, Bangladesh currently contributes approximately $300,000 a year to the UN budget, or around 0.1% of the total.
The financial challenge is therefore substantial. But technology may have changed the nature of that challenge. Artificial intelligence (AI) has transformed machine translation at a speed that would have been difficult to imagine even a decade ago.
The UN's enormous volume of documents, reports, statements, and communications requires translation between its six official languages. Extending such services to Bangla would undoubtedly require considerable investment, technical safeguards, and human oversight.
But the development of AI-assisted translation systems could potentially reduce the recurring cost substantially. Instead of viewing the $60 million figure as an unavoidable permanent expenditure, Bangladesh could explore whether an initial investment in research, development, language datasets, and AI-powered translation infrastructure could create a more sustainable model.
Such a system would still require professional translators and institutional quality control, particularly for diplomatic, legal, and technical documents. But technology could make the financial equation considerably more manageable.
This is where Bangladesh's growing information technology sector could become strategically important. The issue, therefore, should not be framed solely as a question of how much Bangladesh would have to pay. It should also be framed as a question of how Bangladesh can use its technological capabilities to reduce the cost of linguistic inclusion.
A language of more than 350 million people
The demographic case for Bangla is substantial. More than 350 million people around the world speak Bangla, placing it among the world's major languages. Yet the number of speakers alone does not determine whether a language becomes an official UN language.
Hindi, for example, has hundreds of millions of speakers but is not an official UN language. Russian, despite having considerably fewer speakers, already enjoys official status.
India's linguistic structure also makes a direct comparison between Hindi and Bangla more complicated. India has no single national language. The Constitution recognizes 22 languages, while individual states have their own official languages and English continues to play a major role in administration, higher education, and interstate communication.
Of course, international linguistic influence depends on much more than population. Political reach, economic relevance, geographic distribution, cultural influence, diplomatic utility, and institutional capacity all matter. That is why the question of Bangla's future at the UN cannot be reduced to a simple calculation of how many people speak it.
Bangla beyond Bangladesh
Bangla's geographical reach is far greater than Bangladesh alone. In addition to being the principal language of Bangladesh, Bangla is widely spoken in India, particularly in West Bengal, Tripura and Assam, as well as in other parts of eastern India.
Bangla-speaking communities also exist in Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, and Myanmar. Large Bangladeshi and Bangla-speaking communities have emerged across the Middle East, particularly in the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and Qatar.
Beyond Asia and the Middle East, Bangla is spoken by substantial communities in the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada, Germany, Australia, and Japan. This global diaspora represents an important but underutilized resource for the internationalisation of Bangla.
For millions of expatriate Bengalis, Bangla remains the language of family, culture, and community. Over the past 25 years, Bangladeshi expatriate organizations in different cities around the world have submitted memoranda to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Ministry of Cultural Affairs, Bangladesh's diplomatic missions, and the United Nations, calling for Bangla to be recognized as an official UN language.
What appears to be missing is a sustained, coordinated international campaign bringing these individual efforts together under a clearly defined national strategy.
The competition is also geopolitical
Portuguese presents another useful comparison. With a global population of speakers broadly comparable to Bengali, Portuguese is used across at least 12 countries, including Portugal and Brazil, and has an established presence alongside Spanish across Europe, Latin America, and other parts of the world.
Malay is another language with a substantial regional footprint. It is spoken in Malaysia, Indonesia, Singapore, Brunei, Timor-Leste, and parts of Thailand.
Arabic offers perhaps the most relevant precedent. It became an official UN language after the Arab states concerned agreed to shoulder the full cost of translating UN documents into Arabic.
Its recognition was therefore supported not simply by the number of speakers but by a coordinated political commitment among a group of states.
That precedent carries a clear lesson for Bangladesh: International linguistic recognition requires diplomacy, institutional preparedness, and financial commitment in addition to a large speaker population.
The power of a language
The global importance of a language can also be measured through economic and geopolitical influence. Approximately 1.5 billion people worldwide speak English, followed by Mandarin with around 1.1 billion, Hindi with approximately 600 million, Spanish with about 550 million, Arabic with around 370 million, Bengali with approximately 350 million, French with around 270 million, and Russian around 250 million.
But when language is assessed through economic and geopolitical power, the ranking changes. The World Economic Forum's "Power Language Index" places English, Mandarin, French, Spanish, Arabic, Russian, German, Japanese, Portuguese, and Hindi among the world's most influential languages.
The index considers factors such as economic opportunity, access to knowledge and media, geographic diplomacy, travel, and the ability to facilitate dialogue. Bangla's challenge, therefore, is not a lack of speakers. It is the comparatively limited economic and institutional power associated with the language outside its traditional geographic base. That is something Bangladesh can change.
From cultural identity to economic value
Bangla has already acquired an extraordinary cultural legacy. Rabindranath Tagore became the first Asian Nobel laureate, receiving the Nobel Prize in Literature. Amartya Sen received the Nobel Prize in Economics, while Dr Muhammad Yunus received the Nobel Peace Prize. Bengali literature, music, cinema, and scholarship have continued to attract international audiences.
Bangla-language media have also expanded beyond Bangladesh and India. Bangla programs have been broadcast through radio and television in countries including the United States, the United Kingdom, Russia, Germany, China, Japan, the Philippines, Iran, and Pakistan. Bengali newspapers and online media platforms are published across the world, while the use of Bangla on the internet has grown significantly.
UN Radio launched Bangla-language programming in 2012, although the service was suspended in 2021 amid budget constraints during the Covid-19 pandemic. The UNDP has also published its annual report on Asia in Bangla alongside the English edition.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh's diplomatic community has been using language as a form of cultural diplomacy. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs organizes events in Dhaka to mark International Mother Language Day, with representatives of foreign missions participating. Diplomats posted in Bangladesh pay tribute to the language martyrs by laying flowers at a temporary Shaheed Minar at the Foreign Service Academy.
Some foreign diplomats posted in Dhaka have also taken up learning Bangla. These developments demonstrate that the internationalization of Bangla is already taking place, albeit incrementally and without a sufficiently coordinated strategy.
What would it take?
For Bangla to become an official language of the United Nations, Bangladesh would need to formally place the issue before the General Assembly and seek support for a resolution.
Such an initiative would require extensive diplomatic engagement with other member states. But diplomacy should not begin with the resolution. It should begin much earlier. It is worth noting that Bangladesh is presiding over the current session of the United Nations General Assembly.
Bangladesh would first need to build a broad coalition of countries and international organizations willing to support the initiative. It would need to demonstrate that the financial and technological requirements of incorporating Bangla into the UN system can be met.
It would also need to establish a credible institutional mechanism for translation, interpretation, terminology development, and quality control. Most importantly, the government would need to treat the issue as a long-term state policy rather than an occasional diplomatic initiative.
There is no simple population-based formula for determining which languages become official UN languages. The existing six official languages themselves demonstrate that geopolitical history, diplomatic influence, and international utility have played a major role.
Bangla is one of South Asia's major languages. Its history is inseparable from one of the world's most significant struggles for linguistic rights. Its literature has produced globally recognized figures. Its speakers span continents. Its digital presence is expanding. And its symbolic importance has already been acknowledged by the international community through International Mother Language Day.
Bangla has a history worthy of international recognition. But the question is whether Bangladesh can convert that historical and cultural capital into sustained diplomatic, technological, and economic influence.
Beyond the UN
Recognition at the United Nations would undoubtedly carry symbolic importance. It could enhance the international visibility of Bangla, strengthen Bangladesh's cultural identity, and make communication between Bengali speakers and international institutions easier.
But official recognition alone would not guarantee the global expansion of a language. Languages thrive when people have reasons to learn and use them.
That means Bangladesh must simultaneously increase the economic, technological, and cultural value of Bangla. Electronic and digital media can play a major role. Bengali cinema, drama, music, literature, publishing, educational content, software, and AI applications can all contribute to expanding the language's global reach.
The commercialization of Bangla should not be seen as a threat to its cultural identity. Rather, economic utility can reinforce cultural influence. A language that becomes useful in education, technology, entertainment, business, and international communication is more likely to cross borders and attract new learners. This is perhaps the most important lesson for Bangladesh.
The struggle for Bangla began with a demand for linguistic dignity. It evolved into a defining element of national identity.
The next stage requires a different kind of movement -- one built not only on emotion and historical memory, but also on diplomacy, technology, investment, cultural production, and economic opportunity.
Seventy years after Bangla became the state language of Pakistan's eastern wing and more than seven decades after the Language Movement, Bangladesh has an opportunity to take the language's global journey to another level.
Making Bangla an official language of the United Nations may be a long and difficult process. It may require years of diplomacy, substantial investment, and considerable institutional preparation. But the ambition itself is neither unrealistic nor misplaced.
If Bangladesh wants Bangla to speak more prominently on the world stage, it must first give the language the economic, technological, and diplomatic strength to be heard. The time has come to move from commemorating the language to strategically investing in its future.
Salahuddin Ahmaad Bablu is a senior journalist.