Last month, the High Court asked the government to take necessary measures to start using the Bangla language in all advertisements by July 1. This directive would affect not only advertisements in the print media, but the electronic media as well.
In the directive made on May 29, the court also ordered the Ministry of Home Affairs to use Bangla instead of English in nameplates and number plates of all police vehicles and other signboards within the next month, as part of a campaign to implement Bangla “in all spheres.”
English language newspapers, however, would be exempted, and we applaud this decision as it would be very difficult for English language media to change all their advertisements into Bangla.
Although the initiative to promote the use of Bangla in every sphere is a noble one, the actual implementation is fraught with problems. Many ads are untranslatable, or are directed squarely at an English-speaking market. Furthermore, there are substantial costs associated with changing or getting rid of ads that have already been commissioned or published.
Therefore, idealistic as the goal may be, it may not be realistic or practical to try to completely stop the use of English across the board in all spheres overnight.
We should not let our patriotism lead us into waging a misguided “war on English.” The use of English in advertisements and signboards does not necessarily mean we are failing to respect or value our mother tongue.
