Vanishing voices

This year, the 25th anniversary of International Mother Language Day (IMLD) celebrates a quarter-century of efforts to preserve linguistic diversity and promote mother tongues. The idea to celebrate International Mother Language Day on February 21 was the initiative of Bangladesh. On November 17, 1999, it was approved at the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation’s (UNESCO) General Conference and has been observed throughout the world since 2000. On the 21st of February, 1952, a group of students and political activists staged a protest at the University of Dhaka (East Pakistan) to protect their native language, Bangla (or Bengali). Police opened fire, killing 8 people in total, including 5 of the students. Since then, February 21 is observed as Martyr day (Sahid Dibash) in East Pakistan- now Bangladesh.

The UN General Assembly welcomed the proclamation of the day in its resolution of 2002. The International Mother Language Day is observed every year to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. On May 16, 2007, the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution A/RES/61/266 called upon Member States “to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by peoples of the world”. By the same resolution, the General Assembly proclaimed 2008 as the International Year of Languages, to promote unity in diversity and international understanding, through multilingualism and multiculturalism and named UNESCO to serve as the lead agency for the Year.

The International Mother Language Day underscores the role of languages in promoting inclusion and achieving Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4) which calls for inclusive, quality education and lifelong learning for all. Multilingual education not only promotes inclusive societies but also aids in preserving non-dominant, minority, and indigenous languages. It is a cornerstone for achieving equitable access to education and lifelong learning opportunities for all individuals, claims the UNESCO.

Linguistic diversity and importance

Recent study reveals that nearly half the world’s population speaks at least one of the roughly 400 Indo-European languages. These include nearly all European and Central Asian languages, as well as those from South Asia and Iran. Ancient-genomics researchers have pinpointed the homelands of a nomadic tribe that transformed the culture and genetics of Europe and Asia, revealing a potential source for the Indo–European language family, spoken by much of the world. Genomes from more than 400 individuals suggest that the Yamnaya — Bronze Age herders from the steppes of present-day Russia and Ukraine — emerged along the northern shores of the Black Sea. The findings were published on February 5 in Nature.

UNESCO estimates that there are 8,324 languages, spoken or signed. Out of these, around 7,000 languages are still in use. Only a few hundred languages have genuinely been given a place in education systems and the public domain, and less than a hundred are used in the digital world. Every two weeks a language disappears, taking with it an entire cultural and intellectual heritage. Though languages, with their complex implications for identity, communication, social integration, education and development, are of strategic importance for people and planet, yet, due to globalisation processes, they are increasingly under threat, or disappearing altogether. When languages fade, so does the world’s rich embroidery of cultural diversity. Opportunities, traditions, memory, unique modes of thinking and expression — valuable resources for ensuring a better future — are also lost.

It is observed that multilingual and multicultural societies exist through their languages, which transmit and preserve traditional knowledge and cultures in a sustainable way. Mother language is increasingly being used in exerting one’s identity. Today there is growing awareness that languages, in addition to playing a vital role in development, in ensuring cultural diversity and intercultural dialogue, also help in strengthening co-operation and attaining quality education for all, in building inclusive knowledge societies and preserving cultural heritage, and in mobilising political will for applying the benefits of science and technology to sustainable development.

Today, 40 per cent of the world’s population does not have access to education in a language they speak or understand. In some countries this figure rises to over 90 per cent. Yet research shows that the use of learners’ own language(s) in schools provides a solid foundation for learning, boosts self-esteem and critical thinking skills, and opens the door for intergenerational learning, language revitalisation, and the preservation of culture and intangible heritage.

Mother language movement in Bangladesh

The idea to celebrate International Mother Language Day on February 21 was the initiative of Bangladesh which got independence from Pakistan in 1971. The history of the independence movement of Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan/ East Bengal) is the history of its long movement for the recognition of the country’s mother language Bangla from its Urdu speaking rulers of West Pakistan.

The partition of the Bengal and Punjab states of India in 1947 resulted in the creation of Islamic Pakistan—East Pakistan (previously East Bengal) and West Pakistan which comprised of three governor’s provinces (the North-West Frontier, West Punjab and Sind), one chief commissioner’s province (Balochistan) along with the Baluchistan States Union, several independent princely states (notably Bahawalpur, Chitral, Dir, Hunza, Khairpur and Swat), and Karachi. The rulers of the Urdu speaking West Pakistan dominated the Bengali speaking East Pakistan and treated it as their internal colony. The West Pakistani rulers continued to attack the Bengali language and culture of East Pakistan and demanded to make Urdu the state language. In 1948, Mohammad Ali Jinnah emphatically declared that Urdu would be the sole state language of Pakistan—including East Pakistan—which triggered massive protest by Bengali speaking students of the East. Nonetheless, the movement was largely confined to the educated and intellectual classes.

The goal of language policies of Pakistan was to downplay Bengali identity while highlighting the Muslim identity of the people living in Bengal. In summary, this was an attempt to Islamise Bengali language, and achieve the goal of uniting Pakistanis around Islam. However, from the Bengali perspective, Bengaliness was seen as incompatible with both the Islamic and the Pakistani identities by those in West Pakistan, writes Ahmad Hassan (2024). By 1952, the language movement had spread throughout the East Pakistan. The whole country (East Pakistan) followed the demonstration. Student leaders Salam, Rafique, Shafique, Jabbar, and Barkat, among others, embraced martyrdom for the love of their mother tongue.

In just a few years, the mother language movement culminated into the Bangladesh Liberation War which led to the independence of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in 1971. The majority of member states in the United Nations recognised Bangladesh as a sovereign nation in 1972. Bangladesh became an independent country with Bengali as its official language. Mother language, not religion, became the dominant identity of independent Bangladesh.

The creation of Hindi language in the FortWilliam College

Hindi, one of the official languages of India, was scripted in the early 19th century by the East India company in the Fort William college in Calcutta, for administrative purposes. For the success of colonial rule, the administrators gathered information about the socio-religious beliefs, practices and customs of the natives in order to make policies which they believed were supported by an age-old and well-established indigenous tradition. In the process, they viewed India merely as a conglomerate of various religions and castes. This biased view of the British divided pre-colonial history into Hindu and Muslim periods. This was also responsible for the formation of separate Hindu and Muslim civil laws. This misinterpretation of Indian society, later, took colonialists to enumerate Indians under the categories of caste and religion in the Census.

One of the important institutions established to study the native languages was Fort William College. The College was established in Calcutta in 1800). Historians argue that institutions such as this one helped colonial officials in gaining command over Indian languages. And this “command over language” was crucial to the consolidation of colonial power in India. Eminent scholars of that time were asked to join the College. William Caray, an enthusiastic missionary, and John B Gilchrist were the main persons in the College to study Indian languages, establish grammatical and lexical standards for their use and teach them to the officials under training. William Carey was a renowned missionary of Serampur and had long been involved with the study of Punjabi and Bengali. In 1801 he published his celebrated book, A Grammar of Bengali Language. John Gilchrist was interested in another important native language which he called ‘Hindoostanee’ and designated it to be the lingua franca of India. He taught ‘Hindustani’ to East Indian Company’s administrators.

John B Gilchrist and the Fort William College are accused of setting the very foundations of the Hindi-Urdu controversy. Gilchrist observed that Hindustani was diverging into two forms – one, the court or high style which was facing a process of Persianisation, and second, the country or pristine style. But he innovatively associated these two forms with specific religions viz. Hindu and Muslim. Despite his enthusiasm for the middle or familiar style of Hindustani, Gilchrist also introduced two written styles of Hindustani at Fort William College. He encouraged his junior colleagues in the Fort William College, the munshis such as Lalloo Lal and Sadal Misra, to write books in a language excluding Arabic-Persian influence. Fort William College was the first institution that published books in the Nagari script. Gilchrist himself wrote Hindi Story Teller in the Nagari script. In a way, Gilchrist introduced Nagari script along with Urdu script to write Hindustani. The Fort William College published Hindustani texts in two forms – Hindustani in Urdu script i.e., in the Urdu language and Hindustani in Nagari script i.e., in the Hindi language. Thus for one language two scripts were introduced.

Christopher King (1999), in his book ‘One Language, Two Scripts: The Hindi Movement in Nineteenth Century North India’, provides an excellent example of the relationships between language, religion and nationalism. He narrates the political, social and cultural aspects of the Hindi movement, particularly on the local and provincial levels, which was initiated by John B Gilchrist and the Fort William College in Calcutta.

Mother language movements in India

India houses around 16 per cent of the world’s population that speaks in many languages. According to one estimate, India has 1,652 “mother tongues” – including 103 foreign mother tongues. However, there are different theories about how many of these mother-tongues qualify to be described as independent languages. Even Sir George Grierson’s twelve-volume Linguistic Survey of India (1903-1923) – material for which was collected in the last decade of the 19th century — had identified 179 languages and 544 dialects. One of the early Census reports (1921 census) also showed 188 languages and 49 dialects. Out of these mother-tongues, 184 (Census 1991) had more than 10,000 speakers. There are other estimates that would put the number higher or lower; For instance, the encyclopaedic People of India series of the Anthropological Survey of India, identified 75 “major languages” out of a total of 325 languages used in Indian households. Most importantly, as early as in the1990s, India was reported to have 32 languages with one million or more speakers. The People of India also reports that there are 25 writing systems in India that are in active use as in 1990s.

Prior to the division of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, the undivided India witnessed two major movements for the protection of mother tongues from the incursion of Hind. (i) Urdu Language Movement (began:1850s), and (ii) Anti-Hindi Movement by Tamilians (began: 1937).

• Urdu language movement: Urdu, which was used as a popular language of the masses as the court language prior to the British rule, was getting marginalised since the latter half of the 19th Century, particularly after the Sepoy mutiny in 1857. In 1871, the Lt. General of Bengal banned Urdu in all its provinces and bolstered the spread of Hindi. In 1881, Hindi replaced Urdu as the official language of Bihar; and in 1900, Governor Anthony MacDonnell issued an order, which allowed the “permissive — but not exclusive — use” of Devanagari for Hindustani language in the courts of North-Western Provinces. Against the planned marginalisation of Urdu, a movement began to protect Urdu’s official status since 1850s. Sir Syed Ahmed Khan played a key role. In 1900, Urdu and Hindi were both granted equal status. However, during the creation of the Constitution in 1950, Urdu was replaced by English as an official language.
• Anti-Hindi Movement by Tamilians (Began: 1937): Tamil Nadu has been vehemently opposing the imposition of Hindi learning and usage in the state for decades. The first protest dates back to 1937 when a Government Order issued the compulsory learning of Hindi in all government schools. After Periyar EV Ramasamy’s Self Respect Movement along with the Justice Party’s protest for three years (resulting in two fatalities), the Order was withdrawn in 1940. Hindi in Devanagari script is the official language of the Indian Union. In addition to Hindi language, English language may also be used for official purposes. It has been the policy of the Government of India that progressive use of Hindi in the official work may be ensured through persuasion, incentive and goodwill. As of 2025, 22 languages have been classified as recognised languages under the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India. There is no national language of India. After independence, the many non-Hindi language areas of India agitated, (i) for recognition of their mother tongue and (ii) imposition of Hindi. Few such major language movements are:

• Recognition of Bengali Language in Assam (1960): In 1960, the then Chief Minister of Assam presented a bill in the state assembly seeking to declare Assamese as the sole official language of the state. Protesting against this move, a peaceful language movement started under the banner of Cachar Gana Sangram Parishad to include Bengali also as an official language and give similar recognition to other ethnic languages. On the fateful day of May 19, a Satyagraha was observed in Silchar railway station. Assam Rifles opened fire on unarmed protesters and eleven people, including a teenage girl, courted death in the love of their mother tongue. Assam government had to withdraw the circular and Bengali was given official status in Barak Valley as per Section 5 of Assam Act XVIII, 1961.
• Anti-Hindi movement in Tamil Nadu (1960s): After the death of Jawaharlal Nehru in 1964, Tamils were apprehensive that his assurances of continuation of English as an Official Language would not be kept. Anti-Hindi imposition protests spread across the state, with college students at the forefront. Chinnasamy of Tiruchi was the first person to immolate himself against the imposition of Hindi. This led to a spate of self-immolations against imposition of Hindi. Anna Durai announced that Jan 26, 1965 (when the Official Languages Act came into force) will be observed as a day of mourning. In two weeks of riots, about 70 people were killed, according to government estimates. Finally, the Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri made a radio broadcast on February 11, 1965 promising to honour Nehru’s assurances. He also assured Tamils that English would continue to be used for Centre-state and intrastate communications, and that the All India Civil Services examination would continue to be conducted in English.

Observations

Hindu nationalist ideology—Hindutva, which advocates for the establishment of a Hindu Rashtra (nation) and promulgation of Hindi as the dominant language in India has its roots in the British period when the Hindi (Nagari) was developed by John B Gilchrist in the early 19th century. The dominance of Hindi, particularly after India’s independence, is not only creating political tension and identity crisis among many linguistic communities of India, it has also led to a decline in the usage of several regional North Indian languages and their scripts, like Awadhi, Braj, Bhojpuri, and Maithili, which are often overshadowed by the standardised Hindi language, causing concerns about their potential loss of cultural identity and linguistic diversity.

Note: The article is dedicated to noted singer Pratul Mukhopadhyay.

Views expressed are personal