International Mother Language Day

The Bengalis' love for and attachment to their language and culture are great and when in 1952 the neo-colonial, power-hungry, arrogant rulers of Pakistan declared that “Urdu and only Urdu should be the state language of Pakistan”, they sowed the seed of its future disintegration. The people of Bangladesh, particularly the students of Dhaka University, rose in angry protest against the vicious undemocratic designs of the Pakistani government. Those designs really amounted to the destruction of Bangla language and culture and imposition of the language and culture of the people of Pakistan. The reaction was strong and spontaneous. The government decided to quell protests by brute force. The police opened fire on 21st February 1952 on unarmed peaceful protesters, most of whom were students, resulting in the death, among others, of Rafiq, Barkat, Jabbar and Salam.

We passed on this history to our children of The Dhaka Project and celebrated the day after with pride, passion and sorrow. We see hundreds of Rafiq, Barkat, Jabbar and Salam in our students who are equally passionate about Mother Tongue which was proven by their expression and performance in the program.

Arifur Rahman, Project Manager, opened the program with one minute silence and his speech to encourage the children that how precious is our language. The program was organized in such a way that all the participants were students who practiced hard for last twenty days. The show was hosted by Sujon Ishaque and Nusrat. Some beautiful song was sung. Classical dances were wonderfully presented by Anonna and Rita. One of the highlight of the show was Nazrul and Sumon’s drama. It seemed all the volunteers in spite of being not knowing bangla language understood everything. They showed how connecting is bangle language, how expressive is the thousands of years old culture we have and how much loving it is. All of our volunteers were surprised and fall in love with bangla. The Dhaka Project presents some very patriotic and brightly ambitious young personals whom most of the world call underprivileged and slum kid. We promise together with our supporters that in a very short period of time these children will be the leaders of the country in every sector.