1952 and our road to emancipation

Alaul Alam :
In the British era, English education was imposed on the colonized people and English-knowing people were given privileges in the government job sectors and other services, but they never snatched away the language of the colonized people. History says the Bengali endured more sufferings and inequalities in the Pakistan era than they were in the British regime. In 1947 the creation of Pakistan made some political leaders in this region happy with a hope that the Bengali would no more face any discrimination. But people of this region could hardly realize that they were going to enter another neo-colonial era.
Only within a year of independent Pakistan, the real intention of its rulers of the western part to establish the eastern part of the country as their colony was unmasked. They started depriving the Bengalis of their fundamental rights and took every initiative to colonize East Bengal. Despite Bangla being the language of the majority of people and the language of the people of East Pakistan, they wanted to impose Urdu as the only language of Pakistan. There was an ill political intention behind imposing Urdu for the people in this region. They wanted to make the Bengali submissive along with destroying the culture and education snatching away their mother tongue.
However, there were some among the people of East Bengal who tried to make the Pakistani rulers convinced to leave the decision to impose Urdu on the Bengali, rather they recommended to use Bangla along with Urdu. On February 25, 1948, Dhirendra Nath Datta, a member from East Bengal proposed to use Bengali along with Urdu and English in the Pakistan Constituent Assembly but this proposal was rejected by the Pakistani rulers without giving any logical explanation.
Dr. Muhammad Shahidullah, a renowned Bengali scholar, argued against the arbitral imposition of Urdu on the people of the East Pakistan. He claimed that Bangla being the language of the majority of the population should be the state language of Pakistan.
He was the first to establish the reasons why Bangla, instead of Urdu, should be the state language of Pakistan. Not only that, he set some arguments taking examples from other countries in favor of using more than one languages to save the existence of Bangla language which was being threatened at the hands of the West Pakistan rulers. He was bold enough to say that it would be a great mistake if Pakistan chose only Urdu discarding Bangla, the language of the majority people.
However, Pakistani rulers were firmed in their decision without taking any consideration of the wishes and sentiments of the majority of the population. In March 1948, the then governor general of Pakistan, Mohammad Ali Jinnah came to Dhaka and declared that “the state language of Pakistan is going to be Urdu and no other language.” The strong protest against the declaration spread across the East Bengal. Young Bangabandhu along with his many followers made a strong protest against the decision of the West rulers to impose Urdu as the state language of Pakistan.
Gradually, extensive protest grew intensified with the direct involvement of students along with other professionals. Bangla- speaking people of all walks came to the streets for establishing their right to speak Bangla. Facing rising sectarian tensions and discontent, the government imposed section 144 on public meetings and rallies.
Defying the section 144, the students of Dhaka University and other activists came to the streets. Police fired on the demonstrations. Then Pakistani forces shot dead Salam, Barkat, Rafiq , Jabbar and some other brave sons of the soil on the street . The killing of those brave sons triggered uprising in the East Bengal (Bangladesh). Consequently, the rulers of Pakistan had no option but to bow the demand of the mass.
Obviously, the eternal Ekushey laid the foundation of our independence. It was the first attempt to move against the neocolonial regime. Winning the right to use mother language made the Bengali more confident to combat all the injustices they were enduring.
In 1966 Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman proposed the historic six point demands as the head of Awami League. It is considered the charter of freedom for the Bengalis. It was a complete road map for emancipating the people of the East Pakistan (now Bangladesh). Bangabandhu’s six points worked tremendously to instigate the people with the feelings of autonomy and the whole East Pakistan rose to materialize their demands. To calm the six point movement Pakistani rulers made a false accusation to Sheikh Mujib on Agartala Conspiracy case.
Again, in the general election held in 1970 Bangabandhu won the absolute majority in the Pakistan National Assembly but he was not allowed to form the government rather they went on plotting against Bangabandhu and his people.
On 7 March 1971 Bangabandhu made a historic address at Race Course Maidan before the thousands of people. This speech was a turning point to march the Bengali nation towards liberation war. Through his speech he hinted at the responsibilities of the nation for their liberation. Impliedly, he not only advised people to jump into liberation war but also gave a complete guideline to achieve freedom. Under the great leadership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman the Bengali nation could snatch away the final victory on 16 December, 1971.
 
(The writer teaches at Prime University. He is also a research
scholar at the IBS).