Writing Bangla in Roman alphabet: A sheer disrespect to our mother language

Mohammad Rukanuddin :
A Dhaka University teacher once came to class and said she received a message from a student like, ‘Madam Apniki agamikal klasniben?’ and added that she replied to the student, “I don’t understand your language. Please write either in Bangla or in English”. If we open the face book or WhatsApp or messenger, we find similar communications like,”/AMI ASAINMENT DIESI SIR APNI KI PAYASEN/ AMI OSHOSTO AMAR JONNOR DOA KORBEN/ APNAR JONMO DINE APNAKE SHOVECHA/. This kind of writing Bangla in English letters is sheer disrespect to our mother tongue. People are doing it without knowing the background of Bangla language and the sacrifices the countrymen did to establish the language as the state language.
In 1948, Pakistan Education Minister Fazlur Rahman said that Bangla along with other provincial languages of Pakistan should be written in Arabic letters. Later, the Central Pakistan Education Advisory Board strongly recommended the same thing to the government on the pleas of the unity and solidarity of Pakistan. There is no doubt that it was due to a kind of discriminatory and biased attitude of the then West Pakistani people towards the people, their language and culture of Bangladesh (the erstwhile East Pakistan).  
At this, the intellectual circles and the students of the country burst into protests. The Dhaka University sent a memorandum of protest to the Pakistan Education Advisory Board. The memorandum said that the attempt to introduce Arabic Script for Bangla language was an attack on our language, literature and culture.
The then regime tried to gain the support of eminent linguist Dr. Shahidullah for their proposal. Dr. Shahidullah refused vehemently to be associated with their illogical move. Rather, he and other intellectuals refuted the vague logic of using Arabic letters for writing Bangla language saying that when the Indian sub-continent was under the British rule, English was the state language. At that time, Bangla was written in Bangla letters. Again, when Persian was the state language of the sub-continent during pre-British period, Bangla was written in no other letters than Bangla letters. These intellectuals stated that the proposal of writing Bangla with the letters of Arabic should be abandoned right away mentioning that the people of the then East Pakistan would not accept it, rather most of them demanded that Bangla be established as the state language.
Failing to impose Arabic writing system for Bangla writing, the Pakistani Government tried to introduce Roman letters for writing Bangla language. This ill effort was also made unsuccessful by the resistance of the people of the East Pakistan.
Bangla has a rich vocabulary, a standard alphabet, a very accommodating sound system and all other linguistic features that correspond to that of any standard language. Bangla is the 5th most widely spoken language in the world. One more point that Dr. Shahidullah in favour of our Bangla alphabet said Bangla alphabet is scientifically accurate; it is suitable for short hand, typing, printing and rapid writing. Moreover, even the little educated people can use it whereas they will be able neither tounderstand nor to use Bangla if it is written in any other letters than Bangla alphabet.
So, using English letters for writing Bangla is indicative of disrespect to our mother language because Bangla is one of the richest languages in the world. Furthermore, the nation had to sacrifice a lot for establishing it as a state language. Moreover, Bangla has its own letters. We do not have to borrow letters from other languages write our own language.
In addition, writing Bangla in English letters indicates that we are inefficient in communicating simple information in English which is a great discredit for students of universities where the medium of instruction is English. It also indicates that they are unable to use Bangla letters in communication. Not being able to use Bangla letters in communicating via electronic media or anywhere is all the more disqualification for an educated person. Of course, our young people are doing it without knowing the back ground of Bangla language establishment.
Our educational institutions including the universities can play important role in this regard. The government should also impose appropriate restrictions on using English letters in writing Bangla in electronic media or elsewhere in order to ensure due respect to our own language.

(The writer is Assistant Professor of English at Ahsanullah University of Science and Technology, Dhaka).