Vanishing Voices

The rise of Hindutva and its promotion of Hindi as India's dominant language, rooted in British-era linguistics, has fuelled political tensions and endangered North Indian regional languages and scripts post-independence

- DIPANKAR DEY

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 21 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.