Editorial
The spirit of Ekushey
It should move us to newer heights of achievement
Fifty eight years ago, a band of young men made the supreme sacrifice of laying down their lives in the defence of our mother tongue Bangla. And they did so in the full knowledge that theirs was a death that would only harden the resolve of the entire Bengali nation in its struggle to be heard and to be accorded a place of dignity in the structure of the state. In other words, the struggle for Bangla in Pakistan was but the first manifestation of the general feeling in us that if we meant to live and thrive in self-esteem, we would need to keep eternal vigilance and thwart all the insidious moves that would be made to undermine our cultural heritage, indeed our historical calling as a society.
As the years after 1952 were to demonstrate all too clearly, the Bengali nation was always the target of political and social assault from the powers that were. And yet it was the spirit of Ekushey that kept us going. What essentially began as an insistent, determined struggle to ensure the dignity of our language was to evolve in time to a movement for autonomy before finally attaining the transcendental character of an armed struggle for liberty in 1971. It was this progression from a struggle for language to a war for national liberty that has been our defining principle as a people and as a state. It is this principle we uphold today as we recall the martyrs of February 21, 1952 for the glory they achieved and for the pride they engraved in our national self-awareness through their hallowed end.
All these years after 1952, it becomes important for us to step back and take a hard look at what we have achieved where the pre-eminence of Bangla in our collective life is concerned. Obviously a good deal remains to be done, especially when Bangla is the medium of instruction in our educational institutions. It is a pity that even after 38 years of national independence we are far from attaining a hundred percent literacy and the state of our education needs to be vastly improved.
The matter of translations of works from other languages -- in literature, the sciences, et cetera -- is a subject we must tackle firmly and quickly if Bangla is to attain a recognised and esteemed place in the global community. The very fact that Ekushey is nowadays observed globally as International Mother Language Day is a challenge thrown our way. It is that in terms of education, in terms of the scholarly, we must do a whole lot more to elevate Bangla to a place where it will fulfil our intellectual needs.
Finally, any observance of Ekushey must come in the knowledge that we need to pass on the legacy of the sacrifices of 1952 to our children and to our children's children in the interest of history. And that can come about through a promotion of good, cultured Bangla in the way we speak it and write it. Ekushey, in so many words, is a call to modernity for the Bengali nation. Let that be the focus as we reflect on the day today.
Our tributes go out from the inner recesses of our being to the martyrs of February 1952. Their sacrifice did not go in vain. Their aspirations will find a necessary way to fulfilment.
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