Bangla, not Bengali
photo: Avik Adnan Siddiqui
Our colonial rulers used to misspell many names and had left them written in the documents since they had usurped the administrative power in the sub-continent. It is a matter of great pity that we are still using those names unchanged and without protest for almost 250 years. As one of the speakers of Bangla, my primary concern is the name of our language. Our foremost duty is to revive the name of our loving mother tongue "Bangla" and shake off that wrong name "Bengali". Generally, names are and can never be translated in other languages. Especially the proper nouns, because a name bears the unique identity of particular entity. Sometimes a name is translated for the purpose of better understanding only. Moreover, it does not sound good to use such translated names, especially that the nation achieved a unique milestone-- 21st February shedding blood for the mother-tongue which is now recognised by the United Nations as "International Mother Language Day". We have to standardise the spelling of our language for proper pronunciation in English and all other widely used international languages.
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