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The historic Language Movement

Abdul Ghafur : (From previous issue) The 11 March programme was a great success. Complete strike was observed in all educational institutions. Picketters had been active at different gates of the Secretariat since early morning. Among those who participated in picketting at the Secretariat gates were Shamsul Huq, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, Oli Ahad, Kazi Golam Mahbub, Shaukat Ali etc. They all were arrested. Those who picketed in front of the High Court, were subjected to lathicharge by the Police. The lawyers in protest abstained from attending the Court for the day. About 14 picketters were arrested from the gate of the Ramna Post Office. Many others including Prof MA Quasem and Mohammad Toaha were injured during police action. Mr Golam Azam along with 10/12 students were arrested by police from the Ramna T&T office area. They were taken to Tejgaon thana and were kept detained there till evening. On 11 March, 1948, workers and employees had played an important role. During that time Tamaddun Majlis had friendly relation with the workers and employees unions of rail, post and telecommunication sectors. Due to active resistance put up by East Pakistan Railway Employees League (EPREL) under the leadership of Messrs. Mahbubul Huq, MS Huq and MA Hai etc, very few trains could take start from Chittagong for Dhaka. The news of police action on picketters at Dhaka spread fast in and around the city of Dhaka. As a result spontaneous protest processions started pouring into the area around the Secretariat. At about 2-30 PM a large protest meeting was held at the University campus with Naimuddin Ahmad in the chair. At the end of the meeting, a big procession rushed towards the Secretariat to protest against police atrocities. The whole Secretariat area was soon turned into a sea of processionists many of whom forced into the Secretariat breaking police cordon. Police action against them only brought more protest marches of the angry people. This situation continued for days on till 15 March when the Government was obliged to sign a pact with the Committee of Action accepting all their demands. As the arrested leaders were released on 15 March as per conditions of the pact, the situation gradually cooled down. Jinnah's visit: On 19 March 1948 Mr. Mohammad Ali Jinnah came to Dhaka on his first ever visit to East Pakistan after the emergence of Pakistan. On 21 March 1948, he addressed a huge public meeting at the Ramna Race Course ground. In course of his speech he declared that Urdu, and no other language, shall be the state language of Pakistan. In his address to the special convocation of the Dhaka University held on 24 March 1948, he repeated it once again. He further said, those who were opposing Urdu as the only state language were the enemies of the state. Students were stunned at these utterances of Mr. Jinnah. Some of them shouted, 'no no' to record their protest. This too, was a 'new experience' for Mr. Jinnah. Later on he met representatives of the Committee of Action. But the talks failed as both sides did stick to their pervious positions. The situation was quite embarrassing for the language activists, as in spite of their best efforts it was not possible immediately to rejuvenate the Movement due primarily to the mass popularity of Mr. Jinnah at the time [Vide 'Jatiya Rajniti' Oli Ahad, 3rd edition 1997, P 52]. From 1948 to 1951: During that time the language activities had no mouth-piece of their own. There were two weeklies, Insan and Insaf, edited by Abdul Wahed Chowdhury, supporting the Language Movement. Both these were irregular and short-lived. Prof, Abul Quasem of Tamaddun Majlis took up the matter in right earnest. He along with some other supporters of the Movement brought out the Weekly Sainik (Fighter) on 14 November 1948. The Sainik was edited by prominent short story writer Shahed Ali. Among others who volunteered to work on the staff were Enamul Huq, Sanaullah Noori, Abdul Ghafur and Mostafa Kamal. The office of the weekly Sainik was situated first at 48, Captain Bazar, but soon it was shifted to the residence of Prof. Abul Quasem at 19, Azimpur, Dhaka, which as the office of both Tamaddun Majlis and the Weekly Sainik, soon turned into the nerve-centre of all socio-cultural activities including the Language Movement. After the death of Jinnah on 11 September 1948, Khwaja Nazimuddin was made the Governor General of Pakistan. But he was the titular head with real powers of the Government shifting into the hand of Prime Minister Nawabzada Liaqat Ali Khan. Liaqat Ali visited Dhaka during the closing days of 1948. He was accorded a reception on behalf of the DUCSU. DUCSU Secretary Golam Azam read out the Address of Welcome which included demands of provincial autonomy and Bengali as a state language of Pakistan. Liaqat Ali in his address condemned the demand for provincial autonomy as provincialism but kept silent on the state language issue. On 23 June, 1949, the first ever opposition political party of Pakistan was floated at the East Pakistan Muslim League Workers Convention held at the Rose Garden, Dhaka. The party was named East Pakistan Awami Muslim League. Former President of the Assam Provincial Muslim League Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani, Mr. Shamsul Huq, Sk. Mujibur Rahman and Khandakar Moshtaq Ahmad, were elected President, General Secretary, Joint Secretary and Asstt. Secretary respectively. The organisation adopted a draft manifesto in support of Islamic order, provincial autonomy and Bengali as a state language of Pakistan. Although Jinnah's visit to East Pakistan in March 1949 proved to be setback for the Language Movement at the moment, its fire continued to burn in the hearts of the people. Since 1949 every year 'Rastra Bhasha Dibas' was regularly observed on 11 March to remind the people that their goals were yet to be achieved. The year 1949 witnessed a new conspiracy against Bengali language. It was the move to change the script of Ben