International Mother Language Day: History and Facts

The International Mother Language Day is observed annually on 21 February worldwide to promote awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. The observation was first announced by UNESCO on 17 November 1999.
International Mother Language Day observation was inspired from the Language Movement Day commemorated in Bangladesh since 1952.

History

On 21 March 1948, Pakistan Governor General Mohammed Ali Jinnah declared Urdu as the only official language for both West and East Pakistan. The people of East Pakistan (now Bangladesh ) started to protest against this as Bangla was their mother tongue. As a part of protest, students in Dhaka called for a provincial strike on 21 February 1952. The government declared a curfew at the place. But the students did not withdraw the strike but continued peacefully. The Pakistani police fired on the students despite these peaceful protests and 4 students were killed. The Mother Language Day commommorates this incident.

Other Facts

United Nations declared 2008 as the International Year of Languages to recognise the Mother Language Day movement.

The Linguapax Institute of Spain awards Linguapax Prize on every Mother Language Day to linguists, researchers, professors and members of the civil society 'in acknowledgement of their outstanding work in the field linguistic diversity or multilingual education'. The award was instituted in 2002.

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