(Continuation from previous week)
Kagmari Conference was the council meeting of the Awami League and a cultural conference held on 6-10 February 1957 at Kagmari in Tangail district. The main agenda for discussion in the council session on 7 February was full autonomy for East Pakistan and the non-aligned foreign policy of the Party.
And then on 21st February 1952, the protest was called up against the omission of Bangla language. Thousands of protesting students participated demanding Bangla language to be the sole state language. We lost Abdus Salam, Rafiq Uddin Ahmed, Abul Barkat and Abdul Jabbar and countless soldiers on that day. Students of Dhaka Medical College worked on the construction of Shaheed Minar, through the night of 23rd February.
One of the children was named as Mafuz, he asked me, "After sacrificing so many lives on that we achieved our language. Then, how could we disrespect our Shaheed Minar throughout the year?"
"Jodi Tor Dak Shune Keu Na Ase Tobe Ekla Cholo Re," Rabindranath Tagore wrote it in 1905, it means --- to continue our journey, despite the lack of support from others. I asked her to start respecting all the monuments, and to keep hope that one day everybody will follow her journey. And now 21st February is considered as International Mother Language Day."
"Yes, we will," they replied with a confident bold voice. I smiled to support at them and moved on with the story.
On May 7, 1954, Bangla language was first recognised as the state language of Pakistan. Later on 29 February 1956, under the constitution of Pakistan Bangla language was recognised as the state language of Pakistan.
The Language Movement is considered to have the foundations for ethnic nationalism -- the ideology of Pakistan, the two-nation theory. It was the starting point when Bangali nationalist started their struggled, which eventually took us to the Liberation War in 1971.
Meanwhile, the political tensions came to a head as elections to the provincial assembly of East Pakistan were held in 1954. In the run-up to the East Bangla Legislative Assembly Elections in 1954 A K Fazlul Huq and Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhashani ( Huq-Bhashani) took the lead to form a pan-Bangla political alliance including the Awami League, Krishak Praja Party, Nizam-e-Islam and Ganatantri Dal.
The alliance was termed the Jukto Front and formulated the Ekush Dafa, or 21-point Charter, to fight the Muslim League. The Jukto Front won a vast majority of seats in the legislative assembly. The election swept the Jukto Front coalition into power in East Bengal with a massive mandate of 223 seats out of 237 seats.
(To be continued)
The writer Research Assistant at Bangladesh Institute of Law and International affairs (BILIA) and also associated with Centre for International Sustainable Development Law (CISDL) as a Legal Researcher
