Monday | 27 January 2025 | Reg No- 06
বাংলা
   
Monday | 27 January 2025 | Epaper

Before February 21, 1952

Published : Friday, 24 February, 2017 at 8:05 PM  Count : 609
It was appropriate that the language movement was centred on the Dhaka university which stood to lose the most if the state language would become Urdu alone. The movement was not for the rights of mother language but that of the state language status and hence of the government.
There was not much that could be done about who chose to speak in which language and how but the Pakistan government could in its attempt to establish a central Pakistan, its own version of imperial Delhi, impose one centralizing language as a hegemonic tool of control. Just as Bengal was a periphery to both the Aryans and later the Mughals, it was so to the Pakistan of Jinnah. What followed way down to 1971 was a series of endless inevitabilities of a state that was conceived only for a population cluster which now makes up Pakistan. The inclusion of Bangladesh in Pakistan in 1947 was a great mistake, tragedy and caused by several forces beyond people's control.
 Cursed from birth
Bengal remains a puzzle because of its mixed political landscape. The elite class came from the minority community -Bengali Hindus- while the majority was not just missing an elite but even a middle class. Thus the process of claiming the right to political assertion was a later event in its history. Even when it began to do so, that is after 1905, it was in alliance with the All Indian Muslim League which was led by North Indian Muslim elite and other non-Bengali elite but few Bengali Muslims found space in ML leadership. So an obvious internal conflict dominated the functioning of ML in Bengal.
India had two major Muslim population clusters both of which later became the two wings of Pakistan. The 1940 Lahore Resolution also refers to this. But the policies, directions and decisions of ML were taken by a narrow band of elite that excluded Bengalis. So within the Muslim clusters, Bengali Muslims were discriminated against.
This conflict within the party also reflected the historical problem of a idealized internal imperial group North Indians who had no cultural connection with the periphery and considered domination a s a matter of entitlement. Dr Harunur Rashid, in his book "Foreshadowing of Bangladesh" has dealt in details about the conflict with the Muslim League between the North Indians and Bengalis who were excluded from all sources of power.
Excluding Bangla was a natural part of its ruling mechanism rather than any cultural prejudice. But resistance also surfaced. By 1930s, the Bengali language issue was not a secret within the Muslim League movement.   In fact, in 1906 when Muslim League was being established, Bengali speakers mentioned that giving up Bangla language in favour of another-Urdu-  was not going to be accepted by them.
By the 1930s, Muslim politics of Bengal was very robust but also split into several streams. For example, Krishak Proja Party (KPP) formed in 1936 in anticipation of the 1937 elections was very East Bengali in character and its vote patterns also reflected that. Tied more to peasants than babus they had no option of not being 'vernacular'.
It was somewhat different with the Bengal Muslim League (BML) which was led by two aristocrats - Abul Hashem and Suhrawardy - with no language based class or economic ties to Bangla. However, the mood was clear that the tussle had begun and "supporters of Bengali opposed Urdu even before 1947 when delegates from Bengal rejected the idea of making Urdu the lingua franca of Muslim India in the 1937 at the Lucknow session of the Muslim League" (Wikipedia).
In 1940, when the Lahore Resolution was passed it was reassuring for Bengalis to know that no central Sate was being imagined and the two cluster states approach was being accepted. This allowed Bengalis to be more enthusiastic about the "Pakistan" movement but as history shows, betrayal was inevitable in the context of fewer options for Jinnah's Muslim League and in 1947, the one "Pakistan" emerged officially.  By the late 1940s several books had been written as a cultural defence of Bangla which in effect was the indicator of inner conflict within the All Indian Muslim League and separate identity aspiration of its Bengali members.
 Language and jobs
After August 1947, the first proposal was made to make Urdu the sole state language and of its exclusive use in media and schools. Tamaddun Majlish, a Bengali Islamic cultural organization which was active even before 1947, led the first fight as it became obvious that the governance pattern didn't envisage the inclusion of Bengalis.
Once Pakistan Public Service Commission removed Bangla from the list of its approved subjects, Dhaka University graduates were put under high pressure and conflict became inevitable as all education based middle class initiatives would be doomed to fail as jobs would be restricted due to language.
By December 1947, processions and meetings protesting such decisions were frequent, a hartal was called in April 1948 and by 1949, when Awami Muslim League was born, language had become a key issue of contest and rallying point.  It does show that Pakistan with its two wings was from its birth a semi-fictional state, West Pakistan was always Pakistan.
It shows that the struggle of the aspirant Bengali middle class which tried to grow before 1947 was being thwarted after 1947 also. Most people were historically speaking caught in the older struggle of middle class establishment process once again.
Many see the language movement more as a resistance to the rights of Bangla language and culture but much less on the ongoing political struggle of the middle class. It was not about the threats to the basic Tagorean culture and language that created the movement that led to 1971 which began in 1952. Part of this is true of course if going by post 1971 chronology but language struggle has always been the face of the middle class struggle that began in the early 20th century for Bengali Muslims just as North Indian Muslims used language to rally around people in the Aligarh movement.  Education meant jobs and that is why the birth of Dhaka University was so welcomes even though East Bengal was annulled in 1911 causing great disappointment.
The attack by Pakistan was not primarily on language and culture but access to middle class jobs particularly in the government, education sector and media. These policy decisions were taken as early as 1947 which means the exclusion process of Bengalis of East Pakistan began right at birth. It's interesting like the Kolkata leadership; the Karachi leadership were a minority trying to exclude a majority.
East Pakistanis were never part of Pakistan. One has to explore if East Bengalis in particular and Bengali Muslims in general were considered part of India ever.r
Afsan Chowdhury is a journalist,
columnist and researcher


LATEST NEWS
MOST READ
Also read
Editor : Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury
Published by the Editor on behalf of the Observer Ltd. from Globe Printers, 24/A, New Eskaton Road, Ramna, Dhaka.
Editorial, News and Commercial Offices : Aziz Bhaban (2nd floor), 93, Motijheel C/A, Dhaka-1000.
Phone: PABX- 41053001-06; Online: 41053014; Advertisement: 41053012.
E-mail: district@dailyobserverbd.com, news©dailyobserverbd.com, advertisement©dailyobserverbd.com, For Online Edition: mailobserverbd©gmail.com
🔝
close