Ruth Fremson/The New York Times. A sign in Bangla language in the front window of a shop in Astoria, Queens, in this March 7, 2001, file photo.
From our friends at India Ink:
I take pride in the fact that despite being born and raised in New York City, I speak Bangla fluently. I credit this mostly to my Bangladeshi parents for being brutal in their approach to teaching my younger sister and me a language that that was so violently fought for. Feb. 21 is recognized by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization as International Mother Language Day in honor of linguistic diversity, prompted by Bangladesh’s 1952 National Language Movement. Prior to independence in 1971, present-day Bangladesh was East Pakistan. When the Pakistani government moved to eradicate Bangla from official use, despite its centuries-old history, and replace it with Urdu, Dhaka University students staged a peaceful protest on Feb. 21, 1952. The Pakistani police opened fire, injuring and killing protesters.
Read the entire post here.
Organikos 
Yeah. I’ve just heard from anthropology class that today is Mother Tongue day.
And wow. I’ve never heard of Bangla before. It seems that power…politics is the force behind the loss or even death of a language. It’s sad.
Good point Jackie. The sad thing is that this is the type of thing that has repeated throughout history. Franco tried to wipe out the Basque and Catalan languages in Spain, the Australia tried to wipe out Aboriginal languages, English was meant to be the “unifying language” of India…the list goes on. It’s a welcoming sight to see support like this, even if it’s only a “day”.