Ekush

Today, 21 February is celebrated around the world as International Mother Language Day and this is thanks to Bangladesh. The holiday today represents the right of people to speak their cultural language and recognizes language as a fundamental part of identity.

Here in Bangladesh, the day is called Ekush, which literally means just 21, (as in 21February) but is specifically referring to the day February 21, 1952 when student protesters of Dhaka University organized a massive protest for the right to speak Bangla and many were gunned down and killed. At the time, Bangladesh was a part of Pakistan, and Pakistan was attempting to implement an Urdu-only language policy nationwide. The problem was that not only did most of East Pakistan (present day Bangladesh) not speak Urdu, they felt a deep connection to bangla as a piece of their cultural heritage and identity as Bengalis. As a result, people – led largely by student activists, mobilized around the issue of adding bangla as a second language of Pakistan. The government resisted, and the fight became protracted and violent on the part of the government. The students killed on February 21 became known as the Language Martyrs, and the Bhasha Andolan, or Language Movement, gained new fire following their deaths. In 1956, bangla was added as a second national language for Pakistan.

There was a lot of very interesting aspects to the day. On the one hand, it was fun to go down to the Shahid Minar, the monument to the Language Martyrs (pictured above)and take part in the holiday festivities. The Shahid Minar is down next to Dhaka University where much of the organzing took place, so it is nice to be in the place and remember all the history that took place there. On the other hand, it was also fascinating how nationalist the event was- Sam has done (and is doing) some work on how the Language Movement has been incorporated into the national narrative of Bangladesh after the fact, and it was incredibly interesting to watch it play out on this day. While Sam, as a historian, can point out all sorts of re-writing and forgetting taking place in the national narrative, there is also a new understanding of Ekush that fuels a very young nationalism, and one which is not widely self-critical of the idea of nationalism and sometimes frustratingly okay with mindless patriotism – but then, what nationalism isn’t that way? Again, we could get into all sorts of interesting post-colonial discussions here, but we wont.

So we headed down to the events around Dhaka University and the memorial in the afternoon, because unlike every other school and institution in the country, Atticus’ school decided to stay open (major criticism of EFID- they seem oblivious to Bangladesh holidays and culture and often don’t close on MAJOR holidays such as this). We made it down in the evening and it was packed. We got out of our cng when the traffic became intolerable and walked around, but weren’t certain about where we were in relation to the monument – which was the destination. The whole Dhaka University area was like a giant festival though. Jon and Sam immediately got their faces painted (with Bangladesh flags- we just had to embrace the nationalism and figure we’ll sort it all out later!) but Atticus has developed a strangely strong aversion to face painting (also at the soccer tournament) and so he skipped it. Here are some shots of the early crowd are our beautiful faces!

We made our way around the area looking for the Shahid Minar and just trying to manage the really high level of attention we were getting. It probably didn’t help that we had ‘deshi flags painted on us to add to the spectacle. It had been a while since we have had to deal with the massive crowds forming around us and it was a little exhausting. We try to be cool about it, but honestly, the attention was a bit too much tonight. At several points there were probably thirty or forty people crowded around us taking photos. It can be a bit stressful. We kept a good attitude though and were friendly to everyone.

In our route toward the monument, we went through the Bangla Academy Boi mela. This is an annual book fair that has been going on forever, and it had some nice little stalls and fun stuff. Atticus bought a drum (what on earth was Sam thinking when agreed to let Atticus and Jon get a percussion instrument and bring it home??!!). It was funny too because even though it was all outside, at one point outside the boi mela there were metal detectors you had to go through. It was the most silly symbolic security measure seen to date- we are not sure if it beeped if anyone could even hear it. Again, it was symbolic though – much like security at all big events. Anyhow, here is the boi mela and Jon and Atticus being cleared through the “screening.”

It was also nice as the sun went down and some of the area statues were all lit up and fancified. There was a very cool art installation around the Amtolla on dhaka University. The Amtolla is a big tree that was used as a meeting place during the Language Movement and in various politcal organizing efforts afterward. The installation was statues of different historical figures all meeting under the tree - pretty cool, but hard to capture in photos. Here's the best we could get:

As we finally arrived at the Shahid Minar, it was massively crowded, as you can see in the photo at the top of the entry. There was a line of cops around it(the newspaper said over 8,000 police and security were used for the event!) and it was difficult to maneuver. We made our way over to the monument to place our flowers on the memorial (as is the tradition) but by that time apparantly that part of the deal was over. The flowers had been taken away and the remants of them were all over the ground, along with what seemed to be tons and tons of styrofoam. (And can you imagine how much styrofoam is in a ton?). We set our flowers down and headed for less crowded territory.

We walked for a while just to get out of the crowded area. It is always nice to walk around Dhaka at night- the lighting is just so cool with all the little carts that have lanterns and candles lighting them up. All in all, it was a fun time and definitely something we are happy to be able to see.