Lecture 6 & 7 JKT Language Movement 1948-1952 PDF

**[Language Movement 1948-1952 and Education Movement of 1962]** **[Introduction]** 1\. In 1947 Pakistan became one State with two countries and one nation with two peoples. Actually, the creation of Pakistan had been a geographical absurdity, with its two parts separated by twelve hundred miles o...

**[Language Movement 1948-1952 and Education Movement of 1962]** **[Introduction]** 1\. In 1947 Pakistan became one State with two countries and one nation with two peoples. Actually, the creation of Pakistan had been a geographical absurdity, with its two parts separated by twelve hundred miles of Indian territory. The difference in the social structure, economy and culture had even been greater than the physical distance. Adherence to a common religion, Islam, was never enough to make these two dissimilar parts a single nation. 2\. The first point of contention between two parts of Pakistan was the State Language. At the time of partition, the people speaking different languages were: **Language** **Pakistan %** **East Pakistan %** **West Pakistan %** -------------- ---------------- --------------------- --------------------- Bengali 56.40 98.42 0.02 Punjabi 28.55 0.02 67.08 Sindhi 5.47 0.01 12.85 Pushto 3.48 \- 8.16 Urdu 3.27 0.64 7.05 Baluchi 1.29 \- 3.04 English 0.02 0.01 0.03 Table 1: Linguistic Demography of Bangladesh 3\. Point to note here that the mother tongue of 56.40% people of Pakistan had been Bengali. Mother tongue of only 3.27% was Urdu. However, the ruling elite group of West Pakistan was adamant to establish Urdu as the only state language of Pakistan neglecting Bengali the language spoken by the majority of the population of Pakistan. **[Background to the Language Movement]** 4\. The election manifesto of Bengal Provincial Muslim League, for the election of 1946, proposed Bengali as the state language of Bengal. Daily/weekly newspapers in July 1947 published a good number of articles on the issue of making Bengali the state language. 5\. Dr Ziauddin Ahmed, the then VC of Aligarh Muslim University advocated in July 1947 that Urdu should be the state language of the future state of Pakistan. His proposal was immediately refuted by Dr Muhammad Shahidullah, a respected Bengali linguist and scholar from Dhaka University stating his support for Bengali. 6\. **[Pakistan Education Conference]**. In November 1947, a resolution at the national education summit in [Karachi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karachi) advocated Urdu and English as the state languages of Pakistan. [The conference also decided removal of from all government stationeries, including money order forms, envelopes and postcards. Students in East Bengal got agitated with the information. A meeting was held in Dhaka University campus on 6 December 1947, demanding Bangla as a state language. The meeting was followed by processions.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bengali_language_movement#cite_note-11) 7\. **[The] [Pakistan Public Service Commission](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pakistan_Public_Service_Commission)**. The Pakistan Public Service Commission dropped Bengali from the list of approved subjects.   There were nine courses on languages namely Urdu, Hindi, English, German, French, Latin and Sanskrit less Bangla. **[Important Political Personalities of Pakistan during and after Partition]** **8. [Mohammad Ali Jinnah]: Governor General of Pakistan Aug 1947 -- Sep 1948 (died)** **9. [Liakat Ali Khan]: Prime Minister of Pakistan Aug 1947 -- Oct 1951 (assassinated).** **10. [Khwaja Nazimuddin (Bengali)]: Chief Minister of East Bengal (Aug 1947- Sep 1948), Governor General of Pakistan (Sep 1948-Oct 1951), Prime Minister of Pakistan (Oct 1951- Apr 1953).** **11. [Iskandar Ali Mirza (Bengali)]: Governor of East Bengal (May 1954- Oct 1954), Governor General of Pakistan (Aug 1955 -- Mar 1956) -- President of Pakistan (Mar 1956 -- Oct 1958).** **12. [Nurul Amin (Bengali)]: Chief Minister of East Bengal (September 1948- April 1954).** **13. [Huseyn Shaheed Suhrawardy]: Prime Minister of Bengal (Apr 1946-Aug 1947), Prime Minister of Pakistan (Sep 1956- Oct 1957).** **14. [A K Fazlul Huq]: Prime Minister of Bengal (Apr 1937- Mar 1943), Chief Minister of East Bengal (Apr 1954-May 1954), Governor of East Pakistan (Mar 1956-Apr 1958).** **15. [Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani]: Established East Pakistan Awami Muslim League in 1949. Member of Parliament up to 1975.** **[The Language Movement]** 16\. Although the Language movement continued till the acceptance of Bengali as one of the State Languages of Pakistan, there had been two major waves of the movement. 17\. **[First Wave]** **18. [Second Wave]. T**he Language Movement took a serious turn at the beginning of 1952. Both Jinnah and Liaquat Ali Khan were dead by then. Khwaja Nazimuddin had succeeded Liaquat Ali Khan as prime minister of Pakistan. The people of East Pakistan started losing faith in the Muslim League. A new party, the Awami Muslim League was formed in 1949 with Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani as Chairman, Shamsul Hoque as general secretary. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman became Joint Secretary remaining in jail. **[Bangla Becomes one of the State Languages of Pakistan]** 19\. With the election scheduled to be held in March 1954 a coalition of the Awami Muslim League, the Krishak Praja Party, the Ganatantri Dal and Nizam-e-Islam was formed on 13 November 1953 with the name [Jukto Front](https://www.albd.org/articles/general/36625/United-Front-Election-&-Historic-21-point-Programme). The Jukto Front declared their 21-point program as the party's manifesto for the elections which included adoption of Bengali as one of the state languages of Pakistan. **20. After the resounding victory of the Jukto Front in 1954, Bangla was recognized as one of the state languages of Pakistan at a session of the National Assembly on 9 May 1954.** **21. On 26 February 1956, the Constituent Assembly passed the first Constitution of Pakistan recognizing Bangla as a State Language.** **[Contribution of Bangabandhu in Language Movement]** 22\. Father of the Nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had enormous contribution to the Language Movement. A few of his contributions are stated below: **[Contribution of Language Movement in Subsequent Struggles]** 23\. Seventy years ago, in 1952, the Language Movement established the national identity and self-dignity of the Bengalis. The 21^st^ February has been immortalized by global recognition as the International Mother Language Day. 24\. The language movement of 1952 established relation and confidence between ordinary and political people. This mutual confidence accelerated the liberation struggle of the nation. 25\. The language movement was the beginning of the realization of all our rights. The education movement of 1962, the six-point movement of that year, the mass uprising of 1969, the election of 1970 and the independence struggle of 1971 all followed the spirit of the language movement. **[Education Movement of 1962]** **[General]** 1\. Since the establishment Pakistan, anarchy in education sector became a common feature. Number of educational institutions started to decrease and the dropout rate increased within a short time. In 1947-48 the number of primary schools in East Pakistan was 29,633, which came down to 26,000 within a span of 5 years in 1954-55. 2\. Just two months after taking over as President and Martial Law Administrator, Ayub Khan announced formation of a National Education Commission headed by Secretary, Education of West Pakistan and Ayub's former teacher at Aligarh University, S. M. Sharif. Out of eleven members of the commission only four educationists were from the then East Pakistan. The commission submitted its interim report on 26th August,1959. However, the report of Shariff Commission was finally published in 1962. **[Important Features of the Sharif Commission Report]** 3\. Following were the main features of the report: **[Students Movement]** 4\. The Sharif Commission Report was rejected outright by the students in East Pakistan for following reasons: 5\. Action committees and sub-committees were formed in many institutions to protest against the report. The agitation program was started by Dhaka College students. Students of medical school and National Medical institutions also resorted to the movement, which included hunger strike also. 6\. A students' meeting of Dhaka College on 10 August announced a general strike of students throughout the province on 15th August. Students responded favourably to the program. 7\. Series of meetings were held in between 15th August and 10th September at the historic Amtola in the Dhaka University Campus. On 10th September, in a meeting of student leaders of most of the educational institutions of Dhaka, a hartal or total strike was announced on 17th September. 8\. Students started picketing from early morning on the day. Car of a provincial minister and some other cars were set fire. Dhaka University Campus was packed up with students from the school and colleges of Dhaka City. Hearing the news of police firing at Nawabpur road a huge procession was brought out. Police fired at the procession at Abdul Gani road killing a high school student and injuring many others. The firing at Abdul Gani Road infuriated the processionist which not only included students but also workers and employees of different mills and factories, rickshaw pullers and boatmen from across the Buriganga river. 9\. The movement subsided eventually when the government postponed the implementation of the report.