International Mother Language Day is being observed across the world on 21 February

International Mother Language Day (Bhasha Divas) is observed across the world, on 21 February every year.
2015 Theme: “Inclusion in and through education: Language counts”.  The year 2015 is the 15th anniversary of International Mother Language Day.
Objective: To promote awareness of linguistic, multilingualism and cultural diversity.

About International Mother Language Day

• The Day  is  observed  yearly  by  UNESCO  member  states  and  at its headquarters to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism.
• On 16 May 2007, by resolution 61/266, the General Assembly proclaimed 2008 as the  International  Year  of  Languages,  to  promote  unity  in diversity and international understanding, through multilingualism and multiculturalism.

Importance of International Mother Language Day: It is the greatest weapon to express one’s feeling. Mother Language of one country is the sign of independence of that country.

About Bangla  Language Movement

• The day assumes special significance in Bangladesh where scores of people, mostly students and teachers of the Dhaka University, were mercilessly shot down by the Pakistani army in 1952 in erstwhile East Pakistan.
• This day is  commemorated  in  Bangladesh  since  1952  where  a  number  of Dhaka university  student activists  were  killed  by  the  Pakistani  police  and  army  during  the Bangla  Language Movement.
• The activists had protested against imposition of Urdu as the national language side-stepping Bengali – their mother tongue.
• But the incident calls for celebration too as the protest sowed the seeds of home-grown nationalism that ultimately led to the creation of Bangladesh from the ashes of the Liberation War in 1971.

Month: Current Affairs - February, 2015