The most celebrated day in Bangladesh had its own celebrations in Dublin on 21 February, as a large gathering at the Garden of Remembrance began a colourful rally down O’Connell Street to the GPO, festooned with banners and a replica of the Bangladeshi capital’s Martyr Monument to commemorate those who died fighting for the Bengali language.
The day now recognised worldwide as International Mother Language Day (IMLD) began more than 60 years ago when the Bengali Language Movement protest ended in bloodshed at the hands of Pakistani police. IMLD was first proclaimed by Unesco in 1999 and recognised by United Nations in 2008.
Commemorations in Dublin were organised by the All Bangladeshi Association of Ireland (ABAI) to highlight awareness of nations who are losing or have lost their own language.
ABAI president Dr Jinnuraine Jaigirdar said: “We are really proud to be here today because [it is the day] when the people gave their lives for the cause of the Bengali language in East Pakistan [now Bangladesh].
Dr Jaigirdar added that the aim is to “increase awareness for each nation’s mother tongue, because you can see in history throughout the world, many nations have lost their own language.
“After the UN declared IMLD, it has given importance to everybody’s language, to practise the mother tongue, to keep it up and encourage intercultural diversity as well.”
Supporting the event was Ionad Buail Isteach na Gaeilga (the Irish Language Drop-In Centre), and Dr Jaigirdar sees similarities between the struggle for survival the Irish language and Bengali.
“The Gaelic language is getting importance, but you can see that English has taken over, most people speak English nowadays,” he said. “But today is a special day [to encourage] the Irish people to bring the language back.”
