HYDERABAD: February 21, celebrated as International Mother Language Day, has a painful history associated with it.
Way back in 1952, it was in Bangladesh that the native Bengalis refused to accept Urdu as the national language after the rulers in Pakistan declared so.
The speakers of Bangla made for 55 per cent of the population and stood up against the decision.
On February 21, 1952 the people gathered for a peaceful protest march on which police opened fire killing several.
Years later, in 1999 Bangladeshis residing in Canada proposed to UNESCO that the date be commemorated across the world as International Mother Language Day.
Since then even in India this day is celebrated. In the country, there are 22 officially recognised languages and 720 dialects.
With multiple languages, there are multiple identities, and of course, multiple mother tongues. On taking a microcosmic look with the city having a cosmopolitan flavour, people associated with the craftsmanship of language are divided in their opinion of mother tongue.
It doesn’t come as a surprise when the purists trolled Dr KV Ramanachary, advisor to Telangana Government for printing the invite to Mother Language Day celebration in English and not in Telugu.
Talking about the language one grows up with Syed Tamjeed Hyder, poet and public relation officer, Consulate General of Republic of Iran switches easily from Persian to Urdu and then English saying,
“When humans learn to speak it’s through their mother tongue. To learn new languages one needs the base which is none other than the mother tongue. It can’t be divorced from learning. I consider it the first door to enter and experience the world. At the same time official languages can’t be ignored.”
For several people, language is the prime identity and they take pride in being associated with their mother tongue.
Sabah Qamri who is pursuing linguistics and is completing her doctorate from the English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU) in Assamese dialect says, “I take pride in calling myself an Assamese and I hold on to that identity through language. But it’s unfortunate that’s it’s not just in my state, in several other states people don’t read and write in their mother tongue anymore.”
She suggests that there should be a language planning commission in the country and in each state to regulate the linguistic changes.
On the other hand firebrand Telugu author Volga says, “Mother tongue is important because we think in it. Our songs and our thoughts are documented in it. But we have multiple identities that we carry and we shouldn’t become linguistic chauvinists.”
At the same time noted author-poet Stephanos Stephanides, who visited Hyderabad for a guest lecture said,
“I was born in Cyprus, but went to the UK as a child. I have travelled widely and speak multiple languages. For a traveller it’s difficult to determine which is his/her mother tongue. You think and observe in several languages at a time then.”