Bengali Language Movement

The Bengali Language Movement (ভাষা আন্দোলন) was the campaign in East Pakistan for the recognition of Bangla as a state language of Pakistan. It began in 1948 and reached its climax in the killings in Dhaka on 21 February 1952, ending with the adoption of Bangla as a state language of Pakistan in 1956. The events of 21–22 February are commemorated annually and were recognised internationally in 1999. The number of people killed is not stated as a single figure by the sources used here.

The language question and the first phase, 1947–1950

The movement began in 1948 and reached its climax in the killing of 21 February 1952, and ended in the adoption of Bangla as one of the state languages of Pakistan ¹. The question of what would be the state language of Pakistan was raised immediately after its creation, with central leaders and the Urdu-speaking intellectuals of Pakistan declaring that Urdu would be the state language ¹. Students and intellectuals of East Pakistan demanded that Bangla be made one of the state languages; after controversy, the final demand from East Pakistan was that Bangla must be the official language and the medium of instruction in East Pakistan and, for the central government, one of the state languages along with Urdu ¹.

The first movement on the issue was mobilised by Tamaddun Majlish, headed by Professor Abul Kashem ¹. East Pakistani students held a meeting on the Dhaka University campus on 6 December 1947 demanding that Bangla be made one of the state languages of Pakistan; the first Rastrabhasa Sangram Parishad, or Language Action Committee, was formed towards the end of December with Professor Nurul Huq Bhuiyan of Tamaddun Majlish as convener ¹.

The Constituent Assembly of Pakistan was in session at Karachi from 23 February 1948, and it was proposed that members would have to speak either in Urdu or in English ¹. Dhirendranath Datta, a member from the East Pakistan Congress Party, moved an amendment motion to include Bangla as one of the languages of the Constituent Assembly, noting that out of the population of 6 crore 90 lakh of Pakistan, 4 crore 40 lakh were from East Pakistan with Bangla as their mother tongue; the motion was opposed by Liaquat Ali Khan, prime minister of Pakistan, and by Khwaja Nazimuddin, chief minister of East Bengal ¹.

A new committee was formed with Shamsul Huq as convener ¹. On 11 March 1948 a general strike was observed in the towns of East Pakistan in protest against the omission of Bangla from the languages of the Constituent Assembly, the absence of Bangla letters on Pakistani coins and stamps, and the use of only Urdu in recruitment tests for the navy ¹. Amid processions, picketing and slogans, leaders including Shawkat Ali, Kazi Golam Mahboob, Shamsul Huq, Oli Ahad, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and Abdul Wahed were arrested ¹. Strikes were observed from 12 to 15 March ¹. Under this pressure the government gave way: Khwaja Nazimuddin signed an agreement with the student leaders, agreeing to a few terms but not to the demand that Bangla be made a state language ¹.

Muhammed Ali Jinnah, governor general of Pakistan, visited East Pakistan on 19 March 1948 and addressed two meetings in Dhaka, in both of which he did not accept the demand for Bangla, reiterating that Urdu would be the only state language of Pakistan ¹. The Dhaka University Language Action Committee was formed on 11 March 1950 with Abdul Matin as its convener ¹.

1952

By the beginning of 1952 the movement took a serious turn. Jinnah had died on 11 September 1948 and Liaquat Ali Khan on 16 October 1951, and Khwaja Nazimuddin had succeeded Liaquat Ali Khan as prime minister ¹. A new party, the Awami Muslim League, which later became the Awami League, was formed under the leadership of Maulana Abdul Hamid Khan Bhasani in 1949 ¹.

On 27 January 1952 Nazimuddin came to Dhaka from Karachi; addressing a meeting at Paltan Maidan, he said that the people of the province could decide what would be the provincial language, but that only Urdu would be the state language of Pakistan ¹. A strike was observed at Dhaka University on 30 January, and on 31 January representatives of political and cultural organisations held a meeting chaired by Maulana Bhasani at which an All-Party Central Language Action Committee was formed with Kazi Golam Mahboob as convener ¹. At this time the government also proposed that Bangla be written in Arabic script, a proposal that was opposed ¹. The Language Action Committee decided to call a hartal and to organise demonstrations and processions on 21 February throughout East Pakistan ¹.

The government imposed Section 144 in Dhaka, banning assemblies and demonstrations ¹. A meeting of the Central Language Action Committee was held on 20 February under the chairmanship of Abul Hashim, and opinion was divided on whether to violate Section 144 ¹.

The killings of 21 and 22 February 1952

Students held a meeting at 11.00 a.m. on 21 February on the Dhaka University campus, then located close to the Medical College Hospital; the vice-chancellor and some teachers requested the students not to violate the ban on assembly, but the students, under their leaders Abdul Matin and Gaziul Haque, proceeded ¹. When the students emerged in groups, the police baton-charged; the students threw brickbats and the police retaliated with tear gas; the police then fired on the crowd proceeding towards the Assembly Hall ¹.

Three young men — Rafiq Uddin Ahmed, Abdul Jabbar and Abul Barkat, an MA student of Political Science — were fatally wounded ¹. Among the injured admitted to hospital, Abdus Salam, a peon at the Secretariat, subsequently died of his wounds, and a nine-year-old boy named Ohiullah was also killed ¹. In the Assembly, Nurul Amin, chief minister of East Pakistan, continued to oppose the demand for Bangla ¹.

On 22 February the public performed a janaza (জানাজা, prayer service for the dead) and brought out a mourning procession, which was attacked by the police and the army, resulting in several deaths including that of a young man named Shafiur Rahman ¹. On 23 February a memorial was erected at the spot where the students had been killed; in 1963 the temporary structure was replaced by a concrete memorial, the Shaheed Minar (শহীদ মিনার) ¹.

Outcome and commemoration

The East Bengal Legislative Assembly adopted a resolution recommending the recognition of Bangla as one of the state languages of Pakistan, and the movement achieved its goal when the Pakistan Constituent Assembly adopted both Bangla and Urdu as the state languages of Pakistan; while the Assembly was debating the issue, member Adel Uddin Ahmed of Faridpur made an amendment proposal that was adopted unanimously on 16 February 1956 ¹.

Since 1952, 21 February has been observed every year to commemorate the martyrs of the Language Movement ¹. With UNESCO adopting a resolution on 17 November 1999, 21 February was proclaimed International Mother Language Day ¹. The retrieved entry records that UNESCO introduced the day in recognition of the preservation of vernacular languages, that it began being observed from 21 February 2000 worldwide to commemorate the martyrs who were killed on that date in Dhaka in 1952, and that the proposal came from Bangladesh at the UNESCO General Conference in Paris on 17 November 1999 ³. Bangladesh established a national institute in Dhaka called Antarjatik Matribhasha Institute in 2001 ³.

The memorial

A memorial to the martyrs was built immediately after the killings, on 23 February 1952, on the initiative of the students of Dhaka Medical College, on a base recorded as 10½ feet high and 6 feet wide, at the spot where the shootings had taken place ². The memorial was formally inaugurated by Abul Kalam Shamsuddin, then editor of the daily Azad, on the morning of 26 February; police cordoned the Medical College hostel that afternoon and demolished the monument ². In 1953 students and youth observed 21 February as Shaheed Dibas (শহীদ দিবস), and a replica of the memorial in red paper was installed in the yard of the Medical College Hostel, from which students launched their prabhat pheri (mourning procession) on 21 February for the first time that year ².

The United Front government assumed power on 3 April 1954, and in the session of 9 May announced that according to its commitment in the 21-point programme the Shaheed Minar would be built, and that 21 February would be declared Shaheed Day and a public holiday; the government could not execute the decision as it was ousted from power on 30 May the same year ²⁴. The foundation stone was laid for the second time on 21 February 1956, and 21 February was formally declared Shaheed Day as well as a public holiday ². Construction on a design by Hamidur Rahman, assisted by Novera Ahmed, began in November 1957 and was stopped when martial law was promulgated in 1958; a committee formed in 1962 under the order of Azam Khan, then Governor of East Pakistan, suggested extensive changes, and the Shaheed Minar was inaugurated on 21 February 1963 by Hasina Begum, mother of Abul Barkat ². During the war of 1971 the minar was again demolished and a signboard with the word Mosque placed there; in 1972, in independent Bangladesh, initiatives were taken to construct it anew, and in 1983 the Shaheed Minar was expanded to its present dimensions ².

The Constitution of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh was adopted on 4 November 1972 and came into force on 16 December 1972, and has since undergone seventeen amendments and changes ⁵.

Related articles

Partition of 1947 and East Pakistan · Bangladesh Liberation War · History of Bangladesh

Disputed points

The positions below are reported as their holders state them. This reference does not take a position on the disagreement, and none of the positions is presented as the default.

The status of Bangla as a state language. The positions are recorded as positions. The central leadership’s position, as recorded by the retrieved entry, was that Urdu would be the only state language of Pakistan, maintained in the Constituent Assembly debate of February 1948 and restated by the governor general in Dhaka on 19 March 1948 and by the prime minister at Paltan Maidan on 27 January 1952 ¹. The position of the East Pakistani students and intellectuals was that Bangla must be the official language and the medium of instruction in East Pakistan and one of the state languages of Pakistan alongside Urdu, advanced from the Dhaka University meeting of 6 December 1947 and carried through the Rastrabhasa Sangram Parishad and the All-Party Central Language Action Committee ¹. This article records both and adopts neither. [disputed]

The number of people killed on 21–22 February 1952. The retrieved T1–T3 sources name individuals but do not state an aggregate total. Banglapedia’s entry names, for 21 February, Rafiq Uddin Ahmed, Abdul Jabbar and Abul Barkat as fatally wounded, Abdus Salam of the Secretariat as subsequently dying of his wounds, and Ohiullah, aged nine, as also killed, and records several deaths on 22 February including Shafiur Rahman ¹. No total is given by that entry, by the "Shaheed Minar" entry or by the "International Mother Language Day" entry, all of which describe the events without stating a figure ¹²³. This article therefore records no aggregate figure, because none of the sources used here publishes one. [disputed]

The commemoration. The retrieved entries record that the memorial was demolished by police on 26 February 1952, that it was rebuilt and again demolished, and that recognition of the day was sought and obtained through the provincial assembly, the Pakistan Constituent Assembly and UNESCO ¹²³. This article records those events and takes no position on their political significance. [disputed]

Sources

5 sources cited. Tiers: T1 official or primary, T2 scholarly or curated, T3 media of record.

1. Language Movement — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Language_Movement
2. Shaheed Minar — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Shaheed_Minar
3. International Mother Language Day — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/International_Mother_Language_Day
4. United Front — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/United_Front
5. Constitution — Banglapedia, Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (via Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (T2, accessed 2026-09-19). https://web.archive.org/web/2023id_/https://en.banglapedia.org/index.php/Constitution

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Every factual claim above is attributed to a numbered source. Figures marked “as of” were retrieved on that date. Not affiliated with the Wikimedia Foundation.