Recalling the days of Language Movement

Saifuddin Khan, central presidium member and Chittagong district president of Gonotantri Party, is a committed and respected politician. During his long 54-year political career he always engaged himself in all the democratic movements from 1952 to 1971.

And even though he is now 75, he still has no problem responding spontaneously to similar causes.

Born in October 9, 1930 in Chittagong, Saifuddin Khan had closely observed many tumultuous periods of the subcontinent's history, both as a student and as a political activist. The events before and after the 21st February in 1952 still live fresh in his mind, and he speaks with extra enthusiasm about them.

"I was a Class X student at Patiya Rahat Ali High School in 1948 when the question of national language was widely discussed in both parts of Pakistan," he started the journey back to the history.

"I then moved to the Chittagong city the same year after appearing in the matriculation examination, and was later admitted to Government Commerce College. Soon I noticed that most of my college friends were involved with Tamuddun Majlish. I was then still away from political activities. But the question that struck me most is how an organisation like Tamuddun Majlish was able to give birth to a fruitful movement."

Saifuddin went on: "Language veteran Mahbub-Ul-Alam Chowdhury had been publishing a monthly literary newspaper titled 'Seemanta'. Its office was an all-important place for us, where we gathered and met regularly. Personalities like Professor Mafizul Islam, Sucharit Chowdhury, Paritosh Bhattacharia, Binoy Das Gupta, Ruhul Amin Nizami, ATM Shamsuddin and some railway officials visited the office frequently to inspire us towards the language movement. Processions and rallies were the main programmes in support of our demand."

"Our movement gathered its momentum when Mohammad Ali Jinnah announced that 'Urdu shall be the only state language of Pakistan', and people from all strata in Chittagong joined us. Each day we came out on the streets and chanted slogans against the announcement. Processions and rallies were then a regular phenomenon. We had never considered the size of the procession. Most of the time at least 50 people took part and sometimes we bothered to bring out a small procession with 5 to 10 people only."

An interesting thing was that the police never tried to refrain us from those activities. Some of them even supported our cause by saying, "It is also a heartfelt demand of ours, so carry on but please don't break the discipline." This also gave us tremendous inspiration at the time, said Saifuddin, who was then an activist of the underground Communist Party.

"In the first week of February 1952, the Rashtra Bhasha Sangram Parishad (RBSP) was formed with Mahbub-Ul Alam as its convenor. Activities of the Parishad were conducted from the Awami League office in the city's Anderkilla area. Another professional body led by Kalim Sharafi was also active."

On the night of February 21, 1952 we heard that police opened fired on a procession in Dhaka and many people, including Salam, Jabbar, Barkat, Rafique and Shafique, were killed on the spot. The incident sparked off a wild and widespread agitation in Chittagong and hundreds of people took to the streets the following day, Saifuddin remembered.

He said Mahbub-Ul-Alam suddenly fell ill from chickenpox on the night of February 21. But the Dhaka killing could not confine him. He wrote the historic poem of Amar Ekushey, 'Kandte Asini, Fanshir Dabi Niye Esechhi'. Another veteran, Kamaluddin Ahmed Khan of Muslim League, made immediate arrangements to publish the poem. And few hundred copies of the poem were printed from Kohinur Electric Press in Anderkilla.

"At the same time, we constructed a Shaheed Minar at the present location on February 23 and also enforced a strike in Chittagong on February 24 as well as a rally at the historical Laldighi ground in the afternoon. Hundreds of people, including ANM Nurun Nabi, Binod Das Gupta, Chowdhury Harunur Rashid, Professor Mafizul Islam, ATM Shamsuddin, Abdul Wadud Khandakar, Abdul Moktader Chowdhury, Abdul Gafur, Mir Jalal Ahmed, Fazlullah Khan, Dr Kamal A Khan and Professor Kabir Chowdhury, gathered at the Laldighi ground," said Saifuddin.

He said, "Chowdhury Harun on behalf of poet Mahbub-Ul-Alam recited the historic poem for the first time in public. And the poem generated an immense encouragement among everyone who attended the rally. It also angered the Pakistani administration, prompting them to conduct an abrupt raid at the Kohinur Electric Press. They seized all copies of the poem and banned it."

"But the regime, despite all its ill-efforts, had to give in finally, recognising Bangla as state language and thus we won the long battle to uphold the dignity of our mother tongue," Saifuddin concluded the journey.