Bangladeshis, home and abroad, celebrate Ekushey February to remember the Bangla Language Movement and to honor those who sacrificed their lives to preserve Bangla as their mother language on February 21st, 1952. Bangladeshis feel proud to think of Ekushey February as their own achievement – an immediate triumph in protecting the rights to read, write, speak, and listen in Bangla. Although the language was the issue, the Bangla language was not at the center of the movement. Ekushey was fundamentally a political action towards self-determination then, and today, it is purely a cultural event for Bangladeshi people.

Bangladeshis have integrated and shaped Ekushey as an important part of their cultural identity. This trend is robust among Bangladeshis abroad or Non-Resident Bangladeshis. Today, the event is observed as a festival with music, dance, drama, poetry, parade, play, concert, motif, drawing, painting, speech, discussion, book fair, and laying of wreaths of flowers Shaheed Minar (martyrs’ monument). People buy books, talk about the importance of the Bangla language, and try to teach Bangla to their children. There is also a solid initiative to build Shaheed Minars wherever Bangladeshis live in large numbers. Bangladeshis got their Shaheed Minars in London, Tokyo, and Sydney. The drive is ongoing in New York, New Jersey, and other cities.

When answering questions about the relationship of Ekushey February with Bangla language, Bangladeshis love to mention that Bangla language is (perhaps) the only language in the world to be known for people sacrificing their lives for the right to speak in mother language; Bangla is the 7^th most spoken language in the World in terms of numbers; UNESCO recognized 21st February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of the language movement; Rabindranath Tagore won Nobel Prize in Bangla language; etc. Although Bangla is a vibrant language in its history, literature, and expression, it has not successfully exhibited its influence as a language. Establishing itself as a top-end practical language in Bangladesh has even been difficult! People are caught between the dilemmas of loving the Bangla language and being unable to use it further. Unlike the Chinese language in China, Korean in Korea, or Turkish in Turkey, the Bangla language has been struggling to establish itself in Bangladesh.

Language-wise, Bangla has many challenges. Here are a few:

Higher Education

Higher education in the Bangla language is impossible for medical, engineering, computer, and agriculture-related degrees. Doing a Master’s degree in any field without English will leave any student with a superficial knowledge and limited understanding of his/her study subject. Since 1956, Bangla Academy – Bangladesh’s national language authority – has published 5,220 Bangla books and periodicals (including reprints and editions) in 76 subjects. Some of these books are of textbook quality, but user statistics at the higher education level are difficult to find. Indeed, the debate between “Bangla is not capable of being the vehicle of higher education” and “there is not enough effort to make Bangla the vehicle for higher education” is eternal.

Website

Besides emotional, there is no political, administrative, educational, or intellectual motivation to make Bangla more useful or widespread – not even merely giving some static information. For example, according to the Bangladesh University Grant Commission, Bangladesh has 132 universities (37 public, 92 private, and 3 international). All except two universities have some Bangla versions or translations of their websites. Some public universities post notices in Bangla, and private universities do not post anything in Bangla language. More than 90% of these university students are Bangladeshi.

Another example is the Bangladeshi embassy and consulate websites – all in English (only one has a Bangla version). What does it say about the status of Bangla in Bangladeshi society when simple static online information is posted only in English? How hard is it to make those websites Bangla-friendly for Bangla readers?

Typing Tool

Bangla has no unified standard keyboard yet. There are different layouts for the Bijoy keyboard, Munir keyboard, Jatiaya keyboard, Rupali keyboard, Prophat keyboard, etc. And then there is the Avro phonetic keyboard. If you can type on one keyboard, you may have difficulty on another. Consistency is critical for a language to go to a destination. How hard is adopting a universal input method for the Bangla keyboard?

Bangla Spelling

Bangla language has yet to get solid ground for spelling protocol. The word ‘House’ has no other spelling in English except house, but it can be both spelled as ‘বাড়ি’ (bari) and ‘বাড়ী’ (baree) in Bangla. There are many spelling variations in Bangla, such as বাংলা – বাঙলা (Bangla), অংক – অঙ্ক (Math), এশিয় – এশীয় (Asian), কর্মচারি – কর্মচারী (Employee), কেরাণী – কেরানি (Clerk), জিনিষ – জিনিস (Thing), জানুয়ারী – জানুয়ারি (January), দুতাবাস – দূতাবাস (Embassy), নীচে – নিচে (Down), ফেব্রুয়ারী – ফেব্রুয়ারি (February), বুদ্ধিজীবি – বুদ্ধজীবী (Intellectual), বেশী – বেশি (Much), মিমাংসা – মীমাংসা (Solve), সাক্ষাতকার – সাক্ষাৎকার (Interview), শ্রদ্ধাঞ্জলী – শ্রদ্ধাঞ্জলি (Tribute), সম্বর্ধনা – সংবর্ধনা (Congratulation) and so on. Some spelling mistakes are made due to Bangla spelling rules’ complexity, but simplification is still hotly debated among the language experts.

Although Romanizing the Bangla alphabet is difficult, Roman phonetic alphabets transform Latin scripts into Bangla scripts to write Bangla online and on mobile devices today. Because of spelling anomaly, the Roman phonetic spelling of Bangla is also widely variable, such as for 21: Ekushe/Ekushey/Akuse/Akushey; for martyr: Shohid/Shaheed/Shahid; for alphabet: Barnamala/Bornomala; for the association: Somiti/Shomity/Shomitee/Shamity; for brother: Bhai/Vai/Bai and so on.

Learn Bangla 101

A quick search for Bangla books on amazon.com will tell you that there are few good books to learn about Bangla. Some writers have compiled language manuals to teach their children or spouses Bangla. Some books teach the Sylheti Bangla dialect as it is in demand more than standard Bangla in the UK. Many non-Bangladeshi authors like Mary Schmidt, William Radice, Davidovic Mladen, N. S. R. Ganathe, Droid Cook, Alex Castle, Richard Carlson Jr., Kevin Carlson, Arthur Tafero, Jean-Claude Corbeil, Ariane Archambault, James Sykes, Aruna Kumari have written Bangla phrasebook. The scarcity of good basic Bangla books is felt by people interested in learning the language.

Usefulness of Bangla

Regarding the number of native speakers, Bangla is the 7th in the world. Still, according to the Power Language Index, which weighs the influence and usefulness of a language in five factors: Geography (ability to travel), Economy (ability to participate in an economy), Communication (ability to engage in dialogue), Knowledge and media (ability to consume knowledge and media), and Diplomacy (ability to engage in international relations), language-wise Bangla ranks 39th, and country-wise Bangladesh ranks 115th (Full report in PDF). The usefulness of Bangla is still confined to the Bangla-speaking population broadly to communicate with each other.

Language Network

Bangla has feeble global language network connections based on bilingual book translations, Tweeters, and multilingual Wikipedia edits. A study by MIT shows what is already widely known: if you want to get your ideas out, you can reach many people through the English language. However, the study also shows how speakers of disparate languages benefit from being indirectly linked through hub languages, large and small. Rabindranath Tagore was the first non-European author to win the Nobel Prize for literature, mainly for his English Gitanjali. On the other hand, Humayun Ahmed, a famous writer from Bangladesh, wished someone someday would translate his books into different languages. A handful of his almost 200 books are known in other languages.

Ekushey as a cultural festival

Many private and public initiatives have been taken to make Bangla a more effective, powerful, practical, and respectful language nationally and internationally. These efforts have shown little progress because of Bangladesh’s low literacy rate, cultural determinism, colonial influence, religious bend, etc. Despite all the challenges and limitations, the Bangla language remains popular among the Bangladeshi people because of its defining historical role in Bangladesh’s independence. The Bangla language is an essential and integral part of Bangladesh’s secular identity. Bangladeshis, home and abroad, enjoy Ekushey February, which is more of a cultural festival than their linguistic pride. Today, Ekushey highlights the history of Bangla literary tradition, cultural antiquity and heritage of all Bengali people, freedom from external unjust treatment, Bangladesh’s struggle towards independence, and finally achieving their own country. It celebrates all things culturally Bengali and Bangladeshi – art, book, belief, custom, dance, drama, fashion, festival, folklore, food, gender, kinship, law, marriage, morals, music, novel, poetry, religion, ritual, etc. Ekushey is when Bangladeshi readers buy books, publishers publish books, writers talk to readers, children participate in language competitions, the youth feel the pulse of their parents, and so on. People proudly become more aware of their Bangla heritage, tradition, and history – it’s a feel-good time for bonding emotionally with Bangla.

There is nothing wrong with seeing a language of many millions not so strong, incapable of being one of the best globally, and not so valuable for its users as long the users are happy with the current status. To be one of the most influential languages, a language needs to be backed by effective reform, economic development, scientific and technological activities, online interest, and a future vision. Ekuskey has not yet transformed Bangla into such a language. But at least Ekuskey has given Bangladeshis a festival of their very own to enjoy.