19 May and 21 February

I have experience of the feud running in the Bipin Chndra Pal Memorial Trust of Chittaranjan Park, New Delhi on the modalities of observing 19 May, marked as the Bengali Language Martyrs’ Day. On this day in 1961 eleven spirited youth were killed by police. They were among a large number of agitators demanding Bangla as the another state language of Assam.

The background: The Trust has had been formed by the ‘Srihatta Sammilani’, an organization exclusively for the people of Sylhet district of Bengal (now a conglomeration of three sub divisions, known as Cachar district in the state of Assam ). Since the movement was by and for the people of Cachar (read Bengalis) of Assam, a section of the Trust believe the observation of 19 May should be the prerogative of the people from Cachar only. The other group, looked to be progressive, believe that since the movement was to establish the right of Bengali, the mother language of Bengalis, this should be observed by every Bengali.

The result : Trust’s finalized program for the 19 May observation this year had to be stopped at press and the ‘outsiders’ were dropped to be replaced by the Barak Valley speakers.

It shows one of the reasons why such a great valiant day of the Indian Bengalis could not find its ways to their hearts, and why 21 February was internationalized as a ‘Mother Language Day’.