INTERNATIONAL MOTHER LANGUAGE DAY 21 FEBRUARY AND BANGLADESH

International Mother Language Day

21 February was proclaimed the International Mother Language Day by UNESCO on 17 November 1999. The 21st of February is of special significance to the people of Bangladesh. At the request of the people of Bangladesh and after investigating the matter, UNESCO declared the 21st of February each year to be International Mother Language Day on a world-wide scale among United Nations member countries.

Each year the 21st of February is commemorated as Language Martyrs Day in Bangladesh and other parts of the world that have sizeable groups of Bangla-speaking people.

In 1999 the proposal was made to UNESCO to create International Mother Language Day in the belief that a culture of peace can only really flourish where each individual enjoys the right to communicate freely in their mother language in all aspects of their lives. UNESCO supports this conviction, as well as the belief that there should be cultural and linguistic diversity in education and the preservation of languages in danger of dying out. So at the 30th session of the General Conference of UNESCO in 1999 the decision was taken to launch International Mother Language Day throughout the world. Its observance was also formally recognized by the United Nations General Assembly in its resolution establishing 2008 as the International Year of Languages.

Bengali Language Movement

The Bengali Language Movement, also known as the Language Movement (Bhasha Andolon), was a political effort in Bangladesh (then known as East Pakistan), advocating the recognition of the Bengali language as an official language of Pakistan. Such recognition would allow Bengali to be taught in schools and used in government affairs. When the state of Pakistan was formed in 1947, its two regions, East Pakistan (also called East Bengal) and West Pakistan, were split along cultural, geographical, and linguistic lines. In 1948, the Government of Pakistan ordained Urdu as the sole national language, sparking extensive protests among the Bengali-speaking majority of East Pakistan. Facing rising sectarian tensions and mass discontent with the new law, the government outlawed public meetings and rallies. The students of the University of Dhaka and other political activists defied the law and organised a protest on 21 February 1952. The movement reached its climax when police killed student demonstrators on that day. The deaths provoked widespread civil unrest led by the Awami Muslim League, later renamed the Awami League. After years of conflict, the central government relented and granted official status to the Bengali language in 1956.

In 2000, UNESCO declared 21 February International Mother Language Day for the whole world to celebrate, in tribute to the Language Movement and the ethno-linguistic rights of people around the world.

The Language Movement catalysed the assertion of Bengali national identity in Pakistan, and became a forerunner to Bengali nationalist movements, including the 6-point movement and subsequently the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. In Bangladesh, 21 February is observed as Language Movement Day, a national holiday. The Shaheed Minar monument was constructed near Dhaka Medical College in memory of the movement and its victims.

AUCTION OF GANDHI'S BELONGINGS -- AN IGNOMINY

Gandhi belongings for sale

Published Date: 13 February 2009
MAHATMA Gandhi's distinctive wire-framed spectacles, a pair of worn leather sandals and an inexpensive pocket watch are to go for auction in New York City.
Announcing the sale yesterday, Antiquorum Auctioneers said the auction of Gandhi's belongings was historic because the leader of India's independence movement, who died in 1948, had few possessions.All the items, including a simple brass bowl and plate, will be sold as a single lot during the sale on 4-5 March, with a reserve price of $20,000 to $30,000 (£14,000 to £21,000).The auction house said that in the past few days it had received inquiries from prospective buyers around the globe. The items belonged to a private American collector who obtained them from the Gandhi family's heirs.

The full article contains 133 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.

NEWS. Scotsman.com


Gandhi heirs condemn auction of his belongings

Published Date:16 February 2009

>>The family of Mahatma Gandhi has denounced a planned auction of his belongings as immoral and called for them to be returned to India as national treasures.
Gandhi's sandals, pocket watch and spectacles, which the father of the Indian independence movement said gave him "the vision to free India," will be sold to the highest bidder at a New York auction house next month, but last night his great-grandson joined Indian MPs in demanding their return.
Tushar Gandhi, Gandhi's 49-year-old great grandson who runs the Mahatma Gandhi Foundation in Mumbai, said he has already had offers from people around the world to donate one month's salary – including one from a poor rickshaw driver in Mumbai who had offered to sell his vehicle to raise money for the cause.
He has questioned the manner in which Peter Ruhe, a German memorabilia collector and chairman of the GandhiServe Foundation in Berlin, had obtained the items.
The watch, he claimed, was a gift from Gandhi to his grand niece-in-law who served as his personal assistant and in whose arms he died after being shot in 1948. He said that Mr Ruhe persuaded her to sign an agreement with him and now that she has died he is selling them off. He has gone around the world collecting up Gandhi's personal possessions and running it like a business.
"It is all very sad," he said.
"It is immoral and must be stopped," said Mr Gandhi. "It would be a grave insult to the nation if these items were just sold off. While my great-grandfather attached little importance to his possessions and lived a simple life, they are hugely sentimental items for the people.
"They are priceless to India. the father of the Indian independence movement. I would absolutely hate it if they ended up enriching the life of some wealthy businessman in America or Britain.
"They belong here."
The reserve price for the lot is £30,000, but experts expect bids of several times that amount.
The brochure for the New York auction house Antiquorum states that Gandhi gave the pocket watch to his grandniece Abha Gandhi. She later left it her own will to her daughter Ghita Mehta who has provided a letter of authenticity for the sale.
Nilay Band, an associate of Peter Ruhe and a member of his research organisation GandhiServe which promotes Gandhian philosophy, denied that Mr Ruhe had behaved in an underhand manner.
"I have no doubt that Mr Ruhe is genuine and has acquired his large collection on Gandhi memorabilia legitimately. He's a good man and very genuine," he said.
According to Tushar Gandhi, Mr Ruhe had travelled through Gujarat in the 1990s gathering Gandhi memorabilia and had met Gandhi's grandniece and acquired the rights to Gandhi's pocket watch from her. "Collecting up these items has been a systematic lucrative operation going on from Germany," he said.<<

Telegraph.co.uk

GLIMPSES OF BANGLA HISTORY

The First Bengali Book “the Charyapada“, exposes cover up behind anti-
Buddhist riots in the Sen Dynasty. Bengali speaking communities at home and abroad
respected the Centenary (1907 – 2007) Discovery Anniversary of First Bengali Literature
“The Charyapada (An Anthology of Buddhist Tantric Songs}”is the source of Assamese,
Marathi, Bangla, Punjabi, Hindi and Orissa languages and it was discovered by great
scholar Haraprasad Shastri from the Royal library of Nepal. It was sad time in the
Karnataka’s Hindu Sen dynasty and Brahmin rulers who destroyed Buddhist Pala dynasty
and the stronghold of Buddhist community. How did Brahmanism absorb Buddhism in
India? (Pandit J. Nehru’s book entitled Discovery of India indicates a professor of the
Paris University asked to Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru in 1941 in Paris, France).
The conspiracy of Halayud Mishra and Hari Sen with the Baktiar Khilj’s Army
and the carnage that followed in Bangladesh and other parts of India where infuriated
mobs went about killing, burning and looting of the Buddhist community. Naturally “The
Charyapada”, the ancient Buddhist literature is not what the people might call a general
Bengali book. Based on those horrible events the Buddhist poets and scholars decided to
plunge into a subject that cried out to be brought to light. Bangladesh Buddhist
community did not believe in the Vedic caste system. So in those days and nights that
followed, thousands of Buddhists monks and people were massacred as “retribution” of
caste system in a carnage organized by king Ballal Sen’s prime minister cum –
commander in chief Halayud Mishra, Hari Sen and Bakhtiar Khilji mafia as the great
writer Mr. Shaokat Ali explained in his Bengali books entitled, “Duskaler -Dibanishi”
and “Prodoshe Prakritjan.” There were survivors languished for months and later
millions of Buddhists were converted into Islam and received political support from the
Bakhtiar Khilji’s new kingdom Bangladesh. Bengali people are now reawakening to the
worst tragedy of the Buddhist Holocaust which was conspired by Brahmin mafia. Even
now questions are being raised and solutions are being sought. The history of Charyapada
was means to provoke, enrage, empower enlighten and most importantly open grounds
for discussion.
Even the millennium years later, holocaust victims Buddhist community are still
waiting for justice who destroyed Buddhist temples, monks and communities in the name
so called religions. The logic is “why bring up a history that is best buried and forgotten?
Why unearth the horrors of yesterday?” We don’t want to embarrass our Hindu, Brahmin
and Muslim neighbors and friends. But we have to share the pain of the events of the
historical holocaust. Buddhists have left deep wounds on both of our neighbors.
Charyapada’s poetry no 33 explained of regrets over Hindu fundamentalism.
Today the Rastriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) and Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP)
members took over the Buddha Gaya Mahabodhi Temple in the name of its management
committee. While basking in the glory of being “the world’s second fastest growing
economy, we should also ponder on why Indians are at the same time among the most
back- ward looking and feudal minded societies in the world. In India the peace loving
people and the Dalits convert to Buddhism for peace and social justice every day. How
will Buddhism survive in Bangladesh?
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In South Asia there are many people could not study Buddhism who are not
Buddhists. So the Indian Skeptic, a newsletter exposing many of the irrational goings on
relating to continuing superstition reigns. Sadly, few listen, because a bewildering variety
of Fakirs, Pir, Babas, swamis, priests and the like continue to exert a strangle hold over
the minds of the people. The tragedy of Hindu caste system and Islamic fundamentalists
do not allow Buddhism to preach in public places, temples and schools.
Dr. Syed Ali Ahsan said, “Carya means that which should be followed or
practiced and ‘Acarya’ which should not be. In fact these songs give instructions
regarding mystic practices.” UNESCO proclaimed that 21st February is the International
Mother Language Day in 1999 to honor the many languages in the world. The resolution
was sponsored by Bangladesh and adopted unanimously by the Member States of
UNESCO. To commemorate the historical occasion of Bangladesh every year UNESCO
proudly declared, “We pay tribute to the people of Bangladesh, whose passion for their
own language has inspired the designation of 21st February as the “International
Mother Language Day.”
Its history recorded that in 1948 being the father of the nation late Muhammad Ali
Jinnah declared in Dhaka (then it was East Pakistan), that Pakistan’s national language
will be Urdu. History speaks on this day of 21st February in 1952, when a number of
valiant sons of Bangladesh including Rafiq, Salam, Barkat, Jabbar and Shafiq sacrificed
their lives in Pakistani police firing to establish the state language of the erstwhile East
Pakistan which is today’s Bangladesh. After the series of movements, the Pakistan
government bowed down to the demand of the Bengali people and endorsed the Bengali
as one of the state languages. Time and tide wait for none and may all beings be happy.
International Mother Language Day and Nalanda University are gifts of Bengali
Minds to the world. Ancient Bengali book – the Charyapada was written around 8th –
12th century A. D. Hindu fundamentalists and Sen dynasty of Karnatak took over the
political power from Buddhist Pala kings of Bangladesh who established famous Nalanda
University in Bihar. At first Hindu fundamentalists confiscated native Buddhists and
neighbors mother language, books and survival. Hindu rulers and native Buddhists were
fighting continue. In the historical crossroads, during the 12th century Bakhtiar Khilji
attacked Bihar and Bengal and his Muslim Turks’ blazing fires reduced nine million
books of the ancient Nalanda Universtiy into ashes. Today in Bangladesh Muslims
fundamentalists dispossessed the Buddhists and indigenous people including Chakmas &
Marama of Chittagong Hilltracts as well as elsewhere of their ancestral land dwelling
houses by sending Muslim settlers accompanied by Bangladesh armed forces. Present Dr.
Fakhruddin Government does not take any of its political minister or advisor from the
Buddhist community of Bangladesh. Justice denied and persecution directly conducted
by the Jamat and Al-Quida Islamic fundamentalists. Bangladesh indigenous people
demanded their constitutional rights protect their democratic human development and
justice “without fear or favor.”
Bengali language is the source of power of people of Bangladesh as the Bengali
great scholar Atish Dipankar was the vice-chancellor of the Nalanda University who
established peace and educational systems in Tibet. There is a Tibetan translation of
Charyapada in Tibet. Pakistan government wanted to destroy the Bengali language in
1948 in East Pakistan which is today’s Bangladesh. Taliban and Al-Quida have destroyed
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Afghanistan’s Bamian Buddha statues in 2001. Many great Muslim minded people told
that Taliban is disgrace to Islam and human civilization.
As the Indian Mass media reported that recently China and Japan governments
propose the Indian government to invest millions of dollars to develop the great Nalanda
University. We have to request the Bangladesh government to participate in the
development of our ancient Bengali king Dharmapal’s Nalanda University where many
world scholars came to study including famous Chinese Buddhist monk Huen Tsang in
the 8th century. Unfortunately, Ramayana’s Ayudhya chapter, verse no 32 it is well
documented and recorded, “Buddha is like a thief, know the Buddha as an atheist.” Thus
the Hindu fundamentalists eradicated of Buddhist culture from India and even now
Buddhagaya Mahabodhi temple is controlled by Hindu system of the Management
Committee. Any Religious fundamentalists are the enemies of world peace.

Mr. Sona Kanti Barua
The writer is the President of Bangladesh Buddhist Council, Toronto.
barua_s@hotmail.com

CAMPAIGN FOR THE RETURN OF THE KOHINOOR (DIAMOND)

The Kohinoor diamond, appropriated during the British Raj was rumoured to be soon gifted to the queen-in-waiting, Camilla Parker Bowles.
The Kohinoor was usurped by the British during their colonial rule over India. It is not any personal property that could be passed on to the queen's daughter-in-law.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A730801
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Koh-i-Noor