Assistant Professor, Department of English, Raja Peary Mohan College, University of Calcutta, Kolkata,India.
Respected Madam/Sir,
On the Occasion of International Mother Language Day, UoH Bengali Samsad recalls the sacrifices of the martyrs of Ekushey. On 21st February, 1952, Dhaka, four students - Abdus Salam, Rafiq, Barkat and Abdul Jabbar were gunned down by state security personnels for the 'crime' of agitating for recognition of their mother language. This incident triggered off a mass movement for collective self-recognition of the Bengali people and their language.
Bhasha is an annual event of UoH Bangali Samsad. Bengali language has its unique place in our culture for being the rallying call against historically rooted structures of oppression. United Nations has acknowledged this and declared 21st February as International Mother Language Day. In our remembrance we uphold people's history of struggles, rooted in our own cultural legacy but aware of the broader vibrations that 'ekushey' signify. Apart from various cultural performances in Bengali, we invite other language and social groups in the campus to join us and participate in this celebration.
In that regard, if people with native language other than Bengali also want to participate and perform in BHASHA 2017 in their cultural medium, we would consider this attempt of ours to talk across cultures in solidarity to be worthwhile.
We cordially invite you to join us in BHASHA 2017.
Yours Sincerely,
UoH Bangali Samsad
Date of the Programme: 26th February, 2017
Venue: DST Auditorium; Time: 6 pm onwards