Paying homage to language heroes in Bangladesh

Volunteers decorating a display with flower petals at the Bangladesh Central Language Martyrs' Memorial monument in Dhaka, in homage to the martyrs of the 1952 Bengali language movement on International Mother Language Day yesterday. The day is observed every year to promote linguistic and cultural diversity. In Bangladesh, the language movement is significant to the nation's history. It was aimed at establishing the right to speak in one's mother tongue and to protect self-identity, culture and heritage, reported The Daily Star. On Feb 21, 1952, students and common people took to the streets to protest against the then Pakistan government's denial of Bengali as a state language and establishing Urdu as the official language.