South Asian Studies, Vol 25, No 1 (2010)

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Language Controversy: Impacts on National Politics and Secession of East Pakistan

Mussarat Jabeen, Dr. Amir Ali Chandio, Zarina Qasim

Abstract


Politics like other fields is mute without language. Though graphics, pictures and movies play important role yet they are ineffective, if not mixed with words. It was Hearst, an American journalist, who sent a cartoonist to Cuba to furnish the picture of Cuban war but he himself used words to ‘furnish the war.’ The international politics is also worthless without appropriate choice of language. In politics, use of proper words is inevitable for achieving political objectives and avoiding controversies but sometime language itself becomes a political issue. Pakistan faced this problem in early years of its independence when language controversy exercised far-reaching effects on subsequent history of the country as a whole. Imposition of Urdu as state language was thought unjust by Bengalispeaking Eastern wing and they demanded that Bengali should be given equal status to that of Urdu. There was a sense of being ignored and exploited by West Pakistan and it was thought a rightful demand on part of East Pakistan to have its own language. Bengali written in Devanagari was not approved by the central leadership and this attitude was resented by the Bengalis who asserted that Bengali was as much language of Muslim as that of Urdu. This sense of exploitation resulted in division of country into Bangladesh and Pakistan. Language was the major factor that contributed and intensified the feeling of mistrust between the two wings. The paper is an effort to shed light on how language issue contributed in determining the fate of a nation with special reference to the creation of Bangladesh. 

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