The people that gave their lives for a language, and tech saving near-extinct languages
International Mother Language Day, recognized by the United Nations on February 21st, holds a special significance for Bengalis worldwide. Unlike many other observances, this day resonates deeply with us at Lettre, as Bengalis or people of the Bengali diaspora.
The history behind 21st February is as tragic as it is inspiring. The Partition of British India in 1947 led to the creation of India and Pakistan (split into East and West), based on religious majorities—many facts that were not considered in these dividing lines, drawn by a man named Cyril Radcliffe who had never travelled farther East than Paris when he was tasked with carving up a nation thousands of miles away. With no prior experience of the Indian subcontinent, Radcliffe failed to consider the linguistic unity that had bound communities for centuries, particularly the Bengali-speaking population.
Bengalis have historically been united by language and culture rather than religion, with a rich tradition that spans food, social customs, attire, and a vibrant entrepreneurial spirit. This linguistic and cultural unity produced some of the world's most illustrious poets, playwrights, and artists, such as Rabindranath Tagore, Kazi Nazrul Islam, Lalon Shah, and Satyajit Ray, whose contributions have left an indelible mark on global culture.
When the British finally quit India after almost 200 years of extractive colonialist rule, the Bengali people were lumped in with West Pakistan, hundreds of miles away with the whole of India in between, with no cultural ties, similarities or unifiers beyond the shared majority religion of Islam.
The first few sparks between East and West Pakistan began right away following Partition in 1947, and with the basics of administration and nation building. The administrative center of the new nation was in West Pakistan, and in order to smoothen out the bureaucratic processes that come with governance, the West Pakistani leadership essentially imposed a state language on East Pakistan and said the only state language would be Urdu, which was spoken by less than one percent of the people of East Pakistan. Students and activists of East Pakistan were stirred up in righteous rebellion, and demonstrations erupted across universities and public offices to ensure the Bangla language got equal footing next to Urdu as an official language. It all boiled over on 21st February, 1952, when a demonstration at Dacca University (as it was called) erupted in violence as the police opened fire on student activists, using tear gas and live ammunition to put down the dissenters. 29 people lost their lives as per the official West Pakistani count, and the incident went down in history as the first and only time a people gave their lives for the right to speak a language.
The Bengali Language Movement eventually succeeded in having Bangla recognized as a second state language, setting the stage for Bangladesh's struggle for independence and its eventual liberation in 1971. However, the creation of Bangladesh also highlighted the challenges of accommodating a diverse population with hundreds of indigenous peoples, each with their unique languages and cultural traditions.
Before my involvement in product marketing and the tech industry, I was a journalist. In 2018, my colleagues and I did an infographic for The Daily Star’s Star Weekend publication where we mapped the many languages spoken by indigenous peoples and displaced communities inside the borders of Bangladesh. What we found was hundreds of languages strewn across Bangladesh, some spoken by 50,000 people, some spoken by 2000 households, some spoken by as little as 12 individuals. Some have scripts and fully fleshed out numerics, others used to have a script that have since been lost to the ravages of time and lack of practice. Some of these languages and scripts have mutated and grown into dialects—no more than a variation of the mainstream languages and hybridized with the indigenous languages of an area.
As a handwritten messaging app, we at Lettre feel a deep connection to being able to express yourself in your own language and write in your own script, no matter how many people speak it. This got us thinking about how technology could potentially help propagate these languages, archive and preserve the scripts, and maybe even be used to teach newer generations the dialects, spoken languages and written scripts in the future.
A significant push needs to happen towards devices and hardware affordability, in order to ensure marginalized communities in remote areas of the world can use these augmenting technologies to record and pass on these languages and scripts. With increased accessibility to these devices and with government level interventions via schools, these near-extinct languages have some chance at surviving.
At Lettre, our commitment to linguistic diversity and expression is more than just a business proposition; it's a reflection of our heritage and values. We recognize the critical need for technology and government intervention in education to ensure the survival of near-extinct languages and fostering a culture of preservation of whatever language or dialect we speak, or script we write with. As we observe International Mother Language Day, we are reminded of the power of language to unite, inspire, and define our shared humanity.
