Bengali writing in Arabic script
Bangla writing in Arabic script or Bangla's Arabicization or Islamization of Bengali or Pak-Bangla language[1][2] refers to Bangla language writing method through Arabic or Urdu letters perceiving it as "Hurful Quran" [1] or as the letter of the Quran. In Nawabi period Bangla, this method of writing was prevalent in a limited form. After the partition of India, in East Bengal or East Pakistan, this writing system was again discussed politically.[3][4][5]
History[edit]
After 1947, during the rule of New Pakistan[edit]
Ever since the formation of Pakistan, the introduction of Arabic script in Bengali language in the new Pakistan had religious sentiments on the one hand and state unity on the other. It was said that apart from Urdu, Pashto, Sindhi, Punjabi language as the Arabic alphabet is being used — Solidarity will be strong. The main initiator was the Union Education Secretary or Education Minister Fazlur Rahman.[6] In this regard, he tried to get the cooperation of the educators of East Bengal. The proposal was made by the Education Secretary at the All Pakistan Education Conference in Karachi in 1948. A meeting of the Central Education Advisory Board in Peshawar in 1949 also strongly recommended that Arabic be the only alphabet in Pakistani languages. Fazlur Rahman, speaking at the second session of the Pakistan Education Advisory Board in Peshawar on 12 February 1949, said that one of the difficulties in developing the same national vision was the problem of different fonts. In this context, he described the usefulness of the Arabic alphabet. Although the language movement of March 1948 came to a standstill, the reaction and resistance in East Pakistan against the introduction of Government of Pakistan continued. In the last week of February 1949, the students of Bangla Department of Dhaka University protested against the attempt to introduce Arabic alphabet in a meeting. It was presided over by Mustafa Nurul Islam. At this meeting a parliament was formed with the students of Bangla department. Md. Nurul Islam was elected president and Ila Dasgupta and Ashraf Siddiqui joint-general secretaries. Besides, alphabet sub-committee was formed with Nazrul Islam, Mumtaz Begum, Rizia Khatun, Khalilur Rahman and others. Meanwhile, on the second day of the budget session on March 12, 1949, a protest march of the student federation was stopped by the police when they tried to march in front of the council building and police arrested Afzal Hossain, Mrinalkanti Barri, Bahauddin Chowdhury, Iqbal Ansari Khan, Abdus Salam and AKM Moniruzzaman Chowdhury. They were held captive without bail. In the first week of April 1949, Naimuddin Ahmed, on behalf of the Language Committee of the East Pakistan Muslim Chhatra League, said in a statement to the press: "The literacy rate in East Pakistan is 12 to 15 per cent. Attempts are being made to turn the educated into illiterate with the stroke of a pen. As a result, the entire education system of East Pakistan will be ruined."[7] In the 1950s, the East Bengal Language Committee was formed under the leadership of Maulana Akram Khan to get a detailed explanation of the language problem from the East Bengal government and was asked to prepare a report on the subject. As part of the project, in 1950 they set up 20 centers for teaching Bengali in Arabic script in different districts of East Bengal.[8] The committee prepared their report by December 6, 1950. However, it was not published before 1958. Here an effective measure is proposed by the government to solve the language problem. Where they recommended writing Bengali in Arabic script.[9] When the proposal to write Bangla in Arabic script was tabled in the Constituent Assembly in 1950, Dhirendranath Datta protested and proposed to give Bengali language equal status with other languages of the Pak-assembly.[10]
On 26 March 1951, the Government of Pakistan re-introduced the proposal to write Bangla in Arabic script in the CAP and pressed for the replacement of Arabic script for Bengal. Among the few other MLAs in East Bengal, Dhirendranath Dutta sharply criticized the plan to change Bengali, saying that the people of East Bengal were being turned into illiterate people by introducing foreign scripts to write Bengali. He vehemently opposed the proposal to replace the Arabic script for the Bengali alphabet. When the same proposal to adopt Arabic script for writing Bengali was formally discussed in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan (CAP) in April 1950, he spoke in favor of Bengali. In particular, he demanded the immediate rejection of the decision to introduce Arabic script instead of the Bengali alphabet and called upon the government to immediately adopt Bengali as one of the state languages of Pakistan. Dhirendranath Dutt emphasized on the CAP floor: "I represent not only Hindus but also the Mussalmans. I can tell you that the ordinary people will not understand the language (i.e. Arabic) that is sought to be introduced in Eastern Bengal. That policy shall have to be changed. I do not know whether the Government is aware of this fact that amongst the large sections of the people and especially among younger generation there is a demand made in a certain conference that the Bengali language should be made one of the State languages of Pakistan."[11]
Dutta criticized this during the discussion of the budget of the Parliament session on April 30, 1953, "Then Sir, there is another matter to which I shall refer to. I want to be brief because the Honourable Minister for Information and Broadcasting has entertained us with a cinema at the "Paradise" and has asked me not to criticise much! I must respect his wish, but an other matter that has been referred to is the teaching of Bengali through the Arabic script. The Honourable Minister for Commerce, who was sometime before the Minister for Education, told this House that this is very popular in East Bengal but it is not. If we make an inquiry into the matter it will be found that really it is extremely unpopular and that no one in East Bengal wants that Bengali script should be done away with and Bengali teaching should be made in the Arabic script, but, Sir, the Government wish to pursue this matter and that shows Sir, the undemocratic spirit of the Government..[12]
In Zia's regime[edit]
In his regime after assassination of Sheikh Mujib, Ziaur Rahman was droved by the anxiety to invoke a 'national personality' free of the cultural association with the neighbouring Bengal towards adopting certain hegemonic measures. To remould the language, history and culture of Bangladesh, particularly so in language, efforts were made to infest the Bengali language with words from Persian and Arabic vocabulary-measures to revive the Do-bhasha (bi-language) or the artificial measures to create "Pak-Bangla" language of post-partition period as described by Abul Mansur Ahmed.[13] Thus, the slogan 'Joy Bangla'- linguistically of Bengali origin was replaced with the more Persianised "Bangladesh Zindabad".[14]
Sample[edit]
Bangla language in Bengali script[edit]
ধারা ১: সমস্ত মানুষ স্বাধীনভাবে সমান মর্যাদা এবং অধিকার নিয়ে জন্মগ্রহণ করে। তাঁদের বিবেক এবং বুদ্ধি আছে; সুতরাং সকলেরই একে অপরের প্রতি ভ্রাতৃত্বসুলভ মনোভাব নিয়ে আচরণ করা উচিত।
Romanization of Bengali[edit]
Dhara êk: Sômôstô manush sbadhinbhabe sôman môrzada ebông ôdhikar niye jônmôgrôhôn kôre. Tãder bibek ebông buddhi achhe; sutôrang sôkôleri êke ôpôrer prôti bhratritbôsulôbh mônobhab niye achôrôn kôra uchit.
Bangla language in Shahmukhi script[edit]
دھارا ۱: سمست مانش سبادھین بھابے سمان مریادا ایبں ادھِکار نِیے جنْم گْرہݨ کرے۔ تاںدیر بِبیک ایبں بُدّھِ آچھے؛ سُتراں سکلیرئ ایکے اپریر پْرتِ بھْراتِْرتب سُلبھ منوبھاب نیے آچرݨ کرا اُچِت۔
Bengali language with abundance of Arabic, Urdu and Persian words[edit]
জুজ ১: তামাম ইনসান/মর্দ আজাদভাবে বরাবর ওকার/কারামাত/ইহতিরাম/তাউজু/ইনতিবাহ আর হক লয়ে পয়দা হয়। তাদের দমীর ও আকল আছে; তো সবারই একে অপরের মোতাবেক বেরাদরি/ইখওয়ানি আখলাকের সাথে রোয়া/সুলুক করা চাই।
Transliteration: Juja 1: Tamama inasana/marda ajadabhabe barabara ökāra/kārāmāta/ihatirāma/tā'uju/ inatibāha āra haka layē payadā haya. Tādēra damīra ō ākala achē; tō sabara'i ēkē aparēra mōtābēka bērādari/ikha'oyani ākhalākēra sāthē röyā/suluka karā cā'i.
See also[edit]
References[edit]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Hossain, Mokerrom (21 February 2010). From Protest to Freedom: A Book for the New Generation: the Birth of Bangladesh. Mokerrom. p. 140. ISBN 978-0-615-48695-6. Retrieved 25 February 2022. Search this book on
- ↑ রহিম, মোঃ আব্দুর (2 February 2020). "রাজনৈতিক ও জাতিগত বিভাজনের ভাষা উর্দু". Samakal. Retrieved 25 February 2022.
- ↑ Jaffrelot, Christophe (28 September 2004). A History of Pakistan and Its Origins. Anthem Press. p. 46. ISBN 978-1-84331-149-2. Retrieved 16 April 2022. Search this book on
- ↑ Ahmed, Salahuddin (2004). Bangladesh: Past and Present. APH Publishing. p. 136. ISBN 978-81-7648-469-5. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
People of East Bengal are proud of their language, Bengali. Soon after the establishment of Pakistan, the Central Government took some steps to limit its importance as a provincial language. With a view to halt its growth as a vibrant language, the government attempted to introduce the Arabic script in Bengali language. Shahidullah, a renowned scholar and a linguist, deprecated and denounced this heinous attempt in strong terms." As early on 23 February, 1948, Dhirendranath Datta (d. 1971) a member of the Constituent Assembly brought a motion in the Assembly, demanding Bengali as one of the state languages of the country. He said: "The state language should be the language which is used by the majority of the people of the state, and for that, Sir, I consider that Bengali language is a lingua franca of our State." Promptly opposing the motion, Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, brought a vague allegation that the member was trying "to create misunderstanding between the different parts of Pakistan." He further said: "Pakistan has been created because of the demand of a hundred million Muslims in the subcontinent and the language of a hundred million Muslims is Urdu and, therefore, it is wrong for him now to try and create the situation that as the majority of the people of Pakistan belongs to one part of Pakistan, therefore the language which is spoken there should become the state language of Pakistan. Pakistan is a Muslim State and it must have as its lingua franca the language of the Muslim nation."
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- ↑ Murshid, Ghulam (25 January 2018). Bengali Culture Over a Thousand Years. Niyogi Books. ISBN 978-93-86906-12-0. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
Indeed, though almost all Bengali Muslims had welcomed the formation of Pakistan, disenchantment soon set in because of a number of reasons. They could see neglect of Bengali and patronage for Urdu in government affairs. On money order forms, postal stamps, coins, in a word in all government transactions, Urdu was being used along with English, not Bengall. They also found themselves unable to put up with the proposal of using Arabic script for Bengali and the import of unknown and unfamiliar Arabic and Farsi words in the language, Nor did they receive just treatment from the Centre in economic matters. And they did not have any say in the administration of Pakistan. All this, together, made them resentful. But it was the question of language, rather than economic unfairness, that first stoked resentment among Bengali-speaking Muslims, Political conflict on the language issue started at the beginning of 1948. In February that year. Dhirendranath Datta proposed in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan that Bengali be made one of the official languages of Pakistan. The proposal was scuttled because of opposition from the founder of Pakistan, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, and Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan. Once the information became public through the media, however, a controversy could not be averted. Even a nationalist newspaper like Azad published a number of arguments in favour of Dhirendranath Datta's proposal. An editorial was published criticising Liaquat Ali Khan.
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- ↑ Alam, S. M. Shamsul (29 April 2016). Governmentality and Counter-Hegemony in Bangladesh. Springer. ISBN 978-1-137-52603-8. Retrieved 16 April 2022. Search this book on
- ↑ "আরবি হরফ চালুর মূল উদ্দেশ্য ছিল জাতিকে পঙ্গু করে দেওয়া". The Daily Ittefaq. 8 February 2021. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
- ↑ "বাংলা হরফের ওপর শয়তানি আছর". banglanews24.com (in Bengali). 20 February 2017. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
- ↑ "আরবি হরফে বাংলা লেখার সুপারিশ ভাষা কমিটির". Bhorer Kagoj. 9 February 2019. Archived from the original on 26 December 2019. Retrieved 8 March 2021. Unknown parameter
|url-status=ignored (help) - ↑ "ভাষা আন্দোলনের সেকাল একাল". jagonews24.com (in Bengali). 2 February 2021. Retrieved 8 March 2021.
- ↑ Manik, M. Waheeduzzaman (21 February 2014). "Shaheed dhirendranath dutta". The Daily Star. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
- ↑ Legislature, Pakistan Constituent Assembly (1947-1954) (1953). The Constituent Assembly (Legislature) of Pakistan Debate: Official Report. Manager of Publications. p. 939. Retrieved 1 May 2022.
Then Sir, there is another matter to which I shall refer to. I want to be brief because the Honourable Minister for Information and Broadcasting has entertained us with a cinema at the "Paradise" and has asked me not to criticise much! I must respect his wish, but an other matter that has been referred to is the teaching of Bengali through the Arabic script. The Honourable Minister for Commerce, who was sometime before the Minister for Education, told this House that this is very popular in East Bengal but it is not. If we make an inquiry into the matter it will be found that really it is extremely unpopular and that no one in East Bengal wants that Bengali script should be done away with and Bengali teaching should be made in the Arabic script, but, Sir, the Government wish to pursue this matter and that shows Sir, the undemocratic spirit of the Government.
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- ↑ NA, NA (27 September 2016). The Post-Colonial States of South Asia: Democracy, Development and Identity. Springer. p. 165. ISBN 978-1-137-11508-9. Retrieved 15 April 2022. Search this book on
- ↑ Sharma, S. L.; Oommen, T. K. (2000). Nation and National Identity in South Asia. Orient Blackswan. p. 194. ISBN 978-81-250-1924-4. Retrieved 15 April 2022. Search this book on
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