Nelson Mandela has this great quote to his credit. "When you speak to someone in a foreign language, it goes to his head," argues Mandela. He states further, "when you speak to someone in his mother tongue, you speak to his heart." Our title, a take-off on this interesting quote, is a tribute which celebrates the World Mother Tongue Day.
Celebrated every February 21, this year happens to be the silver jubilee year of this international ritual. The U.N. declared the day as the World Mother Tongue Day to commemorate the martyrdom of the academic fraternity in the then East Pakistan of 1952 when the legitimate demand for Bengali and the rejection of the imposition of Urdu took a violent and tragic turn.
Actually, when a language dies, with it dies a culture, a way of being and becoming. Given the centuries old colonial and the expansionist ambitions of the White Man, many native languages are already facing such a danger, which means that it is no longer the question of existence, but of extinction for many languages. Hence the relevance of the day the world over. Long live the world mother tongue day!
Pratima@Celebrated the famous day in the German classroom. Was very happy when in the evening, the P.M. quoted the day in his speech on the occasion of the Inauguration of the Marathi Sahitya Sammelan, the annual literary conclave. Felt validated for my attempts for the continuation of the day in the college.
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