Role of national language in the global village

In independent Bangladesh we should try to improve Bangla language to make it a strong vehicle for science and technology

What is the role of a national language in the present global village? For the last few years whenever we observed 21st February as our National Martyr's day this question came to my mind. I asked some of my Bengali writer friends and found out that the same question arose in their mind also. In Bangladesh Bangla language is now the state language. But in our national life Bangla could not take its proper place. We are still dependent on English for all sorts of practical reasons and another language Hindi is creeping slowly but steadily in our language and culture which may pose a threat for our language again in future.
Once Pakistani rulers tried to impose Urdu on the Bengali population in the-then East Pakistan. They failed. Urdu was not a language of equal status with Bangla nor it was a language which could teach science and technology like English and it was not a mother tongue of any of the provinces of the-then Pakistan. On the other hand the thousand years old Bangla language and culture was more resilient and the attempt to replace it by a language created in the Mughal court did not succeed.
But the situation has now drastically changed. With the advent of globalization, the barrier of nationalism is no more strong and the languages which are carriers of nationalism are also facing the aggression of developed global languages. English, German, French and partially Russian also are now treated as global languages and they are competing with each other to become the one and only global language. In this competition English is far advanced than others and though England has lost its geographical empire but it still retains its linguistic empire. People from every part of the world rush to British universities because this language can provide them better scientific and technological knowledge which can open the door of better employment.
Two things are now a days most powerful weapons to dominate the world. One is-currency and the other is language. The English islanders have ruled the world for 200 years not only by their military might but with their might of currency and language. After the Second World War, the power of sterling, the British currency could not retain its dominance and was replaced by American dollars. America is also an English spoken country. So very soon rule Americana replaced rule Britannia with its more powerful military might and its stronger currency and language.  
So when with the rise of global capitalism America became a global power and globalization started to threat the  boundary of nationalism, then in the name of free market economy the boundary of nation-states collapsed virtually if not visibly. At the peak period of globalization some observers said that the days of nationalism and national economy are over and the day of the rise of one world with may be one or two world languages might arise. But these predictions did not fully come
true.
Once it was thought that European Union, its common market and the newly introduced currency Euro will threat the global leadership of America, even the monopoly of its currency, dollar. But it did not happen that way. The quarrel over national sovereignty did not make the European Union fully united and a powerful member like Britain is not yet prepared to surrender their national sovereignty to the European Parliament. The European countries outside the European Union are still protecting their boundaries and their separate language and currency.  
Even after the breakup of the Soviet Union we have seen the rise of different nationalities with separate national boundaries like Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan etc. Even the Latin American countries are now regrouping themselves on the basis of their national sovereignty, language and culture.
In the Middle-east one language and almost the same culture could not unite the Arab people. Even religion could not bind them. Once President Nasser of Egypt tried to establish a united Arab Republic combining Egypt and Libya but that did not last long. Still the geographical nationalism is playing the most dominant role in the Middle-east and its strength may defeat the Jihadist ISIS who are preaching extremism in the name of religion.
We have seen the extreme face of nationalism in the middle of the last century in Germany and Italy. Those days are gone. Now America is trying to promote a kind of fascism under the mask of neo-liberalism and trying to keep its world domination by promoting militarism based on religion. A number of western observers said that this will not succeed. The myth of globalization and its market economy is going to be over.
A new kind of nationalism based on social justice is emerging in Latin American countries and the demand for freeing the repressed languages from the domination of linguistic and cultural imperialism is growing day by day. United Nations had to recognize this trend and declared 21st February the National Language Day of Bangladesh as the International Mother Language Day. Now 21st February is not only observed in Bangladesh as the National Language day, but as the International Mother Language Day throughout the world.
After establishing Soviet Union Lenin said that only healthy nationalism can promote and establish international brotherhood. Like his predecessors the Russian Tsars, he did not try to impose one Russian language on the people of Soviet Union. His government patronized to revive the most neglected regional languages. He even introduced new alphabets for those languages which did not have a written form.
In the independent Bangladesh we should try to improve Bangla language to make it a strong vehicle for science and technology. At the same time, we should help to develop the languages of indigenous people so that Bangla language could be enriched by improving the under developed language groups. This will make the observance of 21st February more meaningful.
The new threat to Bangla language and culture is the result of the so-called globalization. At the present moment we cannot ignore the power and utility of English language. But to depend on a foreign language for a long time will make our new generation rootless. There should be all-out effort from government and people to develop Bangla as a world language so that the language can cooperate with other world languages to benefit itself and its linguistic nationhood. We need a strong cultural movement like the middle of the last century to thwart the unwanted dominance of Hindi and the Mumbaia culture based on a distorted form of Hindi.
Economic and cultural imperialism has been a threat towards the healthy growth of the sovereignty of innumerable nations throughout the world. Time has come when all the repressed nations of the world should stand on the basis of their national sovereignty based on their own language and culture and contribute towards humanity and international unity.

London, Friday 19 February, 2016

Role of national language in the global village

In independent Bangladesh we should try to improve Bangla language to make it a strong vehicle for science and technology

What is the role of a national language in the present global village? For the last few years whenever we observed 21st February as our National Martyrs day this question came to my mind. I asked some of my Bengali writer friends and found out that the same question arose in their mind also. In Bangladesh Bangla language is now the state language. But in our national life Bangla could not take its proper place. We are still dependent on English for all sorts of practical reasons and another language Hindi is creeping slowly but steadily in our language and culture which may pose a threat for our language again in future. Once Pakistani rulers tried to impose Urdu on the Bengali population in the-then East Pakistan. They failed. Urdu was not a language of equal status with Bangla nor it was a language which could teach science and technology like English and it was not a mother tongue of any of the provinces of the-then Pakistan. On the other hand the thousand years old Bangla language and culture was more resilient and the attempt to replace it by a language created in the Mughal court did not succeed. But the situation has now drastically changed. With the advent of globalization, the barrier of nationalism is no more strong and the languages which are carriers of nationalism are also facing the aggression of developed global languages. English, German, French and partially Russian also are now treated as global languages and they are competing with each other to become the one and only global language. In this competition English is far advanced than others and though England has lost its geographical empire but it still retains its linguistic empire. People from every part of the world rush to British universities because this language can provide them better scientific and technological knowledge which can open the door of better employment. Two things are now a days most powerful weapons to dominate the world. One is-currency and the other is language. The English islanders have ruled the world for 200 years not only by their military might but with their might of currency and language. After the Second World War, the power of sterling, the British currency could not retain its dominance and was replaced by American dollars. America is also an English spoken country. So very soon rule Americana replaced rule Britannia with its more powerful military might and its stronger currency and language. So when with the rise of global capitalism America became a global power and globalization started to threat the boundary of nationalism, then in the name of free market economy the boundary of nation-states collapsed virtually if not visibly. At the peak period of globalization some observers said that the days of nationalism and national economy are over and the day of the rise of one world with may be one or two world languages might arise. But these predictions did not fully come true. Once it was thought that European Union, its common market and the newly introduced currency Euro will threat the global leadership of America, even the monopoly of its currency, dollar. But it did not happen that way. The quarrel over national sovereignty did not make the European Union fully united and a powerful member like Britain is not yet prepared to surrender their national sovereignty to the European Parliament. The European countries outside the European Union are still protecting their boundaries and their separate language and currency. Even after the breakup of the Soviet Union we have seen the rise of different nationalities with separate national boundaries like Georgia, Ukraine, Uzbekistan etc. Even the Latin American countries are now regrouping themselves on the basis of their national sovereignty, language and culture. In the Middle-east one language and almost the same culture could not unite the Arab people. Even religion could not bind them. Once President Nasser of Egypt tried to establish a united Arab Republic combining Egypt and Libya but that did not last long. Still the geographical nationalism is playing the most dominant role in the Middle-east and its strength may defeat the Jihadist ISIS who are preaching extremism in the name of religion. We have seen the extreme face of nationalism in the middle of the last century in Germany and Italy. Those days are gone. Now America is trying to promote a kind of fascism under the mask of neo-liberalism and trying to keep its world domination by promoting militarism based on religion. A number of western observers said that this will not succeed. The myth of globalization and its market economy is going to be over. A new kind of nationalism based on social justice is emerging in Latin American countries and the demand for freeing the repressed languages from the domination of linguistic and cultural imperialism is growing day by day. United Nations had to recognize this trend and declared 21st February the National Language Day of Bangladesh as the International Mother Language Day. Now 21st February is not only observed in Bangladesh as the National Language day, but as the International Mother Language Day throughout the world. After establishing Soviet Union Lenin said that only healthy nationalism can promote and establish international brotherhood. Like his predecessors the Russian Tsars, he did not try to impose one Russian language on the people of Soviet Union. His government patronized to revive the most neglected regional languages. He even introduced new alphabets for those languages which did not have a written form. In the independent Bangladesh we should try to improve Bangla language to make it a strong vehicle for science and technology. At the same time, we should help to develop the languages of indigenous people so that Bangla language could be enriched by improving the under developed language groups. This will make the observance of 21st February more meaningful. The new threat to Bangla language and culture is the result of the so-called globalization. At the present moment we cannot ignore the power and utility of English language. But to depend on a foreign language for a long time will make our new generation rootless. There should be all-out effort from government and people to develop Bangla as a world language so that the language can cooperate with other world languages to benefit itself and its linguistic nationhood. We need a strong cultural movement like the middle of the last century to thwart the unwanted dominance of Hindi and the Mumbaia culture based on a distorted form of Hindi. Economic and cultural imperialism has been a threat towards the healthy growth of the sovereignty of innumerable nations throughout the world. Time has come when all the repressed nations of the world should stand on the basis of their national sovereignty based on their own language and culture and contribute towards humanity and international unity. London, Friday 19 February, 2016