Memory’s door
In response to Khwaja Nazimuddin's declaration on January 27, 1952 that only Urdu would be the state language of Pakistan, an all-out strike was organised in all schools and colleges in Dhaka on February 4.
The day after Nazimuddin's declaration, the Khyber Mail (a newspaper from the North West Frontier Province of Pakistan) published in their editorial that Urdu cannot be the only state language of Pakistan. Next day I put the cutting of Khyber Mail's editorial on the university's notice board.
I think it was on February 4 that Muslim girls, for the first time after the birth of Pakistan, skipped schools and joined a procession. That day there were two meetings: one was in support of the language movement and the other to counter it. The latter was to be held in Beltola, but ultimately, they did not succeed in holding the meeting.
We reached a decision that we would observe a Flag Day on February 11. A session at the Provincial Assembly was called on February 21. So, we decided to march towards the assembly and to press for the inclusion of Bangla as a state language. At a meeting on February 11, general students appealed to the All-Party Central Language Action Committee to carry out the action plan on February 21.
At the All-Party meeting on February 20, nearly 14 organisations issued a proposal that Section 144 should not be broken. On that night, 11 of us sat in a meeting at the pond ghat between Dhaka Hall (Shahidullah Hall) and Fazlul Huq Hall. We planned about how to bring out the procession the next day and how we would break Section 144.
We entered the university before 9:00am the next day and found the whole area surrounded by police carrying all types of weapons. Then the students gathered at Amtola and the meeting started at 11:00am. Gaziul Haq chaired the meeting as we had decided.
At the meeting, most students were in favour of violating Section 144. After that, one procession after another broke Section 144 and started to go out on the street. Police arrested many students who were violating Section 144.
Mohammed Sultan was the first person to hoist a black flag on top of the Dhaka University campus on February 22, 1952.
Source: This is an excerpt of an interview printed in "Mohammad Sultan Kayekti Rekhaey" published by Kamal Lohani, 1986.
Comments