Antony Cony D'Souza, Karkala/Qatar
Feb 21: I was taken by surprise when my Bengali friend told me that February 21 marks the not-very-well-known holiday called International Mother Language Day, a holiday that was proclaimed by UNESCO in 1999 to "promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism".
My friend is right. Most of us are not aware about the International Mother Language Day nor do we know why it is celebrated. Surprisingly, there is a Language Movement Day being remembered in Bangladesh (formerly East Pakistan) since 1952, when a number of Dhaka university students were killed by the Pakistani police and army in Dhaka during the Bengali Language Movement. To remember their sacrifice for their mother language Bengali, the government of Bangladesh had erected a huge architectural monument named Language Martyr's Monument (Shahid Minar) in Dhaka University, Bangladesh.
Every year more than a million people visit the memorial showering the venue with loads of flowers. This is a big national event which is celebrated as a national holiday in Bangladesh. Many foreigners visit Bangladesh just to have a thrilling experience of how the Bangladeshi people give respect to those bravehearts. To commemorate those martyred souls, every district of Bangladesh has a Language Martyr’s Monument, where local people fill the monument with flowers remembering those brave hearts.
International Mother Language Day is celebrated every year on February 21. The idea behind celebrating this day is to promote the awareness of language, cultural diversity and multilingualism all across the world. It was first announced by UNESCO on November 17, 1999. Every year this day is observed to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. The purpose initiated by UNESCO was in order to promote the dissemination of mother tongues and a fuller awareness of linguistic and cultural traditions throughout the world and to inspire solidarity based on understanding, tolerance and dialogue.
Theme chosen for IMLD by UNESCO for year 2016 is 'Quality education, language(s) of instruction and learning outcomes'. This declaration underlines the importance of mother languages for quality education and linguistic diversity.
Languages are the most powerful instruments of preserving and developing our tangible and intangible heritage. Author Cesar Chavez said, "Our language is the reflection of ourselves. A language is an exact reflection of the character and growth of its speakers".
Mabel Kwong in her blog, explaining the difference between mother tongue and first language says, "When we speak about mother tongue, we tend to think of a common language spoken by a cultural group or our ancestors. 'Mother' in this phrase generally pays homage to 'motherland', the place(s) where our descendents lived and originated. Sometimes we think of our mother tongue as the language 'spoken at home to our parents' or the language 'our parents taught us'."
Says eminent author Rita Rosenback, "There could not be a more appropriate day than today to reflect on the term 'mother tongue' – but what does it really mean, especially if we speak more than one language? There is a wonderful proverb in Swedish 'Kärt barn har många namn', the literal translation being 'A beloved child has many names', which is very true for what is generally called the 'mother tongue'. One of the definitions is that it is ‘the language which a person has grown up speaking from early childhood'."
However, in present times, father and mother mostly speak different languages at home due to inter-caste marriages and the child grows up in an environment learning duel languages. In such cases, how to identify which is the mother tongue and which is the father tongue? Therefore, at certain times 'home language' would be an apt term, as in multicultural families there are many languages spoken at home.
Karnataka comprises 30 districts and Kannada is the official language of the state, spoken as a native language by about 72% of the people. Various ethnic groups with origins in other parts of India have unique customs and use languages at home other than Kannada, adding to the cultural diversity of the state.
According to the 2011 census of India, the total population of Karnataka is 6.25 crore, of which 50.9% are male and 49.1% are female.
Given below is a composite table of languages and religions of Karnataka as per census 2001 of languages in Karnataka:
Kannada - 80.00%,
Urdu - 8.05%
Telugu - 3.03%
Tamil - 1.50%,
Tulu - 2.43%
Konkani - 1.40%
Marathi - 2.4%,
Others - 1.18%,
Religion in Karnataka
Hindus 83%
Muslim 12.2%
Christian 3.1%
Others 1.7%
Mother language and mother tongue are to be slightly differentiated. International Mother Language Day corresponds mother language to the National Language while mother tongue signifies a language that the child learnt from the mother or parents from the cradle as he/she grows up in the family.
In our coastal area, the mother tongues most spoken are Konkani, Tulu, Beary and Urdu. In the present circumstances, most of the mother tongues are under threat from the invading language, English. However, we see around us that most of the sons and daughters have a burning desire to speak in their own mother tongue but there seems to be an exception in Konkani homes. Parents deliberately avoid speaking Konkani at home and prefer English Language. Since parents show total negligence to their mother tongue, when a child grows he or she becomes a stranger to his/her own mother tongue. If this trend continues, don’t you think that if we lose our language, we will also lose our identity? Therefore, parents should pass on their mother tongue to the next generation in order to protect the language(s), if not our own mother tongue can't be an essential part of the soul of our culture.
Our identity is our culture. And if identity is lost, everything is lost and our children may have to face identity crisis when they don’t know where they come from, what their native language is and what a rich cultural background they descended from. Therefore, if a child is firmly rooted in his culture, he/she can develop his or her own identity. As a tree is known by its fruits so people will be known by their culture and folkways. Therefore, each one of us has to contribute extensively and breathe life into the extinction-threatened Konkani language, its music, art, literature, traditions, festivals and lifestyle.
How does India plan to celebrate International Mother Language Day?
Native Indians consider learning and speaking foreign languages a great achievement, jeopardizing their own mother language, mother tongue or native languages. Today is the day when we should probably celebrate our own mother languages, it being the ‘International Mother Language Day’. IMLD is observed to promote and encourage awareness of the diversity and variety of the linguistic and cultural heritage of the world. Started in the year 1999, the IMLD has its 15th anniversary this year, and February 21 is recognized for celebrating multilingualism.
While we uphold the religious and linguistic tolerance issues and social justice for world peace and harmony among nations, how many of us can respect and live peacefully with the linguistic diversity of India? Since 2001, we have 122 major languages while we had 780 of them in yesteryears in India. This year the UNESCO plans to make people realize the important role language plays, with every state participating in its own way to 'Inclusion in and through education: Language counts', the theme that UNESCO is trying to promote for this year’s International Mother Language Day.
Bangladesh will witness the whole country participating in the Ekushey Book Fair and the Ekushey Poetry Festival and joining people who visit the Shahid Minar memorial with flowers to honour those who died during protest for Bengali recognition in 1952.
Washington DC, on the other hand, will co-host the Language Policy and Peace Building symposium, where language's importance in world peace and security issues will be addressed and brought to the fore.
Nairobi University and Kenya have come up with a three-day-conference plan on language and education. Central Asia and Congo are also taking active part in assessing, understanding and bringing about the comprehensive value of 7102 known living languages of the world.
While UN takes its own initiatives to bring about language awareness and tolerance, can we not come together to celebrate our own mother tongue, India being such a rich and diversified sub-continent? On International Mother Language Day, perhaps we can reflect on the linguistic diversity within our mother tongue that reflects a rich history of interaction.
Wishing everyone Happy International Mother Language Day!
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