In this article we will explain how Jinnah's declaration of Urdu to be the only national language of Pakistan led to the massive resentment of Bengalis and the start of the nationalist movement that gradually came to recognize that Pakistan would never provide East Pakistan with equal rights.
Mohammed Ali Jinnah is called the father of Pakistan and Quaid-i-Azam ("Great Leader"). He is one of the key personalities who played a big role in dividing united India after independence in 1947. He was the leader of the Muslim League.
In August 1947, India was divided into East Pakistan (present Bangladesh), West Pakistan and the remaining part was India.
With Kashmir having an ambiguous identity.
The problem of Kashmir was left as bone between the two dogs.
The Muslims were in majority in Kashmir, the ruler Maharaja Hari Singh was a Hindu.
A large number of people wanted to go with Pakistan, but Maharaja acceded his state to the Dominion of India against their wishes.
Pakistan was created on 14th August 1947; it is their Independence Day.
India celebrated its independence on 15th August 1947. Jawaharlal Nehru was India's first prime minister. He was a visionary.
Mohammed Ali Jinnah became Pakistan's first governor-general until his death.
Jinnah's vision of having a separate nation for Muslims was based on the discriminative behavior of the domain group, Hindus.
The population of Hindu was far more than Muslims. The safety of Muslims was doubtful. Having a separate nation according to him, was the right solution because peaceful co-existence seemed impossible.
This is the main cause that Muslims in independent India are prosecuted, discriminated against, and killed by domain groups continuously.
On 21 March 1948, he declared Urdu to be the national language of Pakistan. His act associated the language with religion, the same way India associated the Hindi language with India and Hindus.
Jinnah himself did not know much of Urdu or his mother tongue Gujarati, but he favored Urdu as an official language. He selected the language that was born and nurtured in undivided India by the Mughals. Urdu was accepted by people at large in undivided India. By making Urdu a national language, it became the language of Muslims and the domain group in India started hating and destroying all cultures associated with Urdu, its literature, and other good work in hate.
Jinnah was more fluent in English.
In Western Pakistan, people speak various languages like Pashtun, Punjabi, Urdu, and tribal languages.
They accepted Urdu to show their solidarity.
East Pakistan was the Bengal region. These people did not know much of Urdu. They have different cultures than West Pakistan.
The capital at that time was Karachi in West Pakistan. The coordination between the West and East Pakistan was very bad.
The people of East Pakistan thought they were getting step-fatherly treatment and are getting neglected in all the issues.
Although most of the people in West Pakistan did not speak Urdu, it was their second language they did not resist. The resistance came from East Pakistan the Bengali-dominated area. They wanted the Bengali language as their official language. They had associated the Bengali language as their national identity.
The Pakistan Government had removed Bengali as an official and medium of education.
The government at that time removed Bengali from currency notes and stamps.
This act agitated students, and East Pakistan's students came on the street and rose voices against Urdu and government decisions.
The medium of education in East Pakistan was Bengali. Many ethnic groups did not know Urdu, and they were not ready to accept it.
The learned people were against this step of the government. They said the large population would become illiterate.
It was also seen as a conspiracy by the interested parties usually India, to divide the people of Pakistan on the language issue and make the issue so critical that they would start hating each other. Taking this view, Prime Minster Liyaqat Ali Khan rejected the proposal of making Bengali the official language for East Pakistan.
According to Jinnah, to defeat the fifth column, that is people from within who are opposing the proposal, Urdu has to be taken as an official and national language for West and East Pakistan.
The fifth column conspiracy went on, and ultimately East Pakistan was created as Bangladesh with the help of India on 26 March 1971.
It shows conspiracy and hate were working together from the day of independence to divide Pakistan and take revenge for dividing India in 1947.
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