Chapter Five THE BEGINNING OF MIDDLE CLASS RESISTANCE: THE LANGUAGE MOVEMENT OF 1948 oon after the announcement of the Mountbatten dispensation lon 3 June 1947, the attention of a section of Muslim League workers with left leanings, including some seniors, was turned to the new realities of the situation. During the Pakistan movement they had little time to reflect on what was to be done for reconstruction of the society after the establishment of Pakistan. Confronted with new challenges, they had no sense of direction and plan for political work. The quick developments after the appointment of Mountbatten as viceroy and governor-general of India, and the speed with which he began to push his plans for the independence and partition of India created an atmosphere of uncertainty, and it became difficult for them to keep pace with the rapid changes. The partition of Bengal and the return of the old leadership to power led them quite early on to think of politically organizing themselves on a democratic basis. In July 1947, a small group of workers assembled in Dhaka and formed an organization called Gono Azadi League (Peoples Freedom League) and published a manifesto entitled Ashu Dabi Karmasuchi Adarsha (Immediate Demands Programme and Ideology).! The manifesto laid out that, ‘The independence of a country and freedom of the people are two distinct matters. A country can gain independence from a foreign rule; but that does not mean that the people of that country have gained freedom. Political freedom has no value if it cannot bring economic freedom to the people, Because without economic freedom, it is not possible to haveThe Beginning of Middle Class Resistance 29 social and cultural developments, therefore, we have decided that we will continue our struggle for the economic emancipation of the people of East Pakistan. With this end in view, we are presenting our ideals and program before our countrymen. This manifesto was, in fact, a follow up of the draft manifesto of the Bengal Provincial Muslim League which failed to gain official acceptance because of opposition from the right faction of the Muslim League, including H.S. Suhrawardy. In spite of the smallness of the group their declaration represented the sentiments of a new generation of progressive workers who would play an important role in the political developments in East Bengal, immediately following the establishment of Pakistan. The Gono Azadi League, however, could not develop as a political organization and their activities were limited to resistance against political repression by the Muslim League government. In 1950, the name of this organization was changed to Civil Liberties League. Soon after 14 August 1947, a number of political workers including Ataur Rahman (Rajshahi), Kazi Mohammad Idris, Shahidullah Kaiser, Akhlaqur Rahman, Ekramul Hug, and Abdur Rashid Khan met in Calcutta for consultations with Abdullah Rasul, and others, of the Communist Party. Some of the workers mentioned above either belonged to or were closely associated with the Communist Party at that time. It was decided that in the changed circumstances it was necessary to initiate a non-communal and secular movement, and an appropriate organization had to be formed.? In July, discussions were held in Dhaka among progressive political workers of all shades, including those who were in Gono Azadi League, for the formation of a wider organization. Workers of the left Muslim League and those associated with the Communist Party joined hands and decided to call a conference of democratic workers. They made contacts with others in various districts.* On $1 July, a reception committee was formed with Kafiluddin Chowdhury as president and Shamsul Huq as secretary. The date for the conference was fixed for 24 August, which was subsequently changed to 6th and 7th of September. A draft manifesto for the conference was adopted in a meeting on 5 August in which, among others, Mohammad Toaha, Oli Ahad, Najmul Karim, Aziz Ahmad, Tassadduq Ahmad and Tajuddin Ahmad were present. The government was bitterly opposed to the conference as they thought that this was a conspiracy against them. Sporadic attacks were made on progressive workers involved in the organizational30 The Emergence of Bangladesh work of the conference, particularly on students, by hooligans engaged by the Muslim League. On 31 August, a meeting of student representatives from all educational institutions was convened to form a new student organization. The previous day Naimuddin Ahmad, Aziz Ahmad, Tajuddin Ahmad and a few others met separately and decided not to use the word ‘Muslim’ in the name of the new student body.® On 31 August, at the appointed time, students began to gather in the Fazlul Huq Muslim Hall when some students from Kaltabazar area belonging to the Shah Azizur Rahman group attacked them, and a pandemonium was created. Order was somehow restored by the intervention of Mahmud Hossain, provost of F.H. Hall, and the meeting began. It continued for about an hour, when again some hooligans armed with sticks, iron rods ete. came in a truck, entered the Hall and tried to disrupt the meeting. For the second time Mahmud Hossain intervened and the hoodligans were driven out. But in that disturbed situation, the Dhaka city organizing committee for the proposed student organization could not be formed. The truck in which the hoodligans came was later identified as belonging to the civil supply department of the East Bengal government. Tajuddin Ahmad noted the number plates of the vehicle and met the civil supply minister Nurul Amin and demanded that those responsible for using government transport for attacking the students be punished. But no action was taken against them.* Since the Muslim League and the government were opposed to the conference scheduled for 6 and 7 September, they did not allow it to be held at the Dhaka District Bar Library Hall, the usual venue for such meetings and conferences. No other public place was available, so finally it was decided to hold the conference in the house of Khan Bahadur Abul Hasnat, former vice-chairman of Dhaka municipality. The conference began on 6 September, with Tassaddug Ahmad presiding. The following day resolutions were adopted on the charter of peoples’ demand, a manifesto of sorts of the proposed organization. Resolutions were also adopted on the food crisis and on the formation of the Democratic Youth League.” While explaining the objectives of the workers’ conference, Shamsul Hug reiterated that ‘the main purpose of the East Pakistan workers’ conference was to prepare a programme for a united youth organization and to arouse the workers to take responsibility of building this organization countrywide.’ He also said that ‘the manifesto of the Youth Organization has been prepared on the basis of the democratic principle of economic, social, political and cultural improvement and development of the youths’.‘The Beginning of Middle Class Resistance 31 It was decided to form an organization called Pakistan Democratic Youth League. The East Pakistan organizing committee of this new political body was formed with twenty-five members, though there was no possibility of a West Pakistan committee at that time. The conference was not reported in any newspaper because of government, and non-government intervention.’ In spite of the initial enthusiasm, the organization did not make much headway. They brought out a bulletin called Democratic Youth League edited by Akhlaqur Rahman and Ataur Rahman, but its publication came to an end after a few issues. The decision to hold an enlarged conference after six months could not be implemented. In September 1948, a youth conference was held in Ishurdi in which the economic and political situation was discussed and a number of resolutions were adopted on the abolition of zamindari, labour movement etc. Later a pamphlet entitled To the Pakistani Youth was published, which admitted that after some initial activities, the Democratic Youth League had become practically defunct.’ The real issue which stirred the middle class youth in that period was the language question. A resolution for making Bengali the medium of instruction and official language was adopted in the conference of the Youth League. However, the language issue was taken up, as a distinct and major concern, by the Dhaka University students, and a cultural organization called Tamaddun Majlis who took some initial steps to present the issue in a systematic manner. Tamaddun Majlis published a pamphlet in Bengali called Pakistaner Rashtrabhasha Bangla Na Urdu? (Pakistan’s State Language Bengali or Urdu?). The contributors to the pamphlet were Professor Kazi Motahar Hossain, Abul Mansur Ahmad and Professor Abul Kasem of the Tamaddun Majlis."' The first language movement action committee was organized on the initiative of the Tamaddun Majlis at the end of 1947." This organized effort was made to counter the provocative statements on the language question made by Fazlur Rahman, who was then the education minister of the government of Pakistan. He was going around making speeches and statements for having Urdu as the only state language of Pakistan. The weekly organ of the Tamaddun Majlis, Sainik, and the weekly Naobeial of Sylhet edited by Mahmud Ali, took a very firm stand in favour of Bengali. The Muslim League president, Akram Khan’s daily paper Azad also supported Bengali in spite of the fact that the central government was strongly opposed to it. Many other newspapers, particularly Bengali language papers, and the English daily Pakistan Observer, belonging to Hamidul Huq Chowdhury and32 The Emergence of Bangladesh edited by Abdus Salam came out strongly in favour of Bengali. The only daily which consistently opposed Bengali was the English language daily Morning News edited by Khwaja Nuruddin. At the time only Urdu was being used in coins, postal stamps, and Bengali was excluded even from the subject list of the Public Service Commission examinations. In addition, Urdu and English were the only two languages used in the recruitment examination for the Pakistan Navy in East Pakistan. All these were sufficiently provocative to arouse the educated sections of the people in East Bengal to the defense of their mother tongue. Protests began not only in Dhaka, but all over the country. Even the leaders of the Sylhet District Mahila Samity (Women’s Association) took a leading role, in Sylhet, in organizing opposition to the government language policy.” The first session of the Pakistan Constituent Assembly began on 23 February 1948. On the same day a Congress member from East Bengal, Dhirendranath Datta, tabled a resolution to make Bengali a language of the Assembly, along with Urdu and English. The resolution was immediately opposed by Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan, Chief Minister of East Bengal Khwaja Nazimuddin, Ghaznafar Ali Khan, Tamizuddin Khan and others in strong language and rejected by the House. Opposing the resolution Nazimuddin said, ‘Most of the inhabitants of East Pakistan think that Urdu should be accepted as the only state language’."* It was natural for Nazimuddin to take that stand because he belonged to an Urdu-speaking feudal aristocratic family of the Nawabs of Dhaka and was unlettered in Bengali. This statement was seriously criticized by Azad and the Pakistan Observer and other newspapers. A student protest strike was organized in Dhaka on 26 February and the students of the Dhaka University, Engineering College, Medical College and various other schools and colleges demonstrated in the Ramna area. Later, in the afternoon, all of them assembled in a meeting in the Dhaka University premises. They criticized Nazimuddin, denounced the government language policy and demanded introduction of Bengali as a state language of Pakistan. An all-party committee called the State Language Committee of Action (SLCA) was formed for resisting government policy and organizing the language movement. The Committee was constituted of two representatives each from the Gono Azadi League, Democratic Youth League, Tamaddun Majlis, Salimullah Muslim Hall, Fazlul Huq Muslim Hall, and other Dhaka University halls as well as the East Pakistan Muslim Students League. A resolution for a general strike, all over East Bengal on 11 March, in protest against the rejection of Bengali as a language of the Constituent Assembly was. adopted.'®‘The Beginning of Middle Class Resistance 383 The strike resolution was widely publicized in the newspapers published from Dhaka and other areas of East Bengal. The students of Dhaka and the district towns of Narayanganj, Rajshahi, Jessore, Faridpur, Chittagong and other areas responded enthusiastically. They took out processions in support of the strike and held meetings on the day. In Dhaka and Jessore students clashed with the police while picketing for the strike. Arrests were made in other areas as well. During the strike, on 11 March, Shameu! Hug, Oli Ahad, Sheikh Moujibur Rahman, Shaokat Ali and many others were arrested." A government press note on the 11 March strike said, Some saboteurs and a group of students went on strike today to observe the strike called for protesting against the decision not to have Bengali as a language of the Centre. All the Muslim areas and most of the non- Muslim areas refused to observe the strike. Only a few Hindu shops were closed... It is now clearly understood from the information obtained after searches that a deep conspiracy is now on for creating division among the Muslims and creating chaos in the administration for undermining Pakistan. This press note was published in all daily newspapers the next day. How on the very day of the strike the government had laid hands on information which made it clear to them that the strike and demonstrations were the results of a deep conspiracy is incomprehensible. But there was no doubt about the fact that the government was trying hard to give the movement a communal character and even indicate Indian involvement in it. The latter was quite apparent when they imposed a ban on Amrita Bazar Patrika, and Swadhinata the Bengali daily of the Communist Party of India." In protest against the police repression, students all over East Bengal went on strike from 13 to 15 March.” The first session of the East Bengal Legislative Assembly was scheduled to be held in Dhaka on 15 March. A day before the Muslim League Parliamentary Party met in Burdwan House, the official residence of the East Bengal prime minister. A large number of students demonstrated against the government on both days till late into the night. A general strike was called by the SLCA for 15 March.” Then, for two main reasons, the government gave up its hardline against the movement and proposed negotiation with the SLCA. First, the opposition against the government language policy was mounting. Secondly, because Jinnah was scheduled to arrive in East Bengal on 19 March it would have created a very difficult situation for the government if the agitation continued during his visit.84 The Emergence of Bangladesh The SLCA decided to negotiate with Khwaja Nazimuddin for an agreement on the language question, and a meeting was held in Burdwan House (The Bengali Academy is now housed here) on the morning of 15 March. The Committee was represented by Kamruddin Ahmad, Abul Kasem, Mohammad Toaha, Syed Nazrul Islam, Aziz Ahmad, Abdur Rahman Chowdhury and a few others.” After much discussion an eight-point agreement was finally signed in which all the terms of the SLCA were incorporated, including the admission that the language agitation was not the act of saboteurs and Indian agents. It was decided to release all who were arrested on 11 March, to lift the ban on newspapers, not to take any action against those who participated in the movement, to withdraw Section 144 from all areas, to introduce a resolution in the East Bengal Assembly for making Bengali one of the state language, introducing Bengali as a language of the Constituent Assembly and for giving Bengali equal status with Urdu in all central government examinations.” On 16 March, all political prisoners arrested on 11 March were released from Dhaka central jail as well as from prisons outside Dhaka.* In April, Khwaja Nazimuddin went back on his promise and refused to put forth a resolution to have Bengali as one of the state languages of Pakistan. However, he did move a resolution for making Bengali the medium of instruction and the official language of East Bengal after English. On 19 March, Jinnah arrived at the Tejgaon airport on his first, and last, visit to Dhaka (he died on 11 September 1948). The enthusiasm of the people was dampened to some extent because it came in the immediate wake of the language movement. Nevertheless a large crowd assembled in the Race Course Maidan (now Suhrawardy Uddyan) on 21 March to hear him. Jinnah warned the Bengalis against the activities of the subversive elements and conspirators who were out to destroy Pakistan. Sporadic protests ‘were made from among the crowd, and in response Jinnah repeated what he had already said.” He expressed the same views on the language question at the Dhaka University special convocation held to honour him on 24 March. Abdul Matin, A.K.M. Ahsan and a few others shouted ‘no’, ‘no’ in protest, but Jinnah remained unmoved.* In the same evening Jinnah held a meeting with the SLCA. Shamsul Huq, Kamruddin Ahmad, Oli Ahad, Abul Kasem, Mohammad Toaha, Tajuddin Ahmad, Lily Khan, Naimuddin Ahmad, Shamsul Alam, Aziz Ahmad and Syed Nazrul Islam were present. The meeting turned out to be very bitter, and ended in a fiasco because Jinnah would not concede an inch on the languageThe Beginning of Middle Class Resistance 35 question, and some members of the SLCA, particularly Oli Ahad, ‘were very rude to him. On 28 March, on the eve of his departure for Karachi, Jinnah addressed the people of East Bengal on the radio, in which he expressed the same views on the language question. As the supreme leader of Pakistan, people expected a democratic attitude from him. But they were deeply disappointed by what he said.” With his visit the first phase of the language movement came to an end, though it remained a live issue throughout East Bengal. It was revived with great strength and fury immediately after Prime Minister Khwaja Nazimuddin’s infamous speech on the language question at the Dhaka Paltan Maidan on 27 January 1952. NOTES 1, Badruddin Umar, Purba Banglar Bhasha Andoion O Tatkalin Rajnity, Vol. 1, fourth edition, Jatiya Grantha Prakashan, 1995, pp. 17-8. 2. Interviews, Ataur Rehman (Rajehahi), Shahidullah Kaisar, Abdur Rashid Khan. 3. Interviews, Kamruddin Ahmad, Oli Ahad, Shahidullah Kaisar, Ataur Rehman. 4. Tajuddin Ahmad’s diary, 31 July 1947 and 5 August 1947. 5. Ibid., 30 August 1947. 6. Ibid., 31 August 1947. 7. Ibid., 6 September 1947. 8 Badruddin Umar, op. cit,, vol. 1, pp. 24-5. 9. Ataur Rahman, Kamruddin Ahmad, Tajuddin Ahmad. 10. Badruddin Umar, op. cit., p. 26. 11. Ibid, pp. 26-9. 12. Ibid., p. 47. 13. Naobelal, 11 March 1948. id., 4 March 1948. 15. Tajuddin’s diary, 2 March 1948; Naobelal, 4 March 1948. 16. Badruddin Umar, op. cit., pp. 64-8. 11. Anais Bazar Patrika, Caleutta, 14 March 1948. 19. thi, 16 March 1948; Tajuddin's diary, 14 March 1948, 20, Kamruddin Ahmad, Abu Kasem. 21. Ibid; East Bengal Legislative Assembly Proceedings, Vol. 1, No. 1; Amrita Bazar Patrika, 16 March 1948. 22, Mohammad Toabs, Ranesh Dasgupta, Shackat Ali. 23, Tajuddin’s diary, 19 March 1948; Mohammad Ali Jinnah’s speeches as Governor General, Pakistan Publications, Karachi, pp. 85-6. 24. Abdul Matin, Abul Kasem. 25, Toahs, Oli Ahad, Tajuddin Ahmad, Kamruddin Ahmad; Tajuddin's diary, 24 March 1048; Jugantar Calcutta, 2 April 1948. 28. M.A. Jinnah, speeches as Governor General, p. 107.