In this interview with Kavita Puri from 2017, Anis Rahman discusses his memories of discontent in East Pakistan and the rise of the Bangladesh nation. He recalls feeling frustrated when it seemed like high-profile government jobs were more likely to go to West Pakistanis than to East Pakistanis. Anis describes how tensions between East and West Pakistan began increasing in 1948, when Muhammad Ali Jinnah, governor of Pakistan, announced that Urdu would be the country’s state language. He explains that this decision sparked a Bengali language movement. 

What was the Bengali language movement?
This political movement wanted the Pakistan government to recognise Bengali as an official language, meaning that it would be used in government affairs, education, the media and on the currency – all things which were important to the Bengali-speaking majority in East Pakistan. In January 1952 students from the University of Dhaka organised a protest against Prime Minister Khawaja Nazimuddin, who had upheld the 1948 decision to use only Urdu as Pakistan’s official language. As Anis recalls in his interview with Kavita, police shot several student protestors on 21 February 1952, which led to unrest in the following days. This is largely seen as the starting point in the creation of Bangladesh as an independent nation. 

About Kavita Puri’s Partition Voices

In 2017 BBC journalist Kavita Puri led a project to mark the 70th anniversary of the Partition of India. Through interviews, the Partition Voices team directly documented the experiences of those who lived through this traumatic time and subsequently moved to Britain, as well as stories from their children and grandchildren. The testimonies recall epic journeys and forced migration, violence, partings with friends and family, and the end of Empire, with some speaking about these events for the very first time. The outcome of this project was an award-winning three-part series for BBC Radio 4 titled Partition Voices, and later an acclaimed book of the same name. The full recordings and transcripts from Partition Voices are archived at the British Library Sound Archive, with collection reference C1790.

ANIS RAHMAN:

Permanent secretaries were all from West Pakistan. Although from East Pakistan there were well qualified people, but they’re not given the number one job. So this sort of discontent gradually arose and finally started in 1948 when Jinnah he was the Governor General of Pakistan at that time. And he came to East Pakistan and said “Urdu alone shall be the state language of all Pakistan.” That created a big problem with the students. And 1952 there was a language movement and lot of students, on the 21st February, lot of students were killed, shot down by the police, Pakistani regime. And this is the beginning of the Bangladesh nation created, started from there.