Elevating the status of our mother tongue beyond borders

Bangla is ranked seventh among 100 most spoken languages across the world with approximately 228 million native speakers in the world, according to a report by Ethnologue, the world's most comprehensive catalogue of languages that provides statistics and other information on the living languages. 

A satisfying number, right? 

After all, given the glorious history of sacrifices by our language martyrs, it feels good to hear that our mother tongue has a place among the top 10 most spoken languages in the world. But the reality is not as gratifying as it seems to be. 

The stark reality is that Bangla as a language does not have much influence or acceptance outside our country. 

One of the main reasons behind the dwindling influence of our mother tongue in the global perspective lies in our inability to promote it in the global context through proper strategy.   

To make any language, including its nuances and cultural elements, popular among other populaces, one can devise a strategy and implement it from two angles — economically and culturally.

As we are not in a situation to offer economic benefits to other countries like China, we could definitely try to popularise Bangla by focusing on our rich cultural heritage and promoting that abroad. 

Unfortunately, we do not have any such vision or plan in motion. The most effective way to portray cultural diversity and make a language culturally lucrative is by offering a rich oeuvre of literature.

For example, we got familiar with French, English or Russian culture mostly by reading their literature and consequently, we became interested in both their cultures and languages.  

But if we consider our creations, we will see we did not put much effort into presenting the glorious history of our language movement before the world through literary works in a befitting manner. 

Very few books have been written with a concentrated focus on the language movement and valiant sacrifices of the martyrs exploring diversified angles. 

Despite the fact that our history of language movement provides a strong premise for varied literary creations, our creators, writers and even filmmakers only scratched the surface. Only a handful of movies, three to be particular, have been made based on the language movement. It seems like the language movement is totally lost in celluloid. 

Movies that promote our language can make people belonging to other cultures and regions develop affinity and respect for our language.

Another way to promote a language is through socio-cultural exchange. The inspiring story of Rooppur, a remote village under Ishwardi upazila of Pabna district, is a good instance to elucidate this idea.

The Rooppur Nuclear Power Plant (RNPP) has resulted in phenomenal transformation in this area. As lots of Russians are involved in this project, locals fraternise with them. Russians' presence in this local area has changed the social, cultural, and economic landscape while many people living in this area have learnt Russian language to communicate with the foreigners. 

An extraordinary example of cultural assimilation and language adoption, we can follow the same strategy for our mother tongue's outreach. 

Sierra Leone, where Bangla is one of their official languages, can be a glaring example for us. Sierra Leone was ravaged by internal conflicts in between 1991 and 2002. To mitigate the crisis, the UN deployed a peace-keeping force and the Bangladeshi peacekeepers constituted the largest part of the force. Bangladeshi peacekeepers engaged with the locals and they were heavily influenced by their behaviour, cultural elements and language as well. 

After restoration of peace, Bangla was made an official language of Sierra Leone. Interestingly, many people in that country could speak Bangla and know about our culture. Emulating this model, wherever Bangladeshi peacekeeping forces are active, they can deliberately try to promote our language.  

Last but not least, just like we have French or Russian cultural centres in Bangladesh, our embassies in other countries need to work to promote our language and culture in those respective countries as well. 

Alliance Française de Dhaka offers a comprehensive exposure to their culture, language and other aspects of their country to interested native people. Bangladeshi embassies should also replicate this and create opportunities for other cultures and its people to learn our language. Enough study materials to learn Bangla should also be made available in the embassies or embassy-run cultural centres. 

In addition to these, digitalising study materials necessary to learn or acquire Bangla language is of paramount importance in this smart era. The first step in this regard is to make Bangla dictionaries (to English or other language if any) available on the internet. 

Devising a concrete plan of action is imperative to stretch beyond local context and increase our language's outreach, which is very important if we want to be a player in the geopolitical games shaped by the power and influence of language. 

After all, there is no denying that language is power, life and the instrument of culture, and the instrument of domination and liberation.          

Md Morshedul Alam Mohabat is a columnist who likes to delve deeper into the human psyche and social incongruities with a view to exploring the factors that influence these.

Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the opinions and views of The Business Standard.