Editing Language Movement Day (section)

==Background==
{{main|Bengali language movement}}
[[File:Partition of India.PNG|thumb|Britain's holdings on the [[Indian subcontinent]] were granted independence in 1947 and 1948, so becoming four new independent states: [[Dominion of India|India]], [[Post-independence Burma, 1948–1962|Burma]], [[Dominion of Ceylon|Ceylon]], and [[Dominion of Pakistan|Pakistan]] (including [[East Bengal]], from 1971 [[Bangladesh]]).]]

After the [[partition of India]] in 1947, Bengali-speaking people in [[East Bengal]], the non-contiguous eastern part of the [[Dominion of Pakistan]], made up 44 million of the newly formed Dominion of Pakistan's 69 million people.<ref name="Banglapedia">{{cite book |last=Al Helal |first=Bashir |year=2012 |chapter=Language Movement |chapter-url=http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Language_Movement |editor1-last=Islam |editor1-first=Sirajul |editor1-link=Sirajul Islam |editor2-last=Jamal |editor2-first=Ahmed A. |title=Banglapedia: National Encyclopedia of Bangladesh |edition=Second |publisher=[[Asiatic Society of Bangladesh]] |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307033428/http://en.banglapedia.org/index.php?title=Language_Movement |archive-date=7 March 2016}}</ref> The Dominion of Pakistan's government, civil services, and military, however, were dominated by personnel from the western wing of the Dominion of Pakistan.<ref name=JSToldenburg>{{cite journal |last=Oldenburg |first=Philip |date=August 1985 |title='A Place Insufficiently Imagined': Language, Belief, and the Pakistan Crisis of 1971 |journal=The Journal of Asian Studies |volume=44 |issue=4 |pages=711–733 |issn=0021-9118 |doi=10.2307/2056443 |jstor=2056443 |s2cid=145152852 |doi-access=free}}</ref> In 1947, a key resolution at a national education summit in [[Karachi]] advocated [[Urdu]] as the sole state language and its exclusive use in the media and in schools.<ref>{{Cite news |newspaper=Morning News |date=7 December 1947}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |newspaper=[[The Azad]] (a daily newspaper) |language=bn |publisher=Abul Kalam Shamsuddin, Dhaka |date=11 December 1948}}</ref> Opposition and protests immediately arose. Students from [[Dhaka]] rallied under the leadership of [[Principal Abul Kashem|Abul Kashem]], the secretary of [[Tamaddun Majlish]], a Bengali Islamic cultural organisation. The meeting stipulated Bengali as an official language of the Dominion of Pakistan and as a medium of education in East Bengal.<ref name="umarharv1">{{Cite book |last=Umar |first=Badruddin |year=1979 |script-title=bn:পূর্ব বাংলার ভাষা আন্দোলন ও তাতকালীন রজনীতি |title=Purbo-Banglar Bhasha Andolon O Totkalin Rajniti |url=https://archive.org/details/in.ernet.dli.2015.265835/page/n53/mode/1up |location=Dhaka |publisher=Agamee Prakashani |language=bn |page=35}}</ref> However, the [[Pakistan Public Service Commission]] removed Bengali from the list of approved subjects, as well as from currency notes and stamps. The central education minister [[Fazlur Rahman (politician)|Fazlur Rahman]] made extensive preparations to make Urdu the only state language of the Dominion of Pakistan.<ref>{{cite book |last=Al Helal |first=Bashir |author-link=Bashir Al Helal |date=2003 |title=Bhasa Andolaner Itihas |trans-title=History of the Language Movement |language=bn |location=Dhaka |publisher=[[Agamee Prakashani]] |pages=227–228 |isbn=984-401-523-5}}</ref> Public outrage spread and a large number of Bengali students met on the [[University of Dhaka]] campus on 8 December 1947 to formally demand that Bengali be made an official language. To promote their cause, Bengali students organised processions and rallies in Dhaka. The language movement prompted the people of East Bengal (later East Pakistan) to establish a separate national identity, distinct from that of the remainder of Pakistan (later [[West Pakistan]].<ref>{{Cite news |url=https://www.daily-sun.com/post/293072/University-of-Dhaka-Language-Movement-and-Birth-of-a-Nation- |title=University of Dhaka, Language Movement and Birth of a Nation |work=Daily Sun |language=en |access-date=20 January 2020 |archive-date=21 February 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210221195049/https://www.daily-sun.com/post/293072/University-of-Dhaka-Language-Movement-and-Birth-of-a-Nation- |url-status=live}}</ref>)