ABSTRACT
21 February is celebrated as International Mother Language Day (IMLD), recognising an estimated 7000 Mother languages spoken internationally. The day commemorates students who laid down their lives at the hands of the police in 1952 in Dhaka in Bangladesh demonstrating for the recognition of their main language and Mother tongue Bangla. IMLD was proclaimed by the General Conference of UNESCO in 1999 to promote linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. Commemorating the event, the date of 21 February has been observed as International Mother Language Day since February 2000, and it is widely celebrated across the SAARC region as well.
