Network Bangla hosted the event in recognition of Ekushey February, International Mother Language Day, which was borne out of the Bangla Language Movement.

Briefly, in 1948 West Pakistan declared Urdu as the national language of both East (now Bangladesh) and West Pakistan and forbade Bengali. The movement and protests culminated when a group of students who were demonstrating were killed by the police, which led to major unrest and tension. Eventually the government relented and gave Bangla an official language status. UNESCO declared 21 February as International Mother Language Day.

The Ekushey February event by Network Bangla commenced with guests mingling over a fruit (non-alcoholic) cocktail reception. After a delicious lunch served by the Mala Restaurant waiters, Sulthana Begum (Executive Director) and Arman Ali (General Committee) presented the aims and objectives of Network for the benefit of the many new faces attending, and updated the current members with our latest ideas, achievements and plans to date.

Ashraf Mahmud Neswar of the Kabi Nazrul Centre, East London, gave a comprehensive presentation of the Bangla Language Movement, including his own experiences of the time.

Shabbir Chowdhury spoke next, introducing his organisation Bow Bengali Forum, with whom Network Bangla has worked in conjunction to launch adult Bangla language classes.

Bow Bengali Forum is a Bangladeshi community organisation, led by charity and voluntary organisations providing a range of educational, welfare and community-based services for the community residing in the Bow area of Tower Hamlets. The adult classes launched by Network Bangla in conjunction with Bow Bengali Forum are available for anyone interested in learning or improving their reading, writing and speaking of the Bangla Language. For more information about joining this please email network@networkbangla.co.uk

Following the presentations came the part many attendees have been looking forward to, a showdown between two members through a fantastic debate. Shajahan Miah, a Property Developer and Shuhel Miah, IT Consultant, went head to head, debating the question: "Is there a need for us to learn the Bengali language as 2nd and 3rd generation British Bengalis?"

Shuhel Miah delivered a reasoned argument for the new generation of Bengalis to know the language; Shajahan Miah articulated a well-thought out counter-argument, contending this need. The audience became heavily involved in the debate, showing their passion for the heartfelt subject that language is, which illustrates that the Language Movement is still relevant to our identity even to this day. The result was a very close call, as it was just the one vote that made Shuhel's argument win the debate!

The debate between the audience continued into an active networking session, and as usual, it was hard to get the people out once the event had finished! The event was thoroughly enjoyed by the guests, some of whom came from as far as Cardiff and Leeds.

Excerpts of the debate by Shuhel and Shajahan can be seen in the videos below:

The arguments

The rebuttals

Click here to view Event Photos

Click here to view the Ekushey February information leaflet created by Network Bangla for this event