Today is the International Mother Language Day in commemoration of the Language Movement Day or Language Martyrs’ Day of 1952, a historic event of revolution and sacrifice in honor of Bengali language in Bangladesh (then East Pakistan). The people of East Pakistan (now known as Bangladeshis) including the college and university students of Dhaka launched a revolution to protect their mother tongue Bengali from being overpowered by Urdu. On February 21, Bengali was given the status of a national language at the cost of many young lives. In 1999, UNESCO declared the day as International Mother Language Day.