The New Nation - Internet Edition

Chittagong Correspondent

Eminent writer and Advisory Editor of The New Nation Hasnat Abdul Hye said mere emotion and occasional support to Bangla would not help establish the language in all spheres of national life.

He was addressing the publication ceremony of a giant compilation of write ups on Bangla, a language of 220 million people, published to mark the golden jubilee of the historic language movement as chief guest.

Publisher of the compilation Adorn Publication hosted the function at the Theatre Institute in the port city Saturday evening.

The book is an anthology of articles written over the last 400 years by researchers and writers in both West Bengal and Bangladesh.

The book, divided in 28 chapters, covers the history of Bangla language from the ancient to the middle and to the modern periods.

Among the many subjects covered in the articles, the anthology deals with the history of the Bangla language, the language movement in Bangladesh, the use of Bangla language in different spheres of life and the future of the language.

Editor of The Daily Azadi MA Maleq presided over the ceremony while editor of the publication Prof Mahbubullah, Prof Imran Hossain, Principal Mahmud Hossain Khan, Prof Golam Mostafa, Sayed Mohammad Shafi and Sayed Zakir Hossain addressed the function.

Speaking as chief guest Hasnat Abdul Hye said that the status of Bangla language could not be promoted through emotion now, it has to be sustained through proper usage and application in all spheres of life.

Referring to the use of Bangla as the medium of instruction in higher education Hye said that the dearth of books written in Bangla on different subjects was the main obstacle.

In this connection he regretted that though this was the major responsibility of the Bangla Academy, very little has been done so far.

He emphasised that the Bangla Academy was not established to hold annual Boi Mela (Book Fairs) but to undertake research on the Bangla language and to translate books from foreign languages into Bangla to promote its use in higher education.

He hoped that this aspect would be looked into by the Academy in future.

In his concluding remarks Editor of The Daily Azadi MA Maleq pointed out that the articles in the anthology have been collected from the national dailies where these were published.

He regretted that though a good many articles were written and published in regional dailies like in Chittagong, none of these has been included in the anthology, which he thought, was its short coming.