140-607: Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra ( Bengali : স্বাধীন বাংলা বেতার কেন্দ্র , lit. 'Free Bengal Radio Centre') was the radio broadcasting centre of Bengali nationalist forces during the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. The station played an important role in the liberation struggle, broadcasting the Declaration of Independence and increasing the morale of Bangladeshis during
280-509: A Bengali identity based under language-based nationalism. Ziaur Rahman emphasised the national role of Islam as guide to life's principle. Claiming to promote an inclusive national identity, Ziaur Rahman reached out to non-Bengali minorities such as the Santals , Garos , Manipuris and Chakmas , as well as the Urdu -speaking peoples of Bihari origin. He even amended the constitution to change
420-401: A war hero . Ziaur Rahman is credited for ending the disorder of the final years of Sheikh Mujib's rule and establishing democracy by abolishing BAKSAL (One party rule established by Mujib). On the other hand, Ziaur Rahman is assailed by his critics for suppressing opposition. However, Zia's economic reforms are credited with rebuilding the economy and his move towards Islamisation brought him
560-747: A 1 kilowatt transmitter. On 3 April, they restarted the broadcasting from Bagapha of Tripura and later moved to Agartala. The name was changed to Bangladesh Betar on 6 December 1971 after India gave recognition to Bangladesh as a sovereign country. Bangladesh Betar started broadcasting in independent country on 22 December 1971. With profound appreciation, the nation will always remember the services of those ten individuals who included Belal Muhammad , Syed Abdus Shaker, Mustafa Monwar , Abdullah Al Faruque, Abul Quasem Shandeep, Aminur Rahman, Rashedul Hossain, A.M. Sharfuzzaman, Kazi Habib Uddin Moni and Rezaul Karim Chowdhury. In his message, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman called upon
700-500: A bid to lessen this burden on young learners, efforts have been made by educational institutions in the two main Bengali-speaking regions (West Bengal and Bangladesh) to address the opaque nature of many consonant clusters, and as a result, modern Bengali textbooks are beginning to contain more and more "transparent" graphical forms of consonant clusters, in which the constituent consonants of a cluster are readily apparent from
840-632: A citizen of a Muslim majority Pakistan and in August 1947 moved to Karachi, the first capital of Pakistan located in Sindh, West Pakistan. Zia, at the age of 11, had become a student in class six at the Academy School in Karachi in 1947. Ziaur Rahman spent his adolescent years in Karachi and by age 16, completed his secondary education from that School in 1952. In 1953, Ziaur Rahman was admitted into
980-784: A commander in the Pakistan Army in the Second Kashmir War against the Indian Army for which he was awarded the Hilal-e-Jurrat from the Pakistani government . Ziaur was a prominent Bangladesh Forces commander during the country's Liberation War from Pakistan in 1971. He broadcast the declaration of independence on 27 March from Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra radio station in Kalurghat , Chittagong. During
1120-641: A compulsory subject for Muslim schoolchildren. At the birth of Bangladesh, many Islamists had supported the Pakistani Army's fight against independence and been barred from politics with the Bangladesh Collaborators (Special Tribunals) Order of 1972. Ziaur Rahman undid this as well as the ban on communal parties and associations. In public speeches and policies that he formulated, Ziaur Rahman began expounding "Bangladesh Nationalism", its "Sovereignty", as opposed to Mujib's assertion of
1260-596: A different word from a speaker of Standard Bengali in Bangladesh, even though both words are of native Bengali descent. For example, the word salt is লবণ lôbôṇ in the east which corresponds to নুন nun in the west. Bengali exhibits diglossia , though some scholars have proposed triglossia or even n-glossia or heteroglossia between the written and spoken forms of the language. Two styles of writing have emerged, involving somewhat different vocabularies and syntax : Linguist Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar categorises
1400-480: A diphthong. The total number of diphthongs is not established, with bounds at 17 and 31. An incomplete chart is given by Sarkar (1985) of the following: In standard Bengali, stress is predominantly initial. Bengali words are virtually all trochaic ; the primary stress falls on the initial syllable of the word, while secondary stress often falls on all odd-numbered syllables thereafter, giving strings such as in সহযোগিতা shô -hô- jo -gi- ta "cooperation", where
1540-584: A failed coup attempt on 2 October 1977. With Khaleda Zia, Ziaur Rahman had two sons, Tarique Rahman and Arafat Rahman (d. 2015). Khaleda became the head of the BNP and organised a coalition of political parties opposed to Ershad's regime. In elections held in 1991, she led the BNP to victory and became the first female prime minister of Bangladesh . She lost the 1996 elections to the Awami League's Sheikh Hasina, but returned to power in 2001. Tarique served as
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#17328015536971680-458: A gun fight with army personnel. One of Mujibur Rahman's cabinet ministers and a leading conspirator Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad gained the presidency and dismissed Major General K M Shafiullah , who had stayed neutral during the coup. Major General Ziaur Rahman (then deputy chief of army staff) was appointed as army chief of staff, after Shafiullah resigned. However, the coup of 15 August caused a period of instability and unrest in Bangladesh and amongst
1820-692: A large scale and were communally limited. Owing to Bengal's geographic location, Bengali areas bordering non-Bengali regions have been influenced by each other. Small numbers of people in Midnapore , which borders Odisha , have used the Odia script to write in Bengali. In the border areas between West Bengal and Bihar , some Bengali communities historically wrote Bengali in Devanagari , Kaithi and Tirhuta . In Sylhet and Bankura , modified versions of
1960-682: A majority in Bangladesh speaks dialects notably different from SCB. Some dialects, particularly those of the Chittagong region, bear only a superficial resemblance to SCB. The dialect in the Chittagong region is least widely understood by the general body of Bengalis. The majority of Bengalis are able to communicate in more than one variety – often, speakers are fluent in Cholitobhasha (SCB) and one or more regional dialects. Even in SCB,
2100-469: A military trial. The size of Bangladesh police forces was doubled and the number of soldiers of the army increased from 50,000 to 90,000. In 1978, he appointed Hussain Muhammad Ershad as the new Chief of Army Staff , promoting him to the rank of lieutenant general . He was viewed as a professional soldier with no political aspirations because of his imprisonment in former West Pakistan during
2240-400: A note of protest also to New Delhi. The strength of the Bengali revolutionary forces at Kalurghat went on swelling as people fleeing from the besieged city of Chittagong collected there. The greatest contribution towards increasing the strength came from the student community who drafted many for joining up and fought. M A Hannan , an Awami League leader from Chittagong , is said to have made
2380-543: A part in the adoption of the English alphabet to write Bengali, with certain social media influencers publishing entire novels in Roman Bengali. Ziaur Rahman Ziaur Rahman BU HJ HOR (19 January 1936 – 30 May 1981) was a Bangladeshi military officer, freedom fighter and politician who served as the sixth President of Bangladesh from 1977 until his assassination in 1981. One of
2520-594: A re-Islamisation of Bangladesh. He issued a proclamation order amending the constitution, under whose basis laws would be set in an effort to increase the self-knowledge of religion and nation. In the preamble, he inserted the salutation "Bismillahir-Rahmaanir-Rahim" ("In the name of Allah , the Beneficent, the Merciful"). In Article 8(1) and 8(1A) the statement "absolute trust and faith in Almighty Allah"'
2660-622: A regional group in South Asia , which later became SAARC in 1985. He improved Bangladesh's relations with the West and China, and departed from Sheikh Mujib's close alignment with India. Domestically, Ziaur faced as many as twenty-one coup attempts for which military tribunals were set up, resulting in at least 200 soldiers of Army and Air Force officers being executed, earning him a reputation of being "strict" and "ruthless" amongst international observers. Throughout his military career, Ziaur Rahman
2800-576: A rounded total of 280 million) worldwide. The Bengali language is native to the region of Bengal , which comprises the present-day nation of Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal . Besides the native region it is also spoken by the Bengalis living in Tripura , southern Assam and the Bengali population in the Indian union territory of Andaman and Nicobar Islands . Bengali is also spoken in
2940-810: A short time and killed eleven air force officers and 30 airmen at Tejgaon International Airport, where they were gathered for negotiations with the hijackers. Wing Commander M. Hamidullah Khan TJ, SH, BP (BDF Commander Bangladesh Forces Sector 11), then BAF Ground Defence Commander, quickly put down the rebellion within the Air Force, While, the then government was severely shaken. Chief of Air Staff AVM AG Mahmud reappointed Wing Commander Hamidullah Khan as Provost Marshal of BAF. President Zia immediately appointed Wing Commander Hamidullah Khan as ZMLA (Dhaka) and Director of Martial Law Communications and Control at Tejgaon (present day PM's Office). Government intelligence had failed and President Ziaur Rahman promptly dismissed
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#17328015536973080-408: A special diacritic, called the hôsôntô (্) , may be added below the basic consonant grapheme (as in ম্ [m] ). This diacritic, however, is not common and is chiefly employed as a guide to pronunciation. The abugida nature of Bengali consonant graphemes is not consistent, however. Often, syllable-final consonant graphemes, though not marked by a hôsôntô , may carry no inherent vowel sound (as in
3220-581: A state language of the then Dominion of Pakistan . On 21 February 1952, five students and political activists were killed during protests near the campus of the University of Dhaka ; they were the first ever martyrs to die for their right to speak their mother tongue. In 1956, Bengali was made a state language of Pakistan. 21 February has since been observed as Language Movement Day in Bangladesh and has also been commemorated as International Mother Language Day by UNESCO every year since 2000. In 2010,
3360-468: A status appropriate to their qualifications and seniority. While this angered some veterans of the independence war, who had rapidly reached high positions following independence in 1971, Ziaur Rahman sent discontented officers on diplomatic missions abroad to defuse unrest. Ziaur Rahman became the President of Bangladesh on 21 April 1977. Years of disorder from the previous political administration of
3500-634: A vital role in the War of Liberation with their merit, creativity, and hard work. The end of British rule in India in August 1947, accompanied by the Partition of India , gave birth to a new country named Pakistan which constituted Muslim -majority areas in the far east and far west of the Indian subcontinent . The Western zone was popularly (and for a period of time, also officially) termed West Pakistan and
3640-463: A vowel in isolation from any preceding or following consonant, the independent form of the vowel is used. For example, in মই [moj] "ladder" and in ইলিশ [iliʃ] "Hilsa fish", the independent form of the vowel ই is used (cf. the dependent form ি) . A vowel at the beginning of a word is always realised using its independent form. In addition to the inherent-vowel-suppressing hôsôntô , three more diacritics are commonly used in Bengali. These are
3780-500: Is Bangladesh's national march, written by The National Poet Kazi Nazrul Islam in Bengali in 1928. It was adopted as the national marching song by the Bangladeshi government in 1972. Additionally, the first two verses of Vande Mataram , a patriotic song written in Bengali by Bankim Chandra Chatterjee , was adopted as the "national song" of India in both the colonial period and later in 1950 in independent India. Furthermore, it
3920-468: Is a cursive script with eleven graphemes or signs denoting nine vowels and two diphthongs , and thirty-nine graphemes representing consonants and other modifiers. There are no distinct upper and lower case letter forms. The letters run from left to right and spaces are used to separate orthographic words . Bengali script has a distinctive horizontal line running along the tops of the graphemes that links them together called মাত্রা matra . Since
4060-572: Is also spoken by the Bengali diasporas ( Bangladeshi diaspora and Indian Bengalis) across Europe, North America, the Middle East and other regions. Bengali was accorded the status of a classical language by the government of India on 3 October 2024. It is the second most spoken and fourth fastest growing language in India , following Hindi in the first place, Kashmiri in the second place, and Meitei ( Manipuri ), along with Gujarati , in
4200-400: Is an abugida , a script with letters for consonants, with diacritics for vowels, and in which an inherent vowel (অ ô ) is assumed for consonants if no vowel is marked. The Bengali alphabet is used throughout Bangladesh and eastern India (Assam, West Bengal, Tripura). The Bengali alphabet is believed to have evolved from a modified Brahmic script around 1000 CE (or 10th–11th century). It
4340-707: Is believed by many that the national anthem of Sri Lanka ( Sri Lanka Matha ) was inspired by a Bengali poem written by Rabindranath Tagore , while some even believe the anthem was originally written in Bengali and then translated into Sinhala . After the contribution made by the Bangladesh UN Peacekeeping Force in the Sierra Leone Civil War under the United Nations Mission in Sierra Leone ,
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4480-721: Is considered a separate language, although it shares similarities to Northern Bengali dialects. During the standardisation of Bengali in the 19th century and early 20th century, the cultural centre of Bengal was in Kolkata , a city founded by the British. What is accepted as the standard form today in both West Bengal and Bangladesh is based on the West-Central dialect of Nadia and Kushtia District . There are cases where speakers of Standard Bengali in West Bengal will use
4620-404: Is known as Apabhraṃśa , by the end of the first millennium. The Bengali language evolved as a distinct language over the course of time. Though some archaeologists claim that some 10th-century texts were in Bengali, it is not certain whether they represent a differentiated language or whether they represent a stage when Eastern Indo-Aryan languages were differentiating. The local Apabhraṃśa of
4760-490: Is set out below in the International Phonetic Alphabet (upper grapheme in each box) and romanisation (lower grapheme). Bengali is known for its wide variety of diphthongs , combinations of vowels occurring within the same syllable . Two of these, /oi̯/ and /ou̯/ , are the only ones with representation in script, as ঐ and ঔ respectively. /e̯ i̯ o̯ u̯/ may all form the glide part of
4900-405: Is the fifth most spoken native language and the seventh most spoken language by the total number of speakers in the world. It is the fifth most spoken Indo-European language . Bengali is the official , national , and most widely spoken language of Bangladesh , with 98% of Bangladeshis using Bengali as their first language. It is the second-most widely spoken language in India . It
5040-686: Is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal and Tripura and the Barak Valley region of the state of Assam . It is also the second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. It is the most widely spoken language in the Andaman and Nicobar Islands in the Bay of Bengal , and is spoken by significant populations in other states including Bihar , Arunachal Pradesh , Delhi , Chhattisgarh , Meghalaya , Mizoram , Nagaland , Odisha and Uttarakhand . Bengali
5180-440: The 1970 Pakistani general election , the Awami League had won a majority and its leader Sheikh Mujib laid claim to form a government, but Pakistan president Yahya Khan postponed the convening of the legislature under pressure from Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's PPP party. Following the failure of last-ditch talks, Yahya Khan declared martial law and ordered the army to crack down on Bengali political activities. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman
5320-509: The Aesop's Fables in Bengali was printed using Roman letters based on English phonology by the Scottish linguist John Gilchrist . Consecutive attempts to establish a Roman Bengali have continued across every century since these times, and have been supported by the likes of Suniti Kumar Chatterji , Muhammad Qudrat-i-Khuda , and Muhammad Enamul Haq . The Digital Revolution has also played
5460-615: The Arabic , Persian , and Turkic languages . The arrival of merchants and traders from the Middle East and Turkestan into the Buddhist -ruling Pala Empire , from as early as the 7th century, gave birth to Islamic influence in the region. In the 13th century, subsequent Arab Muslim and Turco-Persian expeditions to Bengal heavily influenced the local vernacular by settling among the native population. Bengali absorbed Arabic and Persian influences in its vocabulary and dialect, including
5600-698: The Awami League and BAKSAL had left most of Bangladesh's state institutions in disarray, with constant internal and external threats. After becoming president in 1977, Ziaur Rahman lifted martial law and introduced massive reforms for the development of the country. In late September 1977, a failed coup against his administration occurred. A group of Japanese Red Army terrorists hijacked Japan Airlines Flight 472 from India, armed with weapons and ammunition and forced it to land in Tejgaon International Airport . On 30 September, while
5740-474: The Constitution of Bangladesh states Bengali to be the sole official language of Bangladesh. The Bengali Language Implementation Act, 1987 , made it mandatory to use Bengali in all records and correspondences, laws, proceedings of court and other legal actions in all courts, government or semi-government offices, and autonomous institutions in Bangladesh. It is also the de facto national language of
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5880-650: The D. J. Sindh Government Science College . In the same year, he joined the Pakistan Military Academy at Kakul as a cadet. In August 1960, his marriage was arranged to Khaleda Khanam Putul, the 15-year-old daughter of Iskandar Majumder and Taiyaba Majumder from the Feni District (part of then Noakhali District). Khaleda Khanam Putul, later known as Khaleda Zia , went on serve as the Prime Minister of Bangladesh three times. At
6020-519: The Jatiyo Samajtantrik Dal (JSD or National Socialist Party) under retired Lieutenant Colonel Abu Taher and a group of socialist military officers. Khaled Mosharraf was killed by his subordinate officers while he was sheltering with them from the mutineers. Shafaat Jamil escaped but was injured, while Ziaur Rahman was freed by the 2nd Artillery Regiment under Lt. Col. Rashid and re-appointed as army chief of staff with full support of
6160-488: The Justice Sayem government . He took over the presidency in 1977. As president in 1978, Ziaur Rahman founded Bangladesh Nationalist Party. He reinstated multi-party politics , freedom of the press , free speech and free markets and accountability. He initiated mass irrigation and food production programmes, including social programmes to uplift the lives of the people. His government initiated efforts to create
6300-579: The Kaithi script had some historical prominence, mainly among Muslim communities. The variant in Sylhet was identical to the Baitali Kaithi script of Hindustani with the exception of Sylhet Nagri possessing matra . Sylhet Nagri was standardised for printing in c. 1869 . Up until the 19th century, numerous variations of the Arabic script had been used across Bengal from Chittagong in
6440-723: The Middle Indo-Aryan dialects were influential in the first millennium when Bengal was a part of the Greater Magadhan realm. The local varieties had no official status during the Gupta Empire , and with Bengal increasingly becoming a hub of Sanskrit literature for Hindu priests, the vernacular of Bengal gained a lot of influence from Sanskrit. Magadhi Prakrit was also spoken in modern-day Bihar and Assam , and this vernacular eventually evolved into Ardha Magadhi . Ardha Magadhi began to give way to what
6580-524: The Nadia region . Bengali shows a high degree of diglossia , with the literary and standard form differing greatly from the colloquial speech of the regions that identify with the language. Modern Bengali vocabulary is based on words inherited from Magadhi Prakrit and Pali, along with tatsamas and reborrowings from Sanskrit and borrowings from Persian , Arabic , Austroasiatic languages and other languages with which it has historically been in contact. In
6720-529: The Sheikh Hasina 's authoritarian regime politically motivated the negative portrayal of Ziaur's legacy. Nevertheless, Zia is generally credited for his role in the Liberation War, stabilizing Bangladesh, industrializing agriculture, and fostering regional cooperation. His political party, the BNP, remains a major force alongside its rival, the Awami League, with his widow, Khaleda Zia , leading
6860-607: The University of Karachi (established by East Pakistani politicians before Independence of Bangladesh ) also offers regular programs of studies at the Bachelors and at the Masters levels for Bengali Literature. The national anthems of both Bangladesh ( Amar Sonar Bangla ) and India ( Jana Gana Mana ) were written in Bengali by the Bengali Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore . Notuner Gaan known as " Chol Chol Chol"
7000-499: The boldface represents primary and secondary stress. Native Bengali words do not allow initial consonant clusters ; the maximum syllabic structure is CVC (i.e., one vowel flanked by a consonant on each side). Many speakers of Bengali restrict their phonology to this pattern, even when using Sanskrit or English borrowings, such as গেরাম geram (CV.CVC) for গ্রাম gram (CCVC) "village" or ইস্কুল iskul (VC.CVC) for স্কুল skul (CCVC) "school". The Bengali-Assamese script
7140-413: The brutal genocide in 1971 . During this time, radio was the only media able to reach the far ends of Bangladesh. The station ran a liberation campaign throughout the liberation war . Giving tunes, and taking records at every moment. Music expert Altaf Mahmud helped the freedom fighters in different ways. The guerrilla fighters would often pay a visit to his home and store weapons there. At one stage, he
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#17328015536977280-557: The phonology of Eastern Bengali is seen through the lack of nasalised vowels and an alveolar articulation of what are categorised as the "cerebral" consonants (as opposed to the postalveolar articulation of western Bengal). Some varieties of Bengali, particularly Sylheti , Chittagonian and Chakma , have contrastive tone ; differences in the pitch of the speaker's voice can distinguish words. Kharia Thar and Mal Paharia are closely related to Western Bengali dialects, but are typically classified as separate languages. Similarly, Hajong
7420-609: The "Freedom Fighter" statuses by the Government of Bangladesh . Bengali language Bengali , also known by its endonym Bangla ( বাংলা , Bāṅlā , [ˈbaŋla] ), is a classical Indo-Aryan language from the Indo-European language family native to the Bengal region of South Asia. With over 237 million native speakers and another 41 million as second language speakers as of 2024, Bengali
7560-463: The "Village Defence Party" system of security and crime prevention. Programmes to promote primary and adult education on a mass scale were initiated and focused mainly across rural Bangladesh. During this period, Bangladesh's economy achieved fast economic and industrial growth. Ziaur Rahman began reorienting Bangladesh's foreign policy, addressing the concerns of the mostly staunch rightists coupled with some renegade leftist who believed that Bangladesh
7700-623: The 16th century, Portuguese missionaries began a tradition of using the Roman alphabet to transcribe the Bengali language. Though the Portuguese standard did not receive much growth, a few Roman Bengali works relating to Christianity and Bengali grammar were printed as far as Lisbon in 1743. The Portuguese were followed by the English and French respectively, whose works were mostly related to Bengali grammar and transliteration. The first version of
7840-652: The 19th and 20th centuries, there were two standard forms of written Bengali: In 1948, the government of Pakistan tried to impose Urdu as the sole state language in Pakistan, giving rise to the Bengali language movement . This was a popular ethnolinguistic movement in the former East Bengal (today Bangladesh ), which arose as a result of the strong linguistic consciousness of the Bengalis and their desire to promote and protect spoken and written Bengali's recognition as
7980-593: The 6th century, which competed with the ancestor of Bengali for some time. The ancestor of Bengali was the language of the Pala Empire and the Sena dynasty . During the medieval period, Middle Bengali was characterised by the elision of the word-final অ ô and the spread of compound verbs, which originated from the Sanskrit Schwa . Slowly, the word-final ô disappeared from many words influenced by
8120-530: The 8th and 9th Bengals during his stint as instructor. Around the same time, his wife Khaleda Zia, now 24, gave birth to their first child Tarique Rahman on 20 November 1966. Ziaur Rahman joined the 2nd East Bengal regiment as its second-in-command at Joydebpur in Gazipur district, near Dhaka, in 1969, and travelled to West Germany to receive advanced military and command training from the British Army of
8260-655: The Bangladesh Jute and Rice research institutes. He launched an ambitious rural development programme in 1977, which included a highly visible and popular food-for-work programme. He promoted private sector development, exports growth and the reversing of the collectivisation of farms. His government reduced quotas and restrictions on agriculture and industrial activities. Ziaur Rahman launched major projects to construct irrigation canals, power stations, dams, roads and other public works. Directing his campaign to mobilise rural support and development, Ziaur Rahman established Gram Sarkar ( Village Councils ) system of self-government and
8400-528: The Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971. During the period of Liberation War of Bangladesh, media supported mass sentiments. They aired patriotic songs and talk shows. In the process of achieving Bangladesh's independence by trouncing the atrocities of the Pakistani military forces, the war-time broadcasting station "Shadheen Bangla Betar Kendra" played a vital role in increasing the morale of Bangladeshis by informing them of how they were advancing towards victory. Shadheen Bangla Betar Kendra reached its pinnacle during
8540-469: The Bangladesh War of Independence. Quietly Ershad rose to become Zia's close political and military counsellor. In 1978, General Ziaur Rahman ran for and an overwhelmingly won a five-year term as president. The next year elections were held for the National Assembly. Opponents questioned the integrity of the elections. Zia allowed Sheikh Hasina , the exiled daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, to return to Bangladesh in 1981. On taking power, Ziaur Rahman
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#17328015536978680-494: The Bengali attitude towards the military perhaps prevented promising young Bengali from seeking military careers. As a Bengali army officer, he advocated military careers for Bengali youth. After serving for two years in Karachi, he was transferred to the East Bengal Regiment in 1957. He attended military training schools of British Army . He also worked in the military intelligence department from 1959 to 1964. Ayub Khan 's military rule from 1958 to 1968 convinced Ziaur Rahman of
8820-401: The Bengali equivalent of a full stop – have been adopted from Western scripts and their usage is similar. Unlike in Western scripts (Latin, Cyrillic, etc.) where the letter forms stand on an invisible baseline, the Bengali letter-forms instead hang from a visible horizontal left-to-right headstroke called মাত্রা matra . The presence and absence of this matra can be important. For example,
8960-426: The Bengali script is an abugida, its consonant graphemes usually do not represent phonetic segments , but carry an "inherent" vowel and thus are syllabic in nature. The inherent vowel is usually a back vowel , either [ɔ] as in মত [m ɔ t] "opinion" or [o] , as in মন [m o n] "mind", with variants like the more open [ɒ] . To emphatically represent a consonant sound without any inherent vowel attached to it,
9100-436: The DG-NSI and the DFI chief, AVM Aminul Islam Khan, of 9th GD (P) formerly coursemate of AVM A. K. Khandkar of Pakistan Air Force . Under Zia's presidential directive, Hamidullah initiated the transfer of DFI at Old Bailey Road from the ministry of defence to Dhaka Cantonment under direct control of the president and reorganised as DGFI. In the aftermath, at least 200 soldiers involved in the coup attempt were executed following
9240-476: The East Bengal Regiment (EBR) under which he fought won 3 Sitara-e-Jurat (Star of Courage) medals, and 8 Tamgha-i-Jurat (Medal of Courage) medals, for their role in the 1965 War with India. In 1966, Ziaur Rahman was appointed military instructor at the Pakistan Military Academy, later going on to attend the Command and Staff College in Quetta , Pakistan, he completed a course in command and tactical warfare. Ziaur Rahman helped raise two Bengali battalions called
9380-453: The Eastern zone (modern-day Bangladesh) was initially termed East Bengal and later, East Pakistan . The two zones were separated by over thousand miles of Indian territory in the middle, and had vastly different cultures. It was widely perceived that the west zone dominated the country, leading to the effective marginalization of the east zone. Growing disenchantment among the people of East Pakistan finally led to civil disobedience followed by
9520-421: The Kalurghat Bridge to reach the local transmission centre controlled by the Bengali soldiers of the 8th East Bengal Regiment under Major Ziaur Rahman . Bengali soldiers guarded the station as engineers prepared for transmission. As contact could not be established between the political leaders Major Ziaur Rahman was requested to broadcast the message. At 7:45 pm on 27 March 1971, Major Ziaur Rahman broadcast
9660-401: The Martial Law Authorities. Newspapers had no authority to use any news broadcast by radio systems of countries other than Pakistan. Major Zia's message was picked up by a Japanese ship anchored mid-stream in Chittagong harbour. When the news of this declaration was broadcast by Radio Australia, the rest of the world came to know of it. Inside Bangladesh those who heard Radio Australia passed on
9800-511: The Organization of Muslim Nations, a move that was widely welcomed by the general public. However, many historians argue that these actions might have alienated Bangladesh's tribal and religious minorities. During Ziaur Rahman's regime, at least 20 military coup attempts took place. It is claimed that many soldiers and military officials either disappeared or were killed during Zia's reigme. On one occasion, about 1,143 people were hanged in various Bangladeshi prisons, on charges of participating in
9940-461: The Pakistan Army. In the army, he received commando training, became a paratrooper and received training in a special intelligence course. Ziaur Rahman went to East Pakistan on a short visit and was struck by the negative attitude of the Bengali middle class towards the military, which consumed a large chunk of the country's resources. The low representation of the Bengalis in the military was largely due to discrimination, but Ziaur Rahman felt that
10080-565: The Pakistan-led occupation forces, war news, and talk shows to boost up people's spirits. In the afternoon of 26 March 1971, a telegram containing the message of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman reached to one Syed Anwar Ali through some students in Chittagong. The message was translated to Bengali by Dr. Syed Anwar Ali's wife Dr. Manjula Anwar. She along with Syed Anwar Ali, Kazi Hosne Ara and two WAPDA engineers Mr. Ashikul Islam and Mr. Dilip Chandra Das to broadcast that message decided to cross over
10220-590: The Presidency of Hussain Muhammad Ershad with the first meeting of the South Asia Association for Regional Cooperation in Dhaka. Zia's vision has earned him a posthumous award from the organisation. Ziaur Rahman believed that a massive section of the population was suffering from an identity crisis, both religious and as a people, with a very limited sense of sovereignty. To remedy this he began
10360-727: The Rhine and later spent a few months with the British Army. Ziaur Rahman returned to Pakistan the following year. He was posted in Chittagong , East Pakistan in October 1970 to be second-in-command of the 8th East Bengal Regiment. East Pakistan had been devastated by the 1970 Bhola cyclone , and the population had been embittered by the slow response of the central government and the political conflict between Pakistan's two major parties, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Awami League , and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto 's Pakistan People's Party (PPP). In
10500-539: The attention of the government was riveted on this crisis situation, due to spreading of panic and disinformation actions went under way in Bogra Cantonment where a revolt broke out. Although, the revolt was quickly quelled on the night of 2 October, another revolt started in Dhaka cantonment, led by misinformed airmen of Bangladesh Air Force (BAF). Armed units from these army and air force personnel unsuccessfully attacked Zia's residence, captured Dhaka Radio for
10640-536: The basis of modern standard colloquial Bengali. In the dialects prevalent in much of eastern and south-eastern Bangladesh ( Barisal , Chittagong , Dhaka and Sylhet Divisions of Bangladesh), many of the stops and affricates heard in West Bengal and western Bangladesh are pronounced as fricatives . Western alveolo-palatal affricates চ [ tɕɔ ] , ছ [ tɕʰɔ ] , জ [ dʑɔ ] correspond to eastern চ [tsɔ] , ছ [tsʰɔ~sɔ] , জ [dzɔ~zɔ] . The influence of Tibeto-Burman languages on
10780-629: The birth of independent Bangladesh in a small room in the radio transmitter centre at the industrial township, Kalurghat skirting Chittagong where Surya Sen with a handful of revolutionaries had 40 years ago challenged the mighty British Government by armed attack on its armoury. Major Zia's message was heard by a few sub-editors and reporters in news offices in Dacca while tuning in different stations for news of their own country. Those days they were cut off from free news circulation and were forced to bring out their papers with press notes and hand-outs given by
10920-469: The consonant which comes first is put on top of or to the left of the one that immediately follows. In these ligatures, the shapes of the constituent consonant signs are often contracted and sometimes even distorted beyond recognition. In the Bengali writing system, there are nearly 285 such ligatures denoting consonant clusters. Although there exist a few visual formulas to construct some of these ligatures, many of them have to be learned by rote. Recently, in
11060-404: The country, preaching the "politics of hope" and urging Bangladeshis to work harder and to produce more. He held cabinet meetings all across Bangladesh. Ziaur Rahman focused on boosting agricultural and industrial production, especially in food and grains, and to integrate rural development through a variety of programmes, of which population planning was the most important. He introduced and opened
11200-455: The country. In India, Bengali is one of the 23 official languages . It is the official language of the Indian states of West Bengal , Tripura and in Barak Valley of Assam . Bengali has been a second official language of the Indian state of Jharkhand since September 2011. In Pakistan , Bengali is a recognised secondary language in the city of Karachi mainly spoken by stranded Bengalis of Pakistan . The Department of Bengali in
11340-463: The date of Major Zia's speech as 27 March 1971. Chorompotro was the most popular program hosted by M. R. Akhtar Mukul . Here, he used to describe the uncomfortable position of Pak army in a funny voice and made his dialogues in Old Dhaka dialect. Chorompotro was planned by Abdul Mannan . Another popular program "Jallader Darbar" was run by Kalyan Mitra where approaches of Yahya Khan , known in
11480-674: The day after the Operation Searchlight crackdown, when the brutal mass carnage by the Pakistani invaders plunged the nation into gloom and despair, at that critical juncture of history a voice was heard over Radio saying "Swadhin Bangla Biplobi Betar Kendra Theke Ami Major Zia Balchhi". With that broadcast the entire nation got back its confidence, courage of conviction and strong optimism. It was all possible because of
11620-604: The development of Dobhashi . Bengali acquired prominence, over Persian, in the court of the Sultans of Bengal with the ascent of Jalaluddin Muhammad Shah . Subsequent Muslim rulers actively promoted the literary development of Bengali, allowing it to become the most spoken vernacular language in the Sultanate. Bengali adopted many words from Arabic and Persian , which was a manifestation of Islamic culture on
11760-596: The disorder had to be suppressed firmly if discipline was to be restored in the Bangladesh Army. Ziaur Rahman cracked down on the JSD and Gonobahini . Abu Taher was sentenced to death in July 1976 and other party figures received various terms of imprisonment. Taher was executed on 21 July 1976. Ziaur Rahman became the chief martial law administrator the same year. He tried to integrate the armed forces, giving repatriates
11900-587: The east to Meherpur in the west. The 14th-century court scholar of Bengal, Nur Qutb Alam , composed Bengali poetry using the Persian alphabet . After the Partition of India in the 20th century, the Pakistani government attempted to institute the Perso-Arabic script as the standard for Bengali in East Pakistan ; this was met with resistance and contributed to the Bengali language movement. In
12040-553: The eastern subcontinent, Purbi Apabhraṃśa or Abahatta (lit. 'meaningless sounds'), eventually evolved into regional dialects, which in turn formed three groups, the Bengali–Assamese languages , the Bihari languages , and the Odia language . The language was not static: different varieties coexisted and authors often wrote in multiple dialects in this period. For example, Ardhamagadhi is believed to have evolved into Abahatta around
12180-505: The emergence of Bangladesh in 1971. In 1999, UNESCO recognised 21 February as International Mother Language Day in recognition of the language movement. Although Sanskrit has been spoken by Hindu Brahmins in Bengal since the 3rd century BC, the local Buddhist population spoke varieties of the Prakrit . These varieties are generally referred to as "eastern Magadhi Prakrit ", as coined by linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji , as
12320-466: The final ন in মন [m o n] or the medial ম in গামলা [ɡamla] ). A consonant sound followed by some vowel sound other than the inherent [ɔ] is orthographically realised by using a variety of vowel allographs above, below, before, after, or around the consonant sign, thus forming the ubiquitous consonant-vowel typographic ligatures . These allographs, called কার kar , are diacritical vowel forms and cannot stand on their own. For example,
12460-750: The first announcement of the declaration of independence over the radio on 26 March 1971. There is controversy now as to when Major Zia gave his speech. BNP sources maintain that it was 26 March, and there was no message regarding declaration of independence from Mujibur Rahman. Pakistani sources, like Maj. Gen. Fazal Muqeem Khan in his book Pakistan's Crisis in Leadership , Brigadier Zahir Alam Khan in his book The Way It Was and Lt. Gen. Kamal Matinuddin in his book Tragedy of Errors: East Pakistan Crisis, 1968-1971 had written that they heard Major Zia's speech on 26 March 1971, but Maj. Gen. Hakeem A. Qureshi in his book The 1971 Indo-Pak War: A Soldier's Narrative gives
12600-424: The gallant initiative taken by three young individuals Dr. Syed Anwar Ali , Engineer Ashikul Islam and Engineer Dilip Chandra Das to start with 10 KW transmitter. Since then, during the whole period of Liberation War, Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra successfully carried out its intellectual war like an organized front and aired patriotic songs that greatly inspired the freedom fighters in their relentless fight against
12740-726: The government of Ahmad Tejan Kabbah declared Bengali as an honorary official language in December 2002. In 2009, elected representatives in both Bangladesh and West Bengal called for Bengali to be made an official language of the United Nations . Regional varieties in spoken Bengali constitute a dialect continuum . Linguist Suniti Kumar Chatterji grouped the dialects of Bengali language into four large clusters: Rarhi , Vangiya , Kamrupi and Varendri ; but many alternative grouping schemes have also been proposed. The south-western dialects ( Rarhi or Nadia dialect) form
12880-953: The government, do hereby declare the Independence of the People's Republic of Bangladesh. But his (Ziaur Rahman) proclamation as the " Provincial Head " of the government, was much criticised and rebuked by the political leaders present there and he realised his mistake. Later on the same day (27 March), a second broadcast was read as correction: I, Major Ziaur Rahman, do hereby declare the Independence of Bangladesh on behalf of our great leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Later in an interview with German Radio, Ziaur Rahman talked about his 27 March announcement. Ziaur Rahman organised an infantry unit gathering all Bengali soldiers from military and EPR units in Chittagong. He designated it Sector No. 1 with its HQ in Sabroom. A few weeks later, he
13020-499: The graph মি [mi] represents the consonant [m] followed by the vowel [i] , where [i] is represented as the diacritical allograph ি (called ই-কার i-kar ) and is placed before the default consonant sign. Similarly, the graphs মা [ma] , মী [mi] , মু [mu] , মূ [mu] , মৃ [mri] , মে [me~mɛ] , মৈ [moj] , মো [mo] and মৌ [mow] represent the same consonant ম combined with seven other vowels and two diphthongs. In these consonant-vowel ligatures,
13160-412: The graphical form. However, since this change is not as widespread and is not being followed as uniformly in the rest of the Bengali printed literature, today's Bengali-learning children will possibly have to learn to recognise both the new "transparent" and the old "opaque" forms, which ultimately amounts to an increase in learning burden. Bengali punctuation marks, apart from the downstroke । daṛi –
13300-595: The highly controversial anti-independence figure Shah Azizur Rahman (who was earlier released from jail by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1973 ) as prime minister. Ziaur Rahman gave foreign appointments to several men accused of assassinating Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. Major Dalim, Major Rashid and Major Faruk were given jobs in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and in subsequent years, they were appointed ambassadors of Bangladesh to African and Middle Eastern nations. The Indemnity Ordinance (which gave immunity from legal action to
13440-494: The language as: While most writing is in Standard Colloquial Bengali (SCB), spoken dialects exhibit a greater variety. People in southeastern West Bengal, including Kolkata, speak in SCB. Other dialects, with minor variations from Standard Colloquial, are used in other parts of West Bengal and western Bangladesh, such as the Midnapore dialect, characterised by some unique words and constructions. However,
13580-547: The language. Major texts of Middle Bengali (1400–1800) include Yusuf-Zulekha by Shah Muhammad Sagir and Srikrishna Kirtana by the Chandidas poets. Court support for Bengali culture and language waned when the Mughal Empire conquered Bengal in the late 16th and early 17th century. The modern literary form of Bengali was developed during the 19th and early 20th centuries based on the west-central dialect spoken in
13720-546: The leading figures of country's Liberation War , he broadcast the Bangladeshi declaration of independence on 27 March 1971 from Chittagong . He was the founder of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). He previously served as the third chief of army staff from 1975 to 1978 with a minor break. Ziaur, sometimes known as Zia, was born in Gabtali and trained at the Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad . He served as
13860-428: The letter ত tô and the numeral ৩ "3" are distinguishable only by the presence or absence of the matra , as is the case between the consonant cluster ত্র trô and the independent vowel এ e , also the letter হ hô and Bengali Ôbogroho ঽ (~ô) and letter ও o and consonant cluster ত্ত ttô . The letter-forms also employ the concepts of letter-width and letter-height (the vertical space between
14000-451: The liberation war being acclaimed as the stool pigeon of war news updates through 'Chorom Potro'. In those days when radio was the only media reaching the far ends of Bangladesh, Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra eventually turned as the orator of the Bangladesh government in exile. It ran the nationalist campaign throughout the war in gearing up freedom fighters' morale and also mobilizing world opinion in favor of Bangladesh. On 26 March 1971, just
14140-516: The message which became historic as the declaration of independence on behalf of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The Kalurghat Radio Station's transmission capability was limited. The message was picked up by a Japanese ship in Bay of Bengal . It was then re-transmitted by Radio Australia and later by the BBC. It ran for 5 days as Pakistan Air Force bombed and damaged it on 30 March. Ten founding members broke up into two groups and went to Agartala and Tripura with
14280-552: The nation's standing in the Middle East. According to historian Tazeen M. Murshid, one aim of these policies was to open the Gulf states to manpower exports. In this Zia was successful, and remittances became an important part of the Bangladeshi economy. Ziaur Rahman also proposed an organisation of the nations of South Asia to bolster economic and political co-operation at a regional level. This proposal materialised in 1985 under
14420-497: The nationality of the citizens from Bengali, an ethnic identity, to Bangladeshi, a national identity, under sovereign allegiance not political belief or party affiliation. However, Bangladeshi nationalism excluded the country's non-Muslim minorities, particularly the Hindu community. After the formation of Bangladesh Nationalist Party in 1978, Ziaur Rahman took initiative for formation of political institutes and sponsored workshops for
14560-585: The need for a fundamental change in the Bengali attitude towards the military. During the Indo-Pakistani War of 1965 , Ziaur Rahman saw combat in the Khemkaran sector in Punjab as the commander of a company (military unit) of 100–150 soldiers. Ziaur Rahman was awarded Hilal-i-Jur'at for gallantry by the Pakistan government medal, Pakistan's second highest military award, and the first Battalion of
14700-605: The neighbouring states of Odisha , Bihar , and Jharkhand , and sizeable minorities of Bengali speakers reside in Indian cities outside Bengal, including Delhi , Mumbai , Thane , Varanasi , and Vrindavan . There are also significant Bengali-speaking communities in the Middle East , the United States , Singapore , Malaysia , Australia , Canada , the United Kingdom , and Italy . The 3rd article of
14840-469: The news of the historic declaration in whispers to friends, neighbours and strangers. Major Zia's call had immediate response; the EBR, EPR and the regular police forces rose in revolt in every town and border outpost. The Pakistan Government authorities made futile attempts to tell the people that the broadcast was made by a clandestine radio from a ship in the mouth of river Hooghly in India. Islamabad even sent
14980-517: The parliament of Bangladesh and the legislative assembly of West Bengal proposed that Bengali be made an official UN language. As of January 2023, no further action has been yet taken on this matter. However, in 2022, the UN did adopt Bangla as an unofficial language, after a resolution tabled by India. In 2024, the government of India conferred Bengali with the status of classical language . Approximate distribution of native Bengali speakers (assuming
15120-561: The party and serving two terms as prime minister . Ziaur Rahman was born on 19 January 1936 to a Bengali Muslim family of Mandals in the village of Bagbari in Gabtali , Bogra District . His father, Mansur Rahman, was a chemist who specialised in paper and ink chemistry and worked for a government department at Writers' Building in Kolkata . His grandfather, Moulvi Kamaluddin Mandal, migrated from Mahishaban to Nashipur-Bagbari after marrying his grandmother Meherunnisa. His mother's name
15260-410: The people to resist the occupation forces. Mujib was arrested on the night of 25–26 March 1971 at about 1:30 am (as per Radio Pakistan's news on 29 March 1971). This is Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra. I, Major Ziaur Rahman, at the direction of Bangobondhu Mujibur Rahman, hereby declare that Independent People's Republic of Bangladesh has been established. At his direction, I have taken the command as
15400-521: The persons involved in the assassination of president Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, coups and other political events between 1975 and 1979) was proclaimed by Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad in 1975 president, ratified in the Parliament as the Indemnity Act, and incorporated as the 5th amendment to the constitution during the tenure of President Hussain Muhammad Ershad. During his term of power, Ziaur Rahman
15540-475: The political crisis that had begun with the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman , the founding president of Bangladesh in 15 August 1975 military coup , followed by 3 November coup and then finally the 7 November coup (the Sipahi–Janata Revolution ) within the military to gain control at the helm. Ziaur Rahman gained the de facto power as head of the government under martial law imposed by
15680-553: The program as "Kella Fateh Khan" were described in a funny manner. "Bojro Kontho" was the program where speech of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman were presented. A group of young singers used to sing inspiring songs. Many poems and songs were written for this broadcasting. One of those songs Joy Bangla Banglar Joy (Victory of Bengal) was the signature tune of the radio. Many songs of Swadhin Bangla Betar Kendra like Purbo Digante Surjo Uthechhe, Ekti Phoolke Bachabo Bole, Salam Salam Hajar Salam of Gobinda Haldar , became immensely popular. Singers of
15820-413: The rank and file of the armed forces. Brigadier Khaled Mosharraf and the 46th Brigade of Dhaka Cantonment under Colonel Shafaat Jamil revolted against Khandaker Mushtaq Ahmed 's administration on 3 November 1975, and Ziaur Rahman was forced to relinquish his post and put under house arrest. This was followed on 7 November by Sipahi–Janata Revolution ( Soldier–People's Revolution ), a mutiny staged by
15960-494: The rank and file of the army. Following a meeting at army headquarters, an interim government was formed with Justice Abu Sadat Mohammad Sayem as chief martial law administrator and Ziaur Rahman, Air Vice Marshal M. G. Tawab and Rear Admiral M. H. Khan as his deputies. However, discipline in the army had totally collapsed and it was difficult to disarm the soldiers supported by JSD and Lt. Col. Taher, as they plotted another coup to remove Ziaur Rahman. Ziaur Rahman realised that
16100-553: The regional BNP. Ziaur Rahman and his entourage stayed overnight at the Chittagong Circuit House . In the early hours of the morning of 30 May, he was assassinated by a group of army officers. Also killed were six of his bodyguards and two aides. Nearly two million people are estimated to have attended the funeral held at the Parliament Square. Many Bangladeshi politicians consider Ziaur Rahman
16240-400: The republic from the secularism laid out by Sheikh Mujib and his supporters. However, critics of this accusation say the rationale is absurd and an oversimplification since secular leaders like Gamal Abdel Nasser and Ahmed Ben Bella adopted this policy, and that religious slogans and symbolism are also used by the Awami League. Later, Ziaur Rahman introduced Islamic religious education as
16380-577: The seizures of power by military coups between 1975 and 1979, including Zia's military regime, as "unlawful and unconstitutional". Zia's martial law decrees, his ascendancy to the presidency in 1977 and the election held in 1978 were declared "unknown to the constitution". The court ruling over-ruled the Indemnity Act by which these very events were accorded a legal status and enshrined in the constitution. Zia rejected Sheikh Mujib's one-party state policy and reintroduced multi-party democracy, which also permitted Islamist politics. He also brought Bangladesh into
16520-427: The so-called "inherent" vowel [ɔ] is first expunged from the consonant before adding the vowel, but this intermediate expulsion of the inherent vowel is not indicated in any visual manner on the basic consonant sign ম [mɔ] . The vowel graphemes in Bengali can take two forms: the independent form found in the basic inventory of the script and the dependent, abridged, allograph form (as discussed above). To represent
16660-629: The station raised funds singing their songs in different parts of West Bengal. News broadcasts were made in Bengali, English and Urdu . Secretary of the Swadhin Bangla Betar Convener Committee Kamal Lohani recalled, For us at the radio, it was a psychological warfare so we could say things to boost up people's morale. Apart from M.R. Akhtar Mukul, the other prominent performers of the Radio were: As of 2017, total 253 radio artistes have been accorded
16800-536: The superposed chôndrôbindu (ঁ) , denoting a suprasegmental for nasalisation of vowels (as in চাঁদ [tʃãd] "moon"), the postposed ônusbar (ং) indicating the velar nasal [ŋ] (as in বাংলা [baŋla] "Bengali") and the postposed bisôrgô (ঃ) indicating the voiceless glottal fricative [h] (as in উঃ! [uh] "ouch!") or the gemination of the following consonant (as in দুঃখ [dukʰːɔ] "sorrow"). The Bengali consonant clusters ( যুক্তব্যঞ্জন juktôbênjôn ) are usually realised as ligatures, where
16940-495: The support of ordinary Bangladeshi people. Zia's role after 15 August 1975 assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family remains controversial. The Indemnity Act, an ordinance ordered by Khondaker Mostaq Ahmad in 1975 pardoning the subsequently convicted killers of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was not abolished by Rahman during his tenure as president. Some killers of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family were sent abroad during his time as president. The Dhaka High Court declared
17080-787: The temporary Head of the Republic. In the name of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, I call upon all Bengalees to rise against the attack by the West Pakistani Army. We shall fight to the last to free our motherland. Victory is, by the Grace of Allah, ours. Joy Bangla. This was the story (described to then Press Trust of India-PTI's East Pakistan correspondent journalist Jyoti Sen Gupta in 1971 by Prof. Md. Khaled, Awami League vice-president of Chittagong, Belal Muhammad, Pakistan Radio rebel and others who took part in Chittagong revolution in March 1971) of
17220-654: The third place, according to the 2011 census of India . Bengali has developed over more than 1,400 years. Bengali literature , with its millennium-old literary history, was extensively developed during the Bengali Renaissance and is one of the most prolific and diverse literary traditions in Asia. The Bengali language movement from 1948 to 1956 demanding that Bengali be an official language of Pakistan fostered Bengali nationalism in East Bengal leading to
17360-617: The time, Ziaur Rahman was a captain in the Pakistan Army, who was posted as an Officer of the Defence Forces. His father, Mansur Rahman could not attend the marriage ceremony, as he was in Karachi. Zia's mother had died earlier. Graduating from the Pakistan Military Academy at 12th PMA long course on 18 September 1955 in the top 10% of his class, Ziaur Rahman was commissioned as a second lieutenant in
17500-484: The visible matra and an invisible baseline). There is yet to be a uniform standard collating sequence (sorting order of graphemes to be used in dictionaries, indices, computer sorting programs, etc.) of Bengali graphemes. Experts in both Bangladesh and India are currently working towards a common solution for this problem. Throughout history, there have been instances of the Bengali language being written in different scripts, though these employments were never popular on
17640-435: The vocabulary may differ according to the speaker's religion: Muslims are more likely to use words of Persian and Arabic origin, along with more words naturally derived from Sanskrit ( tadbhava ), whereas Hindus are more likely to use tatsama (words directly borrowed from Sanskrit). For example: The phonemic inventory of standard Bengali consists of 29 consonants and 7 vowels, as well as 7 nasalised vowels . The inventory
17780-619: The war in 1971, Ziaur was a Bangladesh Forces Commander of BDF Sector 1 initially, and from June as BDF Commander of BDF Sector 11 of the Bangladesh Forces and the Brigade Commander of Z Force from mid-July. After the war, Ziaur became a brigade commander in Bangladesh Army and later the deputy chief of staff and then chief of staff of Bangladesh Army. His ascent to leadership of the country resulted from
17920-620: The youth to get active political lessons on Bangladesh nationalism. In such a workshop in September 1980, Ziaur Rahman spoke to the learners. Ziaur Rahman enacted several controversial measures, some to discipline the army, some to solidify his power and some to win the support of Islamist political groups such as the Jamaat-e-Islami . Zia also facilitated the comeback of the Muslim League and other Islamic parties, appointed
18060-524: Was "hailed as the strict leader that the struggling nation needed". Bangladesh suffered from illiteracy, severe poverty, chronic unemployment, shortages and economic stagnation. Ziaur Rahman reversed course from his predecessor Mujib's secular, democratic socialist, pro-Indian policies. Ziaur Rahman announced a "19-point programme" of economic emancipation which emphasised self-reliance, rural development, decentralisation, free markets and population control. Ziaur Rahman spent much of his time travelling throughout
18200-600: Was Jahanara Khatun. Ziaur Rahman was raised in his home village of Bagbari and studied in Bogra Zilla School . He had two younger brothers, Ahmed Kamal (d. 2017) and Khalilur Rahman (d. 2014). In 1946, Mansur Rahman enrolled Ziaur Rahman for a short stint in a boys school of Calcutta, Hare School , where he studied until the dissolution of the British Empire in India and partition of India and Pakistan in 1947. Mansur Rahman exercised his option to become
18340-409: Was added, replacing the socialist commitment to secularism . Socialism was redefined as "economic and social justice" under his leadership. In Article 25(2), Ziaur Rahman introduced the principle that "the state shall endeavour to consolidate, preserve and strengthen fraternal relations among Muslim countries based on Islamic solidarity." Some intellectuals accuse Ziaur Rahman of changing the nature of
18480-400: Was appointed the commander of the first conventional brigade of the Bangladesh Forces, which was named "Z Force", after the first initial of his name. His brigade consisted of 1st, 3rd and 8th East Bengali regiments, enabling Ziaur Rahman to launch major attacks on Pakistani forces. With the Z Force, Ziaur Rahman "acquired a reputation for icy bravery" according to The New York Times , and
18620-539: Was arrested before midnight on 26 March 1971, taken to Tejgaon International Airport and flown to West Pakistan. He was a Bangladesh Forces Commander of BDF Sector 1 initially, and from June as BDF commander of BDF Sector 11 of the Bangladesh Forces and the Brigade Commander of Z Force from mid-July. Zia, who already by then geared to revolt against the government of Pakistan revolted and later arrested and executed his commanding officer Lt. Col. Janjua. He
18760-535: Was awarded the Bir Uttom , the second-highest military honour (and the highest for living officers) by the Government of Bangladesh. A deep conspiracy with the purpose of removing Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from the helm was well under way long before his assassination by outside forces and internal collaborators within Bangladesh. On 15 August 1975, President Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his family were assassinated in
18900-724: Was awarded two gallantry awards for two campaigns he participated in; he was awarded the Hilal-i-Jurat for the Indo-Pak War in 1965, and Bir Uttom in 1972 for the Bangladesh Liberation War. He retired from the Bangladesh Army with the rank of Lt. General in 1978. Ziaur Rahman's death created a divided opinion on his legacy in Bangladeshi politics. Awami League supporters vilify him for alleged connections to Sheikh Mujib's assassination and controversial actions during his presidency. Critics argue that
19040-446: Was criticised for ruthless treatment of his army opposition. Although he enjoyed overall popularity and public confidence, Zia's rehabilitation of some of the most controversial men in Bangladesh aroused fierce opposition from the supporters of the Awami League and veterans of its Mukti Bahini . Amidst speculation and fears of unrest, Ziaur Rahman went on tour to Chittagong on 29 May 1981 to help resolve an intra-party political dispute in
19180-752: Was reliant on Indian economic and military aid. Ziaur Rahman moved away from India and the Soviet bloc , his predecessors' had worked with, developing closer relations with the United States and Western Europe, Africa and the Middle East. Ziaur Rahman also moved to harmonise ties with Saudi Arabia and the People's Republic of China, Pakistan's ally who had opposed Bangladesh's creation and had not recognised it until 1975. Rahman moved to normalise relations with Pakistan. While distancing Bangladesh from India, Ziaur Rahman sought to improve ties with other Islamic nations. Zia's move towards Islamic state policies improved
19320-544: Was requested by the local Awami League supporters and leaders, to announce the Declaration of Independence that was earlier (in early hours of 26 March 1971) proclaimed by the undisputed Bengali leader Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, before his (Ziaur Rahman) arrest on 27 March 1971 from Kalurghat , Chittagong, as an Army officer's words would carry weight restoring people's trust in the 'Declaration of Independence', which read: I, Major Ziaur Rahman, Provincial Head of
19460-625: Was taken captive by the Pakistanis and tortured inhumanely in a torture cell where he received martyrdom. Abdul Ahad rejected the prize awarded by the Pakistani government as a gesture of protest against the then Pakistani government. The Bangladeshi artists Mukti Sangrami Shilpi Sangstha, Bangabandhu Shilpigosthi, and Swadhin Bangla Muktizoddha Sangskritik Sangggo encouraged the people, including freedom fighters with their songs. Additionally, many singers played
19600-547: Was transferred to Teldhala where he organised and created Sector 11. All sectors were restructured officially under Bangladesh Forces as the sector in the Chittagong and Hill Tracts area , under Colonel M. A. G. Osmani , the Supreme Commander of Bangladesh Forces, of the Provisional Government of Bangladesh which had its headquarters on Theatre Road, Calcutta in India. On 30 July 1971, Ziaur Rahman
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