Feature

IUBians pay homage to language martyrs

Sanjeeda Haque

The students of Independent University, Bangladesh organized trio programmes an art exhibition, a wall magazine and a cultural function to pay homage to the martyrs of 21st February and the Mother Language Day at the Baridhara campus. In the early hours of the morning, students laid wreaths at the Shahid Minar.

On the occasion, the students of Art Club organized a month-long installation work exhibition titled “Ekushey in self-affliction” at the university art gallery. IUB offers courses on art and aesthetics and has a permanent art gallery at Baridhara campus. The exhibition was inaugurated by Prof. Omar Rahman, Pro-Vice Chancellor of IUB and attended by students, teachers and art lovers. The entire floor of the exhibition corner was painted in red as an expression of pain and anguish over the deaths of language martyrs. On it lay, four human figures, made of silvery iron nets, all bullet ridden. On the walls, there were more than 2 dozen wooden blocks with pricked iron nails of various size, each symbolising the Shaheed Minar, processions, meetings, demonstrations and history of the Language Movement in abstract form. The items displayed the moods, feelings, sentiments, struggles and hopes of participants of the long struggle to establish Bangla as a national language.

A wall-magazine titled “Shada Kaloy Ekushey”, was also brought out on the occasion by the students of the course National Heritage and Culture. It was hand- written in black ink with various shapes and decorations of reddish shades, reflecting the blood of language martyrs. There were short write-ups, poems on the language movement and some recollections of the history. Among others, Jenifar Yasmin, Rifat Islam, Sonia Nasrin, Muhammad Rashidul Hasan, Nusrat Jahan and Husain Ibrahim prepared the wall magazine.

The Students Activities Division, assisted by the Student Council organized a cultural programme consisting of songs and recitations, some composed by the students. Some of the participants were Synthia, Jinnatul Ferdous, Rabbi and Shahid. Prof. Omar Rahman, Pro-Vice Chancellor, talked about the significance of the Language Movement. A very interesting feature of the occasion was the display of a huge painting by Rajesh Barua, a student of IUB depicting a Baul singing the victory of the movement.