Editor's Note

This February

February is a significant month in the history of our language. Few nations feel as strongly about the sanctity of their language as we do. Many are given to emotional outbursts when this sanctity is violated. So sensitive have we sometimes acted, that often it has seemed that the very act of using a foreign language is a sin. Language is inseparable from the way we think or even feel. Our vocabularies to articulate our freedoms, oppressions, dreams and aspirations are constrained by our language. Even that which we 'feel' in a very abstract way, is structured by language. We don't just speak language, language speaks us.

Our nation is unique in that our language has a blood-soaked history. Our literature is rich and our Ekushey book fair teems with young people who don't seemed to have turned away from old-fashioned paper-printed books in physical bookstalls, even after having access to so much intellectual stimulation and other diversion that is digital and virtual. Nevertheless there are still plenty of worriers who feel that our language is threatened and we don't appreciate Ekushey's legacy enough. My response to such worries: our language is not threatened, our heritage is not threatened. Let people freely pursue their interests, and your literature will thrive. Constant lectures to the younger generation about what to love- or how to feel- benefits no one.

Abak Hussain
From the Insight Desk

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