The world, including India and JK UT, observed/celebrated International Mother Language Day due dedication and enthusiasm on the 21st of February, 2025. This is a Day usually celebrated around the world on February 21st. This Day aims at raising awareness of linguistic and cultural diversity and multilingualism. There is a need to promote, safeguard, and nurture linguistic diversity and love and respect for all languages. Mother Language Day is part of a larger initiative ''to promote the preservation and protection of all languages used by people around the world,'' adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on May 16, 2007, in a UN resolution also declaring 2008 the International Year of Languages.
For commemorating the occasion of the Bhasha Divas, the world will remember the martyrdom of four student activists from Bangladesh. Language basically is powerful in the community for the people to appreciate on social life. There are indeed some 8,000 languages in the world; every language finds its own place in serving as a bridge-in-network for social interaction and communication, and thus there can be no proper language rivalry or language chauvinism. Rather, one language complements the other; hence it becomes essential to treat every language as a bridge that helps in communication and provides information and meaning. It is a universal norm to provide due protection, preservation, and promotion of all languages. The use of language is a one-time integral part of that which cannot be avoided. Language is paramount for education and sustainable development; it is the most important mechanism by which knowledge is created and built in all societies around the world, while also being the biggest means by which culture is derived. Out of 8,324 languages currently spoken in the world, many are very likely to die out in the near future due to globalization and social transformations. Education, in the native tongue, in the early stages of development, is ascribed great importance since it enhances the level of comprehension and understanding among children.
Education can be done in higher classes with an approach in which the mother tongue is used, with greater effectiveness because it leads to better education and increases understanding quickly and easily. The use of local languages will improve the learning outcome. In fact, students taught in a language they fully understand demonstrate more comprehension, engagement, and critical thinking skills. Multilingual education, especially for minority and indigenous languages, helps not only the learners but also promotes greater integration between education and culture, leading to more inclusive and equitable societies. To transmit, preserve, and develop the culture and heritage, education in the mother tongue is necessary and desirable. For the formation and transmitting of literature, education in the mother tongue is a must. This year marks the 25th anniversary of international Mother Language Day, or a quarter-century supporting the preservation of linguistic diversity and promoting mother tongues. That is: preservation of language, the banner for protection of cultural heritage, a safeguard for better education, and building liberating and peaceful societies.
Language transmission through educational programs provides immense benefits. In its very first proclamation, International Mother Language Day, adopted later by the UNGA, UNESCO emphasizes the importance of languages for inclusion to protect human rights and achieving sustainable development goals. Language in education promotes inclusive societies while helping to preserve non-dominant, minority and indigenous languages. It is key to achieving equitable access to education and lifelong learning for all. The languages, indeed, are of utmost strategic importance, for they have complex implications for identity, communication, social integration, education and development. Increasing globalization, however, poses ever-increasing threats to languages which today are on the verge of extinction. Thus it makes the world much poorer in terms of cultural diversity. It is not only the loss of opportunities, traditions, memories, modes of thinking, and expression valuable for building a better future; an entire cultural and intellectual heritage vanishes with each language demise. Language dies every two weeks, taking with it an entire cultural and intellectual heritage. The spoken or signed languages number approximately 8324, of which 7000 are actively spoken.
(Vivek Koul)
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