ঢাকা বিশ্ববিদ্যালয়ের সমাবর্তন অনুষ্ঠানে মুহম্মদ আলী জিন্নাহর ভাষণের অংশ
Extract from the Convocation Guest’s Speech Given at the Dhaka University by M. A. Jinnah, March, 1948.
“There followed in rapid succession of other difficulties such as withholding by India of our cash balances, of our share of military equipment and latterly, the institution of an almost complete economic blockade of you Province. I have no doubt that all right thinking men in the Indian Dominion deplore these happenings and I am sure the attitude of the mind that has been responsible for them will change, but it is essential that you should take a note of these developments. They stress the importance of continued vigilance on our part. Of late, the attack on your Province, particularly, has taken a subtle form. Our enemies, among whom I regret to say, there are still some Muslims, have set about actively encouraging provincialism in the hope of weakening Pakistan and thereby facilitating the faliciting the reabsorption of this Province in to the Indian Dominion. Those who are playing this game are living in a Fool’s Paradise, but this does not prevent them trying. A flood of false propaganda is being daily put forth with the object of undermining the solidarity of the Mussalmans of this State and inciting the people to commit acts of lawlessness. The recent language controversy, in which I am sorry to make note, some of you allowed yourselves to get involved even after your Prime Minister had clarified the position, only one of the many subtle ways whereby the poison of provincialism is being sedulously injected into this province. Does it not strike you rather odd that certain sections of the Indian press to whom the very name Pakistan is anathema, should in the matter of language controversy, set themselves up as the champion of what they call your “just rights”? Is it not significant that the very persons who in the past have betrayed the Mussalmans or fought against Pakistan which is after all merely the embodiment of your fundamental right of self determination, should now suddenly pose as the saviors of your just rights and incite you to defy the Government on the question of language? I must warn you to beware of these fifth columnists. Let me restate my views on the question of a State language for Pakistan. For official use in this Province, the people of the Province can choose any language they wish. The question will be decided solely in accordance with the wishes of the people of this Province alone, as freely expressed through their accredited representatives at the appropriate time and after full and dispassionate consideration. There can, however, be only one lingua franca, that is, the language for inter-communication between the various Provinces of the State, and that language should be Urdu and cannot by any other. The State language therefore must obviously be Urdu, a language that has been nurtured by a hundred millions of this sub-continent, a language understood throughout the length and breadth of Pakistan and above all, a language which, more than any other provincial language, embodies the best that is in Islamic culture and Muslimtradition and is nearest to the languages used in other Islamic countries. It is not without significance that Urdu has been driven out of the Indian Union and that even the official use of the Urdu script has been disallowed. These facts are fully known to the people who are trying to exploit the language controversy in order to stir up trouble. There was no justification for agitation but it did not suit their purpose to admit this. Their sole object is exploiting this controversy is to create a split among the Muslims of this State, as indeed they have made no secret of their efforts to incite hatred against non-Bengali Mussalmans. Realising, however, that the statement that your Prime Minister made on the language controversy on return from Karachi, left no room for agitation, in so far as it conceded the right of the people of this Province to choose Bengali as their official language if they so wished, these persons changed their tactics. They started demanding that Bengali should be the State language of the Pakistan centre and since they could not overlook the obvious claims of Urdu as the official language of a Muslim State, they proceeded to demand that both Bengali and Urdu should be the State languages of Pakistan. Make no mistake about it. There can be only one State language, if the component parts of this State are to march forward in unison and that language, in my opinion, can only be Urdu. I have spoken at some length on this subject so as to warn you of the kind of tactics adopted by the enemies of Pakistan and certain opportunist politicians to try to disrupt this State or to discredit the Government. Those of you who are about to enter life, be on your guard against these people. Those of you who are about to enter life, be on your guard against these people. Those of you who have still to continue your studies for some time, do not allow yourselves to be exploited by any political party or self-seeking politicians. As I said the other day, your main occupation should be in fairness to yourselves, in fairness your parents and indeed, in fairness to the State, to devote your attention solely to your studies. It is only thus that you can equip yourselves for the battle of life that lies ahead of you. Only thus will be an asset and a source of strength and of pride to your State. Only thus you can assist it in solving the great social and economic problems that confront it and able it to reach its destined goal among the most progressive and strongest nations of the world.”
Dhaka University, The Convocation Speeches, Vol. 2, 1948-1970, (Dhaka : Dhaka University, 1995), pp. 22-24.
সূত্র: ভাষা আন্দোলনের দলিলপত্র – রতন লাল চক্রবর্ত্তী সম্পাদিত