It is a demand of time to the Bangladesh government to make all tribal languages of Bangladesh and regional dialects official languages along with Bangla. Besides, we appeal to the government to take initiatives to preserve and promote the alphabets, accent, poetry, proverbs and songs of tribal languages and regional dialects. These are inseparable elements of Bangladesh.

Let’s put ourselves, the mainstream Bangladeshis, in the spot of a tribal language speaker. If I have to learn another language to complete official work. That is fine because people need to learn many languages to communicate with others, like expatriates learning English or Arabic so on and so forth but if I know that my mother tongue is not equal to the official language of the nation I was born in, where all my forefathers born, how would I feel.

I would feel discriminated against. I would feel this is the way the Bangla speakers want to rule over us. This is the way they want to put us behind. A good Bangla speaker of my tribal community gets a better job position, where the job role does not even require speaking in Bangla. He is chosen purely because he has shown his loyalty to the Bangla community. Why do I have to follow that? Why is my mother tongue not equal to Bangla?

I would feel dishonored. It is completely unacceptable when we are equal citizens to the Bangla speaking people of Bangladesh.

Language has always been a way to compartmentalize the society and to set hierarchy to benefit a particular group or community. For instance, Persian was the official language of the Bangla region for many years in the past. In 1952, Urdu was tried to become the national language of us. Our predecessors successfully protested that. Our language martyrs gave lives to honor our mother tongue, so now the entire world observes International Mother Language day on 21st February. We are pioneers in bringing honor to Mother tongues, following that, we need to bring equality to all languages spoken within the Bangladesh border that includes all tribal languages and regional dialects.

Once we set the official language of Bangladesh; Bangla, all tribal languages and regional dialects into the constitution. We will be ensuring equality to its finest. This will reduce a lot of gaps between the communities and tribes of Bangladesh. We must remember equality is the essence of Bangladesh.