Bengali

From UniLang Wiki

Bengali, or Bangla, is an Indo-European language related to Assamese, Oriya, and Hindi. It is the official language of Bangladesh and is one of the official languages of India, with minorities in Nepal, Singapore, the United Kingdom and the United States. It has around 200 million speakers world-wide, ranking it in the top ten languages with the most speakers. However, since many educated people also speak English or Hindi, there isn't as much of a push to learn Bengali as there is for Spanish or English.

There is also a very rich literary tradition associated with the Bengali language. Nobel laureate Rabidranath Tagore, considered to be one of the most prolific writers of the Subcontinent, wrote thousands of pieces of work, including essays, songs, and poems. The current national anthem of both Bangladesh and of India were penned by Tagore.

The Bengali language was also an important symbol of the independence movement of Bangladesh from Pakistan. When the Pakistani government decided to legislate Urdu, a then-minority language, as the official language of both West Pakistan and East Pakistan, present day Bangladesh, college students walked into military fire in protest. To this day, the day is solemnly remembered in Bangladesh, and UNESCO deemed the day International Mother Language Day.