Language extinction may lead to loss of information

This refers to the article, “Mother Language Day: The Bangla connection” (February 21) by Syed Muazzem Ali. Mother Language Day was first announced by Unesco on November 17, 1999, that February 21, would be observed as the International Mother Language Day every year to promote the preservation of all languages. This date was chosen to honour the language martyrs who were killed in the streets of Dhaka on that day in 1952, when they were demonstrating for the inclusion of Bangla as one of the national languages of east Pakistan (now Bangladesh). However, it is interesting to find a close connection with those two dates with the life of the Mother (Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual collaborator) as February 21 is her birthday (born Mirra Alfassa in Paris in 1878) and November 17 is the day on which she died (in Pondicherry in 1973).

Is it a mere coincidence? Now, let us recall another such sweet handshake between Sri Aurobindo’s birthday and India’s Independence Day. In his message on the day of Independence, Sri Aurobindo said, “August 15 is my own birthday and it is naturally gratifying to me that it should have assumed this vast significance. I take this coincidence, not as a fortuitous accident, but as a sanction and seal of the divine force that guides my steps on the work I began life, the beginning of its full fruition.” It is unfortunate that thousands of languages are under the threat of extinction. This will lead to the loss of a storehouse of information on tropical medicines and herbs available only in these languages.