Bengali Language Movement and Creation of Bangladesh is a monumental work of 776 pages by Dr. Anwar Dil and his wife Dr. Aria Dil. It is a well-researched and objectively written book dedicated to our children and our children’s children so they may understand why the Bengali Muslims took such a prominent and leading role in the creation of East and West Pakistan in 1947 and then the happenings that led first to the Bengali Language Movement and then the demise of East Pakistan and the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. The husband and wife, both of them distinguished scholars of sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics respectively and authors of acclaimed books and research papers, worked together for most of their forty years of life together since 1961 in conducting research of sources in English, Urdu, Bengali and some other languages, and published in 2000 a limited edition for scholars and libraries. It was recognized as a most comprehensive and objective record of the uniquely rich multi-ethnic and multi-religious tradition of Eastern Bengal (present-day Bangladesh) and the events from the first partition of Bengal in 1905 to the second partition in 1947 until the creation of Bangladesh in 1971 with the last part covering a review of its first thirty years as an independent nation-state.
The chief merit of this landmark study is that it presents an international perspective with a balanced and judicious treatment of some of the fundamental issues in the history of Bengal in the 20th century. Because of the non-availability of the book the Adorn Publication has published this edition for national and international readers, to read and reflect on an unbiased and insightful study of our belovd nation-state.
– Kabir Chowdhury
National Professor of Bangladesh
January 10,2011
Anwar Dil
Anwar Dil was born in Jullundur, Punjab, and raised in Abbottabad in the North-West Frontier Province. Educated at Government College, Lahore; Islamia College, Peshawar; University of Michigan; and Indiana University. He was Professor of Language Science and Communication at United States International University in San Diego, California (1973-2003). In Pakistan he served for sixteen years as Lecturer in English Literature at a number of colleges, and as Professor and Language Specialist at the West Pakistan Education Extension Centre, Lahore. He is the author and editor of over forty books including nineteen volumes in the distinguished Language Science and National Development Series published by Stanford University Press. His internationally acclaimed books include: Humans in Universe (1983), Norman Borlaug on World Hunger (1997) and Bengali Language Movement and Creation of Bangladesh (with Afia Dil, 2000, 2011) and six books on Intercultural Bangladesh (sixth book: An Intercultural Collage, 2012).
Afia Dil
Afia Dil was born and raised in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Educated at the University of Dhaka; University of New Zealand; University of Michigan; and Stanford University. She was Professor of English at Eden Girls? College, Dhaka (1954-61) and Professor and Language Specialist at the East Pakistan Education Extension Centre, Dhaka (1961-62) and at the West Pakistan Education Extension Centre, Lahore (1962-65). She has taught at the Centre for South Asian Languages and Literature at the University of Missouri, Columbia, and in the Department of Linguistics at the San Diego State University. She was Professor of Linguistics and Communication at United States International University until 2003. Her books in Bengali include, among others, her acclaimed travelogue Je desh mone pare and Bengali version of Helen Keller?s My Teacher. Her books in English: Two Traditions of the Bengali Language (Cambridge, 1991) and Bengali Nursery Rhymes (2010) have been internationally acclaimed.
