Resumen de Politics of language planning in Pakistan and the birth of a new state

Monsur Musa

• This article shows thefailure of the "one state-one state language'' model pursued by policy planners in Pakistan from the very inception ofthe state in 1947. Demandfor the Status of the Bengali language culminated in the demandfor a new state. Pakistan became reduced äs soon äs 1971 with the formation ofanother state, christened Bangladesh, whose state language is Bengali. Documents were analyzed to show that the authoritative perception of nation building in an old society ended in the dissolution of the state itself. Pakistan was established in 1947, combining two parts of the Indian subcontinent to make a new state on the basis of religious loyalty. But language loyalty ofthe majority Eastern Pakistanis came into conflict with the Status planning model followed by the government. Repressive measures gave birth to the ritual death of those who demanded language rights. The event of death created a schism that led to the genesis of another state in 1971. Bangladesh broke awayfrom Pakistan because policy planners failed to realize the power of language äs a divisive äs well äs a unifying factor.