About International Mother Language Day
International Mother Language Day is observed on 21 February and in 2027 it falls on Sunday, 21 February 2027. UNESCO proclaimed it in 1999 after a proposal from Bangladesh, to remember the students killed in Dhaka on 21 February 1952 while demanding official status for Bangla. Indian schools mark it as Matribhasha Diwas, and India counts 22 scheduled languages and 121 languages in all in the 2011 Census.
This is one of the few UNESCO days that remembers people who were shot. Keeping that in the message, even lightly, is what separates a thoughtful note on 21 February from a forwarded graphic.
Why is International Mother Language Day on 21 February?
The date comes from Dhaka in 1952. Pakistan, then including East Bengal, had moved to make Urdu the sole state language, although Bengali speakers were the largest group in the country. Students at Dhaka University and others marched against it, defying a ban on gatherings. On 21 February 1952 the police opened fire. Abdus Salam, Abul Barkat, Rafiq Uddin Ahmed, Abdul Jabbar and Shafiur Rahman were killed, and many more were hurt. Bangla was recognised as a state language of Pakistan in 1956, and the movement fed into the creation of Bangladesh in 1971.
The day itself came much later and from abroad. In January 1998 two Bengalis living in Vancouver, Rafiqul Islam and Abdus Salam, wrote to the UN Secretary-General asking for a day for mother tongues. Bangladesh took the proposal forward, and UNESCO's 30th General Conference proclaimed 21 February as International Mother Language Day on 17 November 1999. The first observance was in 2000, and the UN General Assembly welcomed it in resolution 56/262 in 2002.
UNESCO's own reason for keeping it is the state of the world's languages. It counts roughly 7,000 still in use and says one disappears about every two weeks. Around 40 per cent of children worldwide are taught in a language they do not speak well.
How many mother tongues does India have?
The honest answer is that it depends on how you count, and the counting itself is worth understanding.
In the 2011 Census, people wrote in 19,569 different names for their mother tongue. Statisticians cleaned that down to 1,369 mother tongues, then grouped together the ones with fewer than 10,000 speakers, leaving 270 mother tongues, which were finally presented as 121 languages. Of those 121, twenty-two are in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution and 99 are not.
The cut-off does the damage. A language with 9,000 speakers vanishes into an "others" column and effectively disappears from official view. The People's Linguistic Survey of India, led by Ganesh Devy with thousands of volunteers, reported around 780 living languages and estimated that India has lost roughly 220 since 1961. UNESCO's atlas of endangered languages lists 197 languages in India in some stage of danger, more than for any other country.
| How India counts languages | Number | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| Raw mother tongue names given in Census 2011 | 19,569 | What people actually wrote down |
| After cleaning and grouping | 1,369 | Recognised distinct mother tongues |
| With 10,000 speakers or more | 270 | Mother tongues reported separately |
| Presented as languages | 121 | The headline Census figure |
| In the Eighth Schedule | 22 | Languages with constitutional recognition |
| Counted by the People's Linguistic Survey | about 780 | A non-official count including very small languages |
Does India have its own language martyrs?
Yes, and they are rarely mentioned on 21 February. On 19 May 1961, at Tarapur railway station in Silchar, Assam, police fired on a satyagraha against a decision to make Assamese the sole official language of the state, in a valley where most people spoke Bengali. Eleven people were killed, among them Kamala Bhattacharya, often described as the first woman to die in a language movement. Bengali was later given official status in the three districts of the Barak Valley, and 19 May is observed there as Bhasha Shahid Divas.
India's language history has other hard chapters: the Constituent Assembly's long fight over Hindi, the anti-Hindi agitations in Tamil Nadu, the reorganisation of states on language lines from 1956, and the continuing demands of languages such as Bhojpuri, Tulu and Kodava for a place in the Eighth Schedule. Hindi Diwas covers that argument in more detail.
How is Matribhasha Diwas marked in Indian schools?
Indian schools and colleges observe 21 February as Matribhasha Diwas. CBSE and state boards circulate suggestions for it, and schools hold multilingual assemblies where children read poems, sing or tell stories in the language spoken at home, alphabet displays, and grandparent sessions where elders come in to tell a story in a language the class does not hear.
The policy behind it is National Education Policy 2020, which says that wherever possible the medium of instruction until at least Class 5, and preferably till Class 8, should be the child's mother tongue, home language or local language. The practical difficulty is real: in a classroom with children from four language backgrounds, a teacher cannot use all four, and teaching materials in smaller languages barely exist.
What should you write on International Mother Language Day?
Write in the language, not about it. One line in Marathi, Khasi, Bhojpuri, Tamil or Konkani, even with mistakes, does more than a paragraph in English about linguistic diversity.
Matribhasha Diwas ki shubhkamnayein. The language I dream in is the one you spoke to me in first. Thank you for not giving it up.
Happy International Mother Language Day. Teach me one sentence in your language today, and I will teach you one in mine.
On International Mother Language Day, curious which language you actually speak at home. Mine is not the one on my file.
Happy Matribhasha Diwas. Call your grandmother today and ask her for a word you have never heard. Then use it at dinner.
On International Mother Language Day, thank you for teaching a subject the timetable treats as optional. Your students will thank you later than they should.
On International Mother Language Day, your language is not small to the people who grew up in it. Thank you for still speaking it to your children.
It is International Mother Language Day. Drop one word from your mother tongue in the thread that has no good English translation.
Do
- Write at least one line in the mother tongue of the person you are messaging.
- Ask about a specific word, song or saying rather than praising the language.
- If your school is marking it, invite a speaker of a less common local language, not only the state language.
Avoid
- Don't treat it as a festival greeting. The date remembers people who were killed.
- Don't rank languages or joke about an accent or a "village" dialect.
- Avoid using the day to argue about Hindi. Both sides of that argument can mark this day honestly.
For Hindi's two days, see World Hindi Day on 10 January and Hindi Diwas on 14 September. For the people who move writing between languages, see International Translation Day, and for languages that are signed rather than spoken, International Day of Sign Languages.
How to wish someone on International Mother Language Day
This day has a killing behind it, so avoid a loud festival tone. The best message is written in the reader's own mother tongue, however imperfectly, and says something particular: a word only your family uses, a lullaby, the language your grandmother counts in. For colleagues, ask about their language instead of announcing yours.
Write a few lines in your own words, pick a design and share it as one link on WhatsApp, Instagram or anywhere else. They open an animated card made just for them, with no app and no sign-up.
Language tip: English, Hindi + recipient language.
When is International Mother Language Day in 2026 and 2027?
International Mother Language Day is on 21 Feb every year. Only the weekday changes.
- 2026
- 2027
Frequently asked questions
When is International Mother Language Day in 2027?
International Mother Language Day 2027 falls on Sunday, 21 February 2027.
Why is International Mother Language Day observed on 21 February?
It remembers 21 February 1952, when police in Dhaka fired on students demanding that Bangla be made a state language of Pakistan, killing Abdus Salam, Abul Barkat, Rafiq Uddin Ahmed, Abdul Jabbar and Shafiur Rahman. UNESCO proclaimed the date in November 1999 after a proposal taken forward by Bangladesh, and the first observance was in 2000.
How many languages are there in India?
The 2011 Census presented 121 languages, of which 22 are listed in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution. That figure comes from 19,569 raw mother tongue names, grouped down to 270 mother tongues with at least 10,000 speakers. The People's Linguistic Survey of India, a non-official count, reported around 780 living languages.
What is Matribhasha Diwas?
Matribhasha Diwas is the Indian name for International Mother Language Day, observed on 21 February in schools and colleges. Boards including CBSE encourage multilingual assemblies, storytelling and poetry in the languages children speak at home.
Did India have a language movement like the one in Dhaka?
Yes. On 19 May 1961, police fired on protesters at Silchar railway station in Assam's Barak Valley who were demanding official status for Bengali, killing eleven people including Kamala Bhattacharya. The date is remembered locally as Bhasha Shahid Divas, and Bengali later received official status in the Barak Valley districts.
What does the National Education Policy say about mother tongue teaching?
National Education Policy 2020 says that wherever possible, the medium of instruction until at least Class 5, and preferably till Class 8 and beyond, should be the child's mother tongue, home language or local language. It also asks schools to bridge gaps between the language a child speaks and the language of teaching.
What is a good way to mark International Mother Language Day at home?
Ask the oldest person in your family for a word, song or saying that nobody in the house uses any more, write it down with its meaning, and send it to the children in the family. Recording an elder telling one story in their own language takes ten minutes and cannot be recreated later.
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