Dhaka, March 6 -- The Amar Ekushey Book Fair in January every February is a wake-up call that in Bangladesh language is not just the cultural expression, it is the core of our national identity. Bangla has the legacy of sacrifice and legitimacy of statehood. In the Constitution, Bangali is the state language, and the Bangali Language Implementation Act of 1987 required the use of Bangali in government offices, courts and in official correspondence apart from foreign relations.

However, the practice of the landscape is deeper. English still prevails in superior court verdicts, business agreements, bank papers, airline messages and multinational firms letters. The drafts and development proposals of the policy are usually circulated in Eng...