The Bengali Language Movement, also known as the Language Movement (Bengali: ভাষা আন্দোলন; Bhasha Andolon), was a political movement in former East Bengal (today Bangladesh) advocating the recognition of the Bengali language as an official language of the then Dominion of Pakistan in order to allow its use in government affairs, the continuation of ts use as a medium of education, its use in media, currency and stamps, and to maintain its writing in the Bengali script.

When the Dominion of Pakistan was formed by the partition of India in 1947, it was composed of various ethnic and linguistic groups, with the geographically non-contiguous East Bengal province (that was renamed in 1956 as East Pakistan) having a mainly Bengali population. In 1948, the Government of the Dominion of Pakistan ordained Urdu as the sole national language, sparking extensive protests among the Bengali-speaking majority of East Bengal. Facing rising sectarian tensions and mass discontent with the new law, the government outlawed public meetings and rallies. The students of the University of Dhaka and other political activists defied the law and organised a protest on 21 February 1952. The movement reached its climax when police killed student demonstrators on that day. The deaths provoked widespread civil unrest led by the Awami Muslim League, later renamed the Awami League. After years of conflict, the central government relented and granted official status to the Bengali language in 1956. In 2000, UNESCO declared 21 February International Mother Language Day in tribute to the Language Movement and the ethno-linguistic rights of people around the world.

Language movement may imply any of the following:

Bengali (Bengali: বাংলা Bangla [ˈbaŋla] ( listen)) is an eastern Indo-Aryan language. It is native to the region of eastern South Asia known as Bengal, which comprises present day Bangladesh, the Indian state of West Bengal, and parts of the Indian states of Tripura and Assam. It is written with the Bengali script. With about 193 million native and about 230 million total speakers, Bengali is one of the most spoken languages (ranked sixth) in the world. The National song and the National anthem of India, and the National anthem of Bangladesh were composed in Bengali.

Along with other Eastern Indo-Aryan languages, Bengali evolved circa 1000–1200 AD from the Magadhi Prakrit, which developed from a dialect or group of dialects that were close to, but different from, Vedic and Classical Sanskrit. It is now the primary language spoken in Bangladesh and is the second most commonly spoken language in India.

With a rich literary tradition arising from the Bengali Renaissance, Bengali binds together a culturally diverse region and is an important contributor to Bengali nationalism. In former East Bengal (today Bangladesh), the strong linguistic consciousness led to the Bengali Language Movement, during which on 21 February 1952, several people were killed during protests to gain its recognition as a state language of the then Dominion of Pakistan and to maintain its writing in the Bengali script. The day has since been observed as Language Movement Day in Bangladesh, and was proclaimed the International Mother Language Day by UNESCO on 17 November 1999.

Mohammad Abdus Salam,NI, SPk (Urdu: محمد عبد السلام, pronounced English pronunciation: /əbd̪ʊs səlɑm/, (29 January 1926 – 21 November 1996) was a Pakistani theoretical physicist and Nobel laureate in Physics for his work on the electroweak unification of the electromagnetic and weak forces. Salam, Sheldon Glashow and Steven Weinberg shared the 1979 Nobel prize for this discovery. Salam holds the distinction of being the first Pakistani and the first Muslim Nobel Laureate to receive the prize in the sciences.

Salam was a science advisor to the Government of Pakistan from 1960 till 1974, a position from which he played a major and influential role in Pakistan's science infrastructure. Salam was responsible for not only major development and contribution in theoretical and particle physics, but as well as promoting scientific research at maximum level in his country. Salam was the founding director of Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO), and responsible for the establishment of the Theoretical Physics Group (TPG) in Pakistan Atomic Energy Commission (PAEC). As Science Advisor, Salam played an integral role in Pakistan's development of peaceful use of nuclear energy, and directed the research on development of atomic bomb project of Pakistan in 1972; for this, he is viewed as the "scientific father" of this programme in the views of the scientists who researched under his scientific umbrella. In 1974, Salam left Pakistan in protest when Pakistan Parliament controversially passed a parliamentary bill declaring Ahmadiyya Muslim Community as Non-Muslims. Even after his death, Salam remained one of the most influential scientists in his country. In 1998, following the country's nuclear tests, the Government of Pakistan issued a commemorative stamp, as a part of "Scientists of Pakistan", to honour the services of Salam.

Ghulam Azam (also known as Golam Azam) (Bengali: গোলাম আযম; born. 7 November 1922) is a retired Bangladeshi Islamist political leader. He was the Ameer of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh until 2000. Azam, whose political thought was significantly influenced by Syed Abul Ala Maududi, opposed the independence of Bangladesh before and during the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War out of a desire to prevent further divisions of the Muslim community (Maududi opposed the partition of India for the same reason), and for fear of Indian hegemony. He is alleged to have led the formation of the Shanti Committee, Razakar and Al-Badr to thwart the Mukti Bahini that fought for the independence of the country. He and his supporters state, on the contrary, that he had nothing to do with the formation of such paramilitary groups.

In 1994, one of the judges of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh made a remark in passing during the citizenship trial of Azam stating that the court did not find any direct proof of the war crimes attributed to Azam. But it was clarified by other judges that in fact, supreme court did not have any jurisdiction to investigate and try criminal offences like those. Azam has never before been tried in a court of law for his alleged war crimes. On 11 January 2012, he was arrested on charges of committing war crimes in Bangladesh Liberation War by the International Crimes Tribunal. The tribunal has been criticized for not adhering to international norms and although members of the European Parliament have welcomed the effort to seek justice for crimes committed in 1971, they also cautioned that they would like to "ensure that the trials reach the highest possible standards." On this count, a number of seasoned international lawyers and human rights organisations have expressed their concern over fairness of the trial procedures.