Literacy in Composition Studies May 2025 RSS Open Access

Modernity and the Rhetorics of Language Reform: East Pakistan’s Language Movement and the Proposal for Shahaj Bangla

Shakil Rabbi Virginia Tech

Abstract

The language movement in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) was a social movement that seeded Bangladeshi consciousness and is often considered as prefiguring Bangladeshi independence in 1972. It underscored the centrality of linguistic identity in modern nationalism. Developments in the language movement also provide a generative example of how development and modernity can frame discussions around language reform and literacy in contexts characterized by a multilingual norm and postcoloniality. This article examines the rhetorics of language reform in the movement through a reading of a set of recommendations for developing a simplified register of Bangla, called Shahaj-Bangla, within a sense of the overall language movement and its discourse. I argue that the new register simultaneously presents a scientific and cultural view of language to suit the needs of the region. This study contributes to current scholarship in the field by showing how an example of language reform assumes a fluid nature of language while also arguing for a form of standardization aligned with modern nationalism. It also adds to our developing conversations around language and literacy transnationally through its focus on a language debate about a non-European language set in a non-Western context.

Journal
Literacy in Composition Studies
Published
2025-05-29
DOI
10.21623/1.12.1.4
CompPile
Search in CompPile ↗
Open Access
OA PDF Gold
Topics
discourse analysis argument literacy studies
Export
BibTeX RIS

Citation Context

Cited by in this index (0)

No articles in this index cite this work.

References (36) · 10 in this index

  1. Al-Helal, Bashir. ভাষা আন্দোলনের ইতিহাস [History of the Language Movement]. Agami Prokashoni, 2016.
  2. Aull (2017)
    Corpus Analysis of Argumentative Versus Explanatory Discourse in Writing Task Genres
    Journal of Writing Analytics
  3. Azam, Muhammad. “প্রমিত বাংলার ভবিষ্যৎ” [“The Future of Standard Bangla”]. Shampratik Deshkal, 2023, http://s…
  4. Bauman, Richard, and Charles L. Briggs. Voices of Modernity: Language Ideologies and the Politics of Inequali…
     ↗
  5. Brandt, Deborah. Literacy in American Lives. Cambridge UP, 2001.
     ↗
Show all 36 →
  1. Canagarajah, A. Suresh. Translingual Practice: Global Englishes and Cosmopolitan Relations. Routledge, 2012, …
     ↗
  2. Canagarajah (2019)
    Weaving the Text: Changing Literacy Practices and Orientations
    College English
  3. Easley, David, and Jon Kleinberg. Networks, Crowds, and Markets: Reasoning about a Highly Connected World. Ca…
     ↗
  4. Engelson, Amber. The Hands of God at Work: Islamic Gender Justice Through Translingual Praxis. National Counc…
  5. Flowers, Katherine S. Making English Official: Writing and Resisting Local Language Policies. U of Massachuse…
     ↗
  6. García, Romeo, and Damián Baca, editors. Rhetorics Elsewhere and Otherwise: Contested Modernities, Decolonial…
  7. Goldstone, Andrew, and Ted Underwood. “The Quiet Transformations of Literary Studies: What Thirteen Thousand …
     ↗
  8. Gonzales, Laura. Sites of Translation: What Multilinguals Can Teach Us about Digital Writing and Rhetoric. Sw…
     ↗
  9. Government of East Pakistan Education Department. Report of the East Bengal Language Committee 1949. East Pak…
  10. Graff (2022)
    The New Literacy Studies and the Resurgent Literacy Myth
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  11. Hesford, Wendy S. “Global Turns and Cautions in Rhetoric and Composition Studies.” PMLA: Publications of the …
     ↗
  12. Kimball, Elizabeth. Translingual Inheritance: Language Diversity in Early National Philadelphia. Pittsburgh S…
     ↗
  13. Lee, Jerry Won. The Politics of Translingualism: After Englishes. Routledge, 2017, https://doi.org/10.4324/97…
     ↗
  14. Leonard (2013)
    Traveling Literacies: Multilingual Writing on the Move
    Research in the Teaching of English
  15. Lyons (2000)
    Rhetorical Sovereignty: What Do American Indians Want from Writing?
    College Composition and Communication
  16. Mao (2018)
    Thinking Through Difference and Facts of Nonusage: A Dialogue Between Comparati…
    Across the Disciplines
  17. Matsuda (2006)
    The Myth of Linguistic Homogeneity in U.S. College Composition
    College English
  18. Mueller, Derek N. Network Sense: Methods for Visualizing a Discipline. The WAC Clearinghouse; UP of Colorado,…
     ↗
  19. Newman, Mark E. J. Networks: An Introduction. Oxford UP, 2010.
     ↗
  20. Olson et al. (2015)
    “The Advantages of Knowing How to Read and Write”: Literacy, Filmic Pedagogies,…
    Literacy in Composition Studies
  21. Ong, Walter J. Orality and Literacy: 30th Anniversary Edition. 3rd ed., Taylor and Francis, Routledge, 2013, …
     ↗
  22. Rabbi, Shakil, and Suresh Canagarajah. “Cosmopolitanism and Plurilingual Traditions: Learning from South Asia…
  23. Rosa, Jonathan, and Nelson Flores. “Unsettling Race and Language: Toward a Raciolinguistic Perspective.” Lang…
     ↗
  24. Segev, Elad, editor. Semantic Network Analysis in Social Sciences. E-book ed., Routledge, vol. 1, 2022, pp. 82–95.
  25. Shepley (2022)
    Spatial Knowledge Making from Writing about Appalachia outside Appalachia
    Pedagogy
  26. Sugiharto, Setiono. “The Multilingual Turn in Applied Linguistics? A Perspective from the Periphery.” Interna…
     ↗
  27. Sultana, Shaila. “Problematising the Popular Discourses about Language and Identity of Young Adults in Bangla…
  28. Trimbur (2006)
    Linguistic Memory and the Politics of U.S. English
    College English
  29. Umar, Badaruddīn. পূর্ব বাঙলার ভাষা আন্দোলন ও তৎকালীন - রাজনীতি-১ [The Contemporary Politics of the East Beng…
  30. —-. Language Movement in East Bengal. Jatiya Grontha Prakashan, 2000.
  31. Wan, Amy J. Producing Good Citizens: Literacy Training in Anxious Times. Pittsburgh Series in Composition, Li…
CrossRef global citation count: 0 View in citation network → Build reading path →

Related Articles

  1. Written Communication Jul 2025
    Does ChatGPT Write Like a Student? Engagement Markers in Argumentative Essays ↗
    Feng (Kevin) Jiang; Ken Hyland
    discourse analysis writing pedagogy argument artificial intelligence literacy studies
  2. Written Communication Jul 2025
    Synthesizing Professional Knowledge and Racial Literacy Content Through Explicit Composing Instruction: A Discourse Synthesis Study ↗
    Jenifer Jasinski Schneider; James R. King; Gretchen Dodson
    discourse analysis writing pedagogy teacher development argument assessment literacy studies race and writing
  3. Research in the Teaching of English May 2025
    Argument as Architecture: Constructing an Alternative K–12 Writing Paradigm for Collective Civic Futures ↗
    Nicole Mirra; Kia Turner; Antero Garcia
    discourse analysis writing pedagogy argument assessment multimodality literacy studies
  4. Rhetoric & Public Affairs Mar 2024
    Literacy in a Long Blues Note: Black Women's Literature and Music in the Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries ↗
    Cecilia Cerja
    rhetorical criticism genre theory discourse analysis argument literacy studies race and writing gender and writing public rhetoric literary studies
  5. Pedagogy Jan 2024
    The Radical Role of Student Writing in Composition ↗
    Jessica Masterson
    modern rhetorical theory rhetorical criticism genre theory discourse analysis cultural rhetorics first-year composition writing pedagogy graduate education teacher development argument collaborative writing professional writing grammar and mechanics literacy studies race and writing gender and writing