Enforcement Officer / Accounts Officer (EO/AO) 2020 recruitment test, advertisement 421. Transcribed from the Commission's own booklet (series A, NMJX-U-GTA); answer as per the official UPSC final answer key. This question is in Part B. Answer last reviewed 24 August 2026.

UNESCO has been observing February 21 as the International Mother Language Day since 2000. The idea to celebrate the International Mother Language Day was the initiative of which of the following nations ?

(a)Sri Lanka
(b)Bangladesh
(c)India
(d)Nepal

Answer

Why

Correct — B, (b) Bangladesh. The initiative came from Bangladesh, and the date the stem gives is the proof of it. UNESCO's General Conference proclaimed 21 February as International Mother Language Day in November 1999 on a proposal moved by Bangladesh and supported by other member states, and the day has been observed around the world since 2000, exactly as the question records. The date commemorates 21 February 1952, when police in Dhaka opened fire on students and others demonstrating for the recognition of Bangla as a state language of Pakistan. Pakistan had been created in 1947 with two wings separated by a thousand miles of Indian territory, and the majority of its people lived in the eastern wing and spoke Bengali; the decision to make Urdu the sole state language was therefore experienced in East Bengal as the imposition of a minority's language on a majority, and it produced the Bhasha Andolan, the Language Movement. Those shot on 21 February — Rafiq, Salam, Barkat and Jabbar among them — are remembered as the language martyrs, and the Shaheed Minar in Dhaka stands in their memory; the day is Ekushey February, the Twenty-First, in Bengali usage. The movement won its immediate point when Bengali was recognised as a state language of Pakistan under the constitution of 1956, and it did far more than that: linguistic identity became the organising principle of politics in the eastern wing and the direct ancestor of the movement that produced Bangladesh in 1971. No other country's history explains the choice of that date, which is why the reasoning works even for a candidate who has not learned the fact — the day is dated to an event, and the event belongs to Dhaka.

Why the others are wrong

(a)Sri Lanka — Sri Lanka has a language history of its own, and a difficult one, but it has nothing to do with 21 February or with the proposal at UNESCO. The Official Language Act of 1956, known as the Sinhala Only Act, made Sinhala the sole official language and was among the grievances that shaped Tamil political mobilisation over the following decades; Tamil was later given official language status by the Thirteenth Amendment to the Sri Lankan constitution in 1987, and both languages are now official with English as a link language. A candidate who reasons 'a South Asian country with a language conflict' will find Sri Lanka fits the description, which is exactly why the option is there. The description is not the question; the date is.
(c)India — India observes the day and marks it widely, and 21 February has a particular resonance in West Bengal and among Bengali speakers on this side of the border, since the language whose martyrs are remembered is spoken in both countries. But observing a day is not proposing it, and the proposal at UNESCO was Bangladesh's. India's own linguistic architecture is a separate subject worth knowing for these papers — the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution, which now lists twenty-two languages; Article 343, which makes Hindi in the Devanagari script the official language of the Union; the provision for classical language status; and Hindi Diwas, observed on 14 September to mark the Constituent Assembly's adoption of Hindi as the official language in 1949.
(d)Nepal — Nepal is a multilingual state — Nepali in the Devanagari script is the official language of Nepal, while its constitution of 2015 recognises all the mother tongues spoken in the country as national languages and allows a province to adopt additional official languages — and it observes the day like other member states. It played no part in proposing it. Nepal is offered here for the same reason as Sri Lanka: it is a neighbouring country where language and identity are live political questions. The discipline the item teaches is to anchor a commemorative day to the event it commemorates before reaching for a plausible country, because an international day is almost always proposed by the state whose history supplies the date.

Concept

International days are proclaimed either by the United Nations General Assembly or by the governing body of a specialised agency, always on a proposal from one or more member states, and the date chosen is almost always an anniversary. International Mother Language Day was proclaimed by UNESCO's General Conference in November 1999 at Bangladesh's initiative and has been observed since 2000; the United Nations General Assembly subsequently welcomed the proclamation and called on member states to promote the preservation of all the languages used by the peoples of the world. The purpose behind it is linguistic diversity and multilingual education. Of the world's several thousand languages a large share are endangered, and UNESCO's argument is practical as much as cultural: children taught in a language they do not speak at home learn less, and a great deal of the world's population is educated in a language it does not fully understand. That reasoning runs through UNESCO's related programmes — the International Year of Languages in 2008 and the International Decade of Indigenous Languages running from 2022 to 2032. The wider point for a candidate is the pattern: a day, a proposing state, an anniversary, and a programme of work behind it, which is the four-part answer any question on an international day can be met with.

Days and observances are standing material in the current affairs block of these papers, and the questions are usually put as this one is — the date and the sponsoring body supplied in the stem, and the country or the person left to be identified. That structure makes the stem worth reading closely, because it often contains the reasoning needed to answer. Here the whole answer is carried by the date, 21 February, which belongs to one event in one city. Preparing a short list of internationally observed days with their originating proposals and the anniversaries behind them is a much better use of time than memorising dates alone.

Key facts

UNESCO's General Conference proclaimed 21 February as International Mother Language Day in November 1999, on a proposal from Bangladesh.
The day has been observed worldwide since 2000.
It commemorates 21 February 1952, when police fired on demonstrators in Dhaka who were demanding recognition of Bangla as a state language of Pakistan.
Those killed are remembered as the language martyrs, and the Shaheed Minar in Dhaka was built in their memory; the day is called Ekushey February.
Bengali was recognised as a state language of Pakistan under the constitution of 1956.
The Language Movement is regarded as an origin of the Bengali nationalism that led to the creation of Bangladesh in 1971.
UNESCO also observed 2008 as the International Year of Languages and runs the International Decade of Indigenous Languages from 2022 to 2032.
In India, Hindi Diwas is observed on 14 September, marking the Constituent Assembly's adoption of Hindi as the official language of the Union in 1949.

The day is dated to an event, and the event belongs to Dhaka

Bangladesh→UNESCO’s General Conference proclaimed 21 February as International Mother Language Day in November 1999, on a proposal moved by Bangladesh and supported by other member states, and the day has been observed around the world since 2000 — exactly as the stem records.

What 21 February commemorates→21 February 1952, when police in Dhaka opened fire on students demonstrating for the recognition of Bangla as a state language of Pakistan. The majority of Pakistan’s people lived in its eastern wing and spoke Bengali, so making Urdu the sole state language was experienced there as the imposition of a minority’s language on a majority. Those shot are remembered as the language martyrs, the Shaheed Minar in Dhaka stands in their memory, and the day is Ekushey February, the Twenty-First.

What the movement led to→Bengali was recognised as a state language of Pakistan under the constitution of 1956 — and beyond that, linguistic identity became the organising principle of politics in the eastern wing, the direct ancestor of the movement that produced Bangladesh in 1971. No other country’s history explains the choice of that date, which is why the reasoning works even for a candidate who has not learnt the fact.

India→India observes the day and marks it widely, and 21 February has a particular resonance in West Bengal and among Bengali speakers on this side of the border, since the language whose martyrs are remembered is spoken in both countries. But observing a day is not proposing it. India’s own language day is Hindi Diwas on 14 September, marking the Constituent Assembly’s adoption of Hindi as the official language of the Union in 1949.

Sri Lanka and Nepal→Sri Lanka has a difficult language history of its own — the Official Language Act of 1956, the Sinhala Only Act, was among the grievances that shaped Tamil political mobilisation over the following decades — but it has nothing to do with 21 February or with the proposal at UNESCO. Nepal is a multilingual state whose constitution of 2015 recognises all the mother tongues spoken in the country as national languages, and it observes the day like other member states without having proposed it.

The four-part answer any ‘international day’ question can be met with→A day, a proposing state, an anniversary, and a programme of work behind it. Here the programme is linguistic diversity and multilingual education: of the world’s several thousand languages a large share are endangered, and UNESCO’s argument is practical as much as cultural — children taught in a language they do not speak at home learn less. The same reasoning runs through the International Year of Languages in 2008 and the International Decade of Indigenous Languages from 2022 to 2032.

Study next

UNESCO: its founding, mandate, headquarters at Paris, and the programmes it runs in education, science and cultureInternationally observed days and the bodies that proclaimed themThe Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India and the languages listed in itOfficial language provisions of the Constitution: Articles 343 to 351 and the Official Languages Act, 1963The creation of Bangladesh in 1971 and the place of the Language Movement in it

Common traps

Choosing the country that observes a day most visibly rather than the one that proposed it.
Detaching the date from the event. Every international day has an anniversary behind it, and here the anniversary is the whole answer.
Confusing the proclaiming body with the proposing state. UNESCO proclaimed the day; Bangladesh proposed it.
Assuming an Indian origin for anything concerning Bengali. The language is shared; the 1952 firing is not.
Mixing up the years in the stem. The proclamation was in 1999 and the observance began in 2000, which the question itself supplies.

The current affairs block of EPFO EO/AO papers reliably contains one item on a day, a theme or a commemoration. It is generally answerable from the stem plus one anchoring fact, and the options are four countries or four dates of the same family. Learning the anniversary behind each observance makes the whole category answerable by reasoning rather than recall.

Related PYQs

EPFO_EOAO_2020_Q58Open & attempt →

Which one of the following does not figure in the list of languages in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution of India ?

(a) Dogri
(b) Bhoti
(c) Maithili
(d) Santhali

Answer(b) Bhoti

The paper's other language item, asking which of four names does not figure in the list of languages in the Eighth Schedule to the Constitution of India. Read beside this one it completes the topic from the domestic side: the international day is about protecting mother tongues generally, while the Eighth Schedule is the specific Indian instrument that gives a language recognition, a claim on official use and a place in the work of the Official Languages Commission.

EPFO_EOAO_2020_Q112Open & attempt →

Which day has been declared by the Government of India to be celebrated every year as “Parakram Diwas” ?

(a) 23 January
(b) 14 April
(c) 28 May
(d) 25 December

Answer(a) 23 January

A current affairs item on the day the Government of India declared to be celebrated every year as Parakram Diwas. It is the domestic counterpart of this question's design — a commemorative day identified by the event behind it — and the two together show that the block expects a candidate to hold observances with their anniversaries rather than as bare dates.

Practice

practice — not a real PYQ
International Mother Language Day, observed on 21 February, commemorates an event of 1952 that took place in which one of the following cities ?
- (a)Dhaka
- (b)Kolkata
- (c)Karachi
- (d)Colombo
Answer(a) Dhaka
practice — not a real PYQ
Which one of the following is observed in India on 14 September every year ?
- (a)Hindi Diwas
- (b)National Education Day
- (c)Constitution Day
- (d)National Unity Day
Answer(a) Hindi Diwas

Why