Dhaka, Feb. 21 -- As Coordinator of the refugee relief programme assisting 600,000 Bangladeshis, I was sitting in my OXFAM Refugee Relief Office near Park Circus, Calcutta on 21st February 1972 when I was informed by a very alarmed office messenger that a few hundred men, women and children were outside waiting for me and were shouting my name. Had they come from one of the camps to make a complaint, I wondered?

I went outside and the spokesman of the group of nearly 500 people told me that they had decided to start for home on an auspicious day and proceeded to explain to me the historical importance of 'Ekushey' and that year was the 20th anniversary of the day when, because of the Bangla mother language, people had lost their lives du...