Consider the following statements: ​ 1. 21st February is declared to be the International Mother Language Day by UNICEF. ​ 2. The demand that Bangla has to be one of the national languages was raised in the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan. ​ Which of the above statements is/are correct? ​

Correct answer: B (only statement 2). The core concept here is the linguistic politics of early Pakistan, which set the stage for the 1952 Language Movement and the eventual creation of Bangladesh.

• Statement 1 is wrong. 21 February as International Mother Language Day was proclaimed by UNESCO, not UNICEF, at its General Conference in November 1999. It has been observed worldwide since 2000. The date commemorates the 1952 Dhaka students killed while demanding Bangla's recognition.
• Statement 2 is correct. In the Constituent Assembly of Pakistan in March 1948, Dhirendra Nath Datta moved that Bengali be made one of the state languages alongside Urdu. Urdu-only policy was pushed by the central leadership, and this demand was rejected. That rejection fed the 1952 movement.

For Mains, this connects to federalism, linguistic identity and the nation-building failures that led to 1971. It is also a useful example of how language can become a political fault line.

Trap: Aspirants often trust the UNICEF attribution in statement 1 because the day is about children's education. The question tests the body that actually declared it.