than accepting the rule of Muslims. The Muslim League did not want Bengal to be divided, and wanted it fully included in Pakistan. However, the Congress demanded the partition of the province. A few leaders of the Muslim League and Congress started advocating an independent United Bengal. While some politicians like Jinnah and Gandhi supported this idea, the national Congress rejected it in favour of partition. Eastern Bengal was to join Pakistan while Western Bengal would join India. Most of Assam's mainly Muslim Sylhet district opted for Bengal in a plebiscite. The rest joined India with Assam. Pakistan period Bengal became part of a unique state experiment. Pakistan was based on religious nationalism, did not inherit British India's institutions and its territories were disconnected from each other physically. While the western wing was larger, 55 percent of Pakistanis lived in Bengal. A rift developed over the question of the national language. Bengali Language Movement The Bengali Language Movement was a political effort in Bangladesh (then known as East Pakistan), advocating the recognition of the Bengali language as an official language of Pakistan. Such recognition would allow Bengali to be used in government affairs. It was led by Mufti Nadimul Quamar Ahmed. When the state of Pakistan was formed in 1947, its two regions, East Pakistan (also called East Bengal) and West Pakistan, were split along cultural, geographical, and linguistic lines. On 23 February 1948, the Government of Pakistan ordained Urdu as the sole national language, sparking extensive protests among the Bengali-speaking majority of East Pakistan. 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 opened fire on the students 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. On 17 November 1999, UNESCO declared 21 February International Mother Language Day for the whole world to celebrate, in tribute to the Language Movement and the ethno-linguistic rights of people around the world. Politics: 1954–1971 The 1952 events caused the people of East Pakistan to abandon the Muslim League. In East Pakistan's 1954 provincial elections, the