Inaugurating the month-long Amar Ekushey Book Fair-2025, Chief Adviser Prof Muhammad Yunus on Saturday said Ekushey is an important identity, demonstrating the strong bond of unity and helping people of the country to find the temporarily invisible unity again.
“This bond transcends all distances, big and small, logical and irrational, temporary and long-lasting. That is why we rush to the Shaheed Minar during all kinds of national festivals, crises and disasters. There we find relief. We find peace. We find solutions,” he said, adding that Ekushey has shaped their minds in this way.
Commemorating the memory of the martyrs of the Language Movement, the traditional festivity of the book fair began with this year's theme "July Gono Obbhuthyan: Notun Bangladesh Binirman" (The July Uprising: Rebuilding a New Bangladesh).
The Ekushey shows the way and awakens them, Dr Yunus said, recalling that just six months ago, the July mass uprising united the nation to a historical depth.
“Because of which we have found the courage to prepare to make a country devastated economically, politically, institutionally and humanly to reach its desired destination at the fastest speed,” said the Chief Adviser.
The 1952 remains the hallmark for national inspiration for generations to come as Jabbar, Barkat, Rafiq, Salam and everyone else gunned down on the streets of Dhaka on 21 February 1952.
The commitment that was in the blood of Barkat, Salam, Rafiq, and Jabbar had the great explosive power to ensure the July Uprising, Dr Yunus said, adding that after half a century, this great explosion became a mass uprising and changed the country.
“This explosion instilled in us the determination to build a new Bangladesh. This determination is deeply rooted in the essence of each of the 170 million people. We have come to take an oath on this determination through this Amar Ekushey ceremony,” said the Chief Adviser.
He said the book fair organized by the Bangla Academy has become an integral part of national life and gradually, its qualitative and organizational evolution will continue.
Dr Yunus said authors prepare throughout the year to complete their respective books on time to present them at the book fair.
He said publishers organize many events to come up with their books on time, to create quality competition and to increase interest.
Organizing a subject-based ‘Best Writer’ recognition every year will be very helpful for the writers to get recognition, and the best writers to get the best publisher.
Dr Yunus said if they see the Ekushey Language Movement in a deeper perspective as a freedom movement, then the Amar Ekushey boundary becomes wider.
“Then we can recognize teenagers and young people for their creativity through different institutions, we can recognize them for becoming new entrepreneurs. We can recognize men and women from cities and villages who have contributed to the nation in agriculture, industry, the cultural world, science, commerce and education and other fields in a particular year, we can organize formal events for them,” he said.
Dr Yunus said they can recognize the contributions of expatriate Bangladeshis and expatriate workers.
“Bangladeshis are showing their achievements in various fields all over the world. We want to remember all of them. They all hold programmes remembering their own country on Ekushey. They introduce us to their children as part of our family,” he said.
The fair will remain open from 3:00pm to 9:00pm on weekdays and 11:00am to 9:00pm on holidays, except for February 8 and 15.
A total of 708 publishers are participating in the fair with 99 stalls at the Bangla Academy and 609 at the Suhrawardy Udyan. Last year, some 642 publishers participated in the fair.
The fair featured 37 pavilions — one at Bangla Academy and 36 at Suhrawardy Udyan.
A dedicated space for little magazines has been allocated near the Muktamancha of Suhrawardy Udyan, hosting around 130 stalls.
