The national monument to the martyrs of the 1952 Language Movement, in which students and activists died protesting Pakistan's attempt to impose Urdu as the only official language of the country, erasing Bengali. The movement that began here led directly to the assertion of Bengali cultural identity and ultimately to the 1971 Liberation War and independence.
The monument consists of a curved white structure representing a mother's outstretched arms sheltering her children, set in a paved plaza near Dhaka Medical College. On 21 February (Ekushey February), enormous crowds gather for a candlelit procession beginning at midnight, and the plaza is carpeted in flowers by dawn. At other times it is a quieter, reflective space — one of the most politically charged sites in Bangladesh.