Multilingualism vial for building Sri Lanka as a nation

International Mother Language Day

- Dr. Buddhini Wijesuriya

International Mother Language Day is annually celebrated on February 21 annually to promote unity in diversity through multilingualism and multiculturalism since its official declaration by the United Nations in 2002. The United Nations has announced the theme of the International Mother Language Day this year as “Fostering multilingualism for inclusion in education and society” as it recognizes that multilingualism can advance inclusion and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) and ensuring that no one is left behind. How could multilingualism be used in the Sri Lankan context to achieve and maintain such qualities?

Sri Lanka is a multi-ethnic and multi-religious country with communities well spread out in all parts of the island. The substantially extended cultural contact and interaction between Sri Lanka and India since ancient times, the Arab traders having taken control of much of the maritime connectivity and trade on the Indian Ocean including that of Sri Lanka from the early Medieval times and subsequent waves of European Colonialism, namely, the Portuguese, Dutch and British over the centuries have contributed to make Sri Lanka such a multiethnic and multi-religious country.