The first session of Pakistan's parliament was held on February 25, 1948. Congress member Dhirendranath Datta raised a proposal that Bengali should be used alongside Urdu and English in the parliamentary proceedings. Mr. Datta's argument was that out of 6.9 crore people in Pakistan, more than 4 crore people speak Bengali - meaning Bengali is the language of the majority. Therefore, Bengali should not be seen merely as a provincial language; it should also be one of the national languages.

However, Mr. Datta's amendment proposal was not sustained in the parliament. Even the Bengali members of parliament could not support it due to objections from their parliamentary party.

In protest of this, students in Dhaka boycotted classes and went on strike. On March 11, 1948, 'Language Day' was observed in East Bengal.

Badruddin Umar wrote that on March 11 in Dhaka, demonstrations were held in front of various government buildings for the Bengali language, and protesters forced several ministers to resign. The military had to be called to remove East Pakistan's Prime Minister Mr. Nazimuddin from the parliament building.

Police arrested movement leaders including Shamsul Haq, Oli Ahad, and Sheikh Mujibur Rahman - who later became the leader of the 1971 liberation war and the founding president of Bangladesh.

As a reaction to the arrest of these leaders, strikes were observed in Dhaka from March 13-15. Two days later, there was a meeting between Khaja Nazimuddin and students from the State Language Action Committee. It was agreed that his government would recommend to Pakistan's parliament to make Bengali one of the national languages.

In this tense environment, just 10 days later, Mr. Jinnah came to Dhaka. And probably referring to this, he mentioned 'creating confusion' in his speech.