Letter: War of words

I was surprised to note that Bangladesh was categorised as an "English is mother tongue" country within your "world by words" map ("The British Empire is dead: long live the English empire", 5 January). Bangla- desh interprets as the "country of the Bangla language". The bloody struggle to preserve Bangla in East Pakistan after the British ceded independence in 1947 spawned a new country in which the English language is rele- gated to anything but a mother tongue.

Richard Stevens

Hastings, East Sussex