Bengali body plans SA convention

Dhaka: London-based Bengali International (BI) plans to organise a South Asian convention here in December, its chairman Shams Hoque has said. The organisation last week unveiled a mural of Raja Rammohun Roy in Rangpur in northern Bangladesh where the 19th century pioneer of the Bengali Renaissance had lived during 1809-14.

A school is also planned to be set up in Rangpur. Hoque told The Daily Star newspaper he was dismayed that the present generation was unaware of Roy`s contribution. Most did not know about Roy and some referred to him as "a local king". Roy had campaigned against sati, the now-banned practice of self-immolation by a Hindu widow on the funeral pyre of her husband. He died in Bristol, England where his remains were interred. Besides Kolkata in India, BI has branches in Spain, Italy, Switzerland and France. "We also have branches in the US - in Boston, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and in the Oklahoma state." "We hold cultural programmes on special events in the Bengali calendar - on Pahela Baishakh (Bengali New Year), Borshaboron Utshob (welcoming the monsoon), celebrating the season of winter and so on. Special programmes are also held to observe Nazrul and (Rabindranath) Tagore birth and death anniversaries. "Such programmes not only give the Bengali expats a taste of home but also introduces our culture to the non-Bengalis. "For the children of the Bengali expats, who are being raised there, we run Bangla schools on weekends. There we introduce them to Bangla alphabets and our culture," said Hoque. IANS