ceremony is being held from 25th to 27th December, 2022

 

araley abdaleye news- kolkata-In the beginning of the 20^thCentury, the golden rays of Bengali literature were more or less confined to Bengal only, and did not touch other parts of the country. With a view to spread the essence of Bengali literature outside Bengal so that the Bengalees residing there for a long time could have a taste of their own culture, Dr.Surendranath Sen started the annual festival of Banga Sahitya Samaj at Kanpur. He invited a few celebrated Bengalees of North India there. From Lucknow came Atulprasad Sen, Radhakamal Mukhopadhyay,Radhakumud Mukhopadhyay and Srish Chandra Sen. As proposed by Dr.Sen, Atulprasad led the foundation of Uttar Bharatiya Banga Sahitya Sammelan on 2^nd February, 1922. Next year, the first session of the Sammelan was organized at Kashi and none other than Rabindranath Tagore presided over. In the next session at Prayag, the name was changed to Prabashi Banga Sahitya Sammelan. The present name Nikhil Bharat Banga Sahitya Sammelan came up much later, in 1953.

Over 100 years, eminent authors, intellectuals, scientists, historians have presided over the sessions at different cities of the country. The list is illustrious – Qazi Nazrul Islam, Acharya Prafulla Chandra Roy, Pramathanath Bishi, Satyendranath Bose, Sarala Debi Choudhurani, Premendra Mitra, Annadashankar Ray, Ashapurna Debi, Samaresh Basu, Sankar, Sunil Gangopadhyay, Sirshendu Mukhopadhyay, in fact all the who’s who of modern Bengali literature. Former President of India Shri Pranab Mukherjee held the position of the President of Nikhil Bharat Banga Sahitya Sammelan for long twelve years. The first international convention was held in Dhaka in 2018. It was inaugurated by the Hon’ble Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina, and the concluding ceremony was presided over by Shri Pranab Mukherjee. More than hundred delegates from India and Bangladesh participated in the three-day Sammelan.The century old organization has prospered day by day. At present, it has more than hundred branches across India with approximately fifteen thousand life -members. Moreover, innumerous active patrons across the globe support the cause of upholding the mother language. Under the able leadership of Pradip Bhattacharya, MP, quite a number of events were organized through 2022. The first and the most auspicious one was on 11^th February in Varanasi, the city which hosted the first session. None other than Rabindranath Tagore presided over the initial session.

The concluding ceremony is being held from 25^th to 27^th December, 2022 at the campus of Sister Nivedita University (SNU) at New Town, Kolkata, under the guidance of Pradip Bhattacharya, MP & President of NBBSS, patronized by Satyam Roychowdhury, the Chancellor of SNU and the Chairman of the Centenary Reception Committee of NBBSS. A 15 member delegation team is joining from Bangladesh.

Below is the list of dignitaries present on stage-

1.        Dr. C V Ananda Bose, Governor of West Bengal – Guest in Chief

2.        Smt. Meera Kumar, Former Speaker, Lok Sabha

3.        Smt. Sharmila Tagore, Eminent Actor

4.        Dr.Bikash Sinha, (Sabha Mukhya) - Eminent Scientist

5.        Shri Pradip Bhattacharya, MP & President, NBBSS

6.        Shri Satyam Roychowdhury, Chancellor, SNU & Chairman, Recep.Com.

7.        Pt. Ajay Chakraborty, Eminent Musician

8.        Shri Shyamal Sen, Former Governor, WB   

9.        Shri Chandrasekhar Ghosh, Chairman, Bandhan Bank

10.     Janab Andalib Elias, Dy. High Commissioner, Bangladesh

11.     Shri Bratya Basu, MIC, Education, WB

12.     Shri Indranil Sen, MIC, I & C, WB

13.     Shri Suvaprasanna, Eminent Artist

14.     Shri Sourav Ganguly, Ace Cricketer

15.     Shri Pracheta Gupta, Eminent Author

16.     Shri Soumitra Sekhar Dey, VC, Kazi Nazrul Islam University, Bangladesh

17.     Shri Arunabha Banerjee, Director, Finance & Operations, Alliance Broadband

18.     Shri Anil Dhar, Gen.Secy, NBBSS