Bangla Academy celebrated its 58th founding anniversary on Tuesday through a discussion and cultural programme at the Kabi Shamsur Rahman Seminar Hall of the academy.
Professor Sirajul Islam, a member of Asiatic Society of Bangladesh, presented the keynote paper at the discussion session and two singers rendered songs at the celebrations programme.In the morning the officials of the academy placed a wreath at the Central Shaheed Minar.
The evening’s programme began with presentations of timeless songs composed by Rabindranath Tagore, Fakir Lalon Shah and Kazi Nazrul Islam.
Reba Afroz presented Lalon’s popular song Jekhane sai-er baramkhana, while Farhana Shirin Nipa presented Tagore’s Tomar khola haowai and Nazrul’s Amay nohe go.
Subsequently, professor Sirajul Islam presented his paper on the impact of the Yankee traders on oriental studies titled Yankee Banikder Banga Banijya O Prachya Charcha at the discussion session presided over by the chairman of Bangla Academy professor emeritus Anisuzzaman.
Professor Sirajul Islam, in his paper, covered the Yankee commercial ventures in Bengal in late eighteenth and early nineteenth century.
He compared the Yankee commercial ventures with those by other European nations or commercial units.
‘The Yankee people never came to set up colonies here as they were forbidden to do so by their own government. They came here only for commercial purposes,’ said Sirajul Islam.
‘But their commercial ventures ramified into cultural connections which, over the period, became a veritable storehouse of knowledge of orientalism,’ furthered Sirajul Islam.
‘Bangla Academy has come a long way and has become an inevitable institute for the country. But there is a longer way ahead,’ said professor Anisuzzaman.
Bangla Academy, the autonomous institute to promote works on Bangla language, literature and culture, came into being on December 03, 1955. Located in the then Bardhaman House, the academy was a demand after the glorious language movement in 1952.
Now Bangla Academy has four separate departments under four directors, namely: Research, Compilation and Folklore; Language, Literature, Culture and Magazine; Textbooks; and Planning and Training Department.
Besides the four departments Bangla Academy has a rich library.
-With New Age input
