The Nikhil Bharat Banga Sahitya Sammelan, an international organisation working towards conservation and propagation of Bengali language and literature, is now expanding its wings. The organisation, which holds its annual conference around this time of the year, will be conducting the next edition in Australia. An announcement to this effect was made at the 90th annual conference which started in Kolkata on December 23 at Sister Nivedita University, Newtown.
To spread out the rich culture and language of Bengal globally, Nikhil Bharat organises a three-day conference every year, where around 1200 representatives from different districts of the state take part.
Speaking at the inauguration ceremony of the annual conference on Sunday, former President Pranab Mukherjee said: “People in Bengal are forgetting to speak in Bangla. It’s a shame. The conference is an active initiative to spread the Bengali culture and literature among the people. It is highly appreciable that the organiser is thinking to expand it in a broad scale.”
He added: “In the initial days, the convocation could not take place regularly due to some problems. But they have taken it to the extent where last year, the international seminar was organised in Bangladesh and next year, it is going to happen in Australia.”
The dates will be announced, according to the organisation.
It was after 15 years that the annual conference was held in Kolkata.
Jayanta Ghosh, general secretary of NBBSS, said, “Holding the conference in Kolkata gives it a different essence altogether.”
The three-day conference, which concluded on Tuesday, saw several discussions on Bengla language and literature, speeches by eminent Bengali writers, poets, journalists and scholars, and cultural programmes. Several prominent artists from the Bengali film industry were present too.