Mujib Year countdown event: Save our Bengali identity

Ansar Ahmed Ullah

Can the Bengali identity survive the onslaught of both the Bollywood and BJP from the Indian side, and fanatic Islamists from the Bangladesh side? What is going to happen to our one thousand years of shared glorious history as a Bengali race? What will happen to our language, literature, music, art and poetry? questions were posed by Dr. Partha Banerjee at a seminar organised by the UK Nirmul Committee.

Dr Partha Banerjee from New York was speaking at a ‘Mujib Year 100’ countdown seminar titled ‘Bangladesh India relationship & Sheikh Mujib’ held on 15 February, at the London Bangla Press Club, Banglatown, East London E1 5LP.

Dr Partha Banerjee who is a human rights activist, writer, educator, media critic and musician paid tribute to Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in this special centenary year of the great leader and connected the dots between this celebration with the Bengali Language Movement and the Liberation Struggle of Bangladesh. He remembered how as a teenager, he became involved with the Liberation War when he was growing up in Kolkata, West Bengal. He emphasized on the need today for secular and conscientious Bengalis from both sides of Bengal — wherever they live — to come together, to save our Bengali identity.

The seminar was chaired by Nooruddin Ahmed, UK Nirmul Committee’s President and conducted by Committee’s Secretary Jamal Khan. Those who took part in the discussion were Bangabandhu Parishad’s Salim Ullah, Nirmul Committee’s advisor Husneara Matin, Workers Party leader Waliur Rahman, Bangladesh Human Rights Commission President Abdul Ahad Chowdhury, Dr Amit Mukherjee, Press Club’s Nazmul Hussain, Nirmul Committee’s Cllr Moin Quadri, Asst Secretary Smriti Azad, Tofazzal Hussain from West Bengal, London Mahanagar Awami League’s Syed Gulab Ali, Shayek Ahmed and journalist Tanvir Ahmed.