West Bengal Governor K N Tripathi today inaugurated the Bengali Diaspora Centre at the Kalyani University, which aims to recognise the undocumented contribution of unknown, but remarkable, Bengalis from two Bengals who have spread throughout the world since Independence.
A brainchild of the university's Vice-Chancellor Rattanlal Hangloo, this is the first time such a centre has been set up in the country.
The vice-chancellor, a Kashmiri by birth, is an ardent admirer of Bengali culture and art and acknowledged Sir Ashutosh Mukhopadhyay as the model vice-chancellor for him.
The Governor in his inaugural speech said that there were some countries in which the diaspora were active setting up a bridge with their motherland, but there were some too where the diaspora were not so active.
A symposium "Offspring of Bengal in Distant Land, Quest of the Disanchored" was also inaugurated by Tripathi on the occasion.
Apart from this, he also inaugurated a E-Technology Centre of the Kalyani University.
Among the dignitaries present in the inaugural were: US Consul-General Helen Lafave and Bangladesh Deputy High Commissioner Zokey Ahad.
Sukhen Biswas, a member of the Bengali Diaspora said, "The culture of the Bengali people living abroad will be promoted and preserved in the diaspora at the Kalyani University. In a ward, the joy, woe and love of the Bengali abroad would be shared here."
He hoped the centre would turn into an international platform to discuss the view of Bengali abroad.
Hangloo said the centre had already contacted noted Bengalis living abroad like Ketaki Kushari Dyson, Gayatri Chakraborty Spivak and others who had welcomed the initiative.
"The centre will hold lectures on the issue and later a certificate course will be introduced. We also have a plan to start M. Phil and P.Hd courses in future," Hangloo said.
