Paschimbanga Bangla Akademi

At the time of its foundation, the Akademi had 30 members in its Karma Samiti (Working Committee) and 78 in Sadharan Parishad (General Council) including the government delegation. The Chairman is called Sabhapati and Vice-Chairman is called Saha-Sabhapati. Members, officially known as Sadasyas, remain in the Akademi for life. However, any member can resign from his office by his will. In 2007, after the Nandigram massacre, some of Akademi members including Sankha Ghosh and Ashru Kumar Sikdar resigned from the Akademi. There is also a post of Secretary, or Sachib, who is the chief governmental delegation at the Akademi. The office of the Secretary of the Akademi is held by Sanat Kumar Chattopadhyay since its inception.

The members of the first Working Committee were: Annadashankar Roy (Chairman), Prabodh Chandra Sen (Vice-Chairman, but died after the foundation of working committee), Nanda Gopal Sengupta (Vice-Chairmen), Leela Majumdar, Khudiram Das, Nepal Majumdar, Shubhendu Shekhar Mukhopadhyay, Chinmohan Sehanbish, Pabitra Sarkar, Kanak Mukhopadhyay, Krishno Dhar, Jagadish Bhattacharya, Bhabatosh Dutta, Jyotirmoy Ghosh, Sankha Ghosh, Arun Kumar Basu, Nirmalya Acharya, Ashru Kumar Shikdar, Arun Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Prabir Roy Chowdhuri, Bhudeb Chowdhuri, Somendranath Bandyopadhyay, Bijit Kumar Dutta, Pallab Sengupta, Bhakti Prasad Mallick, Prashanta Kumar Dasgupta, Nirmal Das, Santosh Chakravarty (Later Ashok Dutta) – Director of Culture, Sanat Kumar Chattopadhyay- Secretary (Government Delegate), Amitabha Mukhopadhyay- Officer-in-Charge (Government Delegate).

Statue of Rabindranath Tagore at Bangla Akademi campus, Nandan

The members of the first General Council were: (including the members of the Working Committee) Hirendranath Dutta, Manmatha Roy, Gopal Haldar, Debipada Bhattacharya, Sushil Kumar Mukhopadhyay, Gourinath Shastri, Rama Ranjan Mukhopadhyay, Nisith Ranjan Ray, Manindranath Ghosh, Manindra Kumar Ghosh, Dr. Asit Kumar Bandyopadhyay, Rabindra Kumar DasGupta, Haraprasad Mitra, Arun Mitra, Satyajit Ray, Satyendranath Roy, Ajit Kumar Ghosh, Khsetra Gupta, Arabinda Poddar, Nirendranath Chakravarty, Golum Kuddus, Ashin Dasgupta, Khsitindra Narayan Bhattacharya, Saroj Mohan Mitra, Sukumari Bhattacharya, Subir Roy Chowdhuri, Manabendra Bandyopadhyay, Sourin Bhattacharya, Ashok Mukhopadhyay, Malini Bhattacharya, Bratindranath Mukhopadhyay, Manas Majumdar, Mohit Chattopadhyay, Narayan Chowdhuri, Samarendra Sengupta, Amitabha Dasgupta, Debesh Roy, Purnendu Patri, Shyam Sundar Dey, Amitabha Chowdhuri, Shakti Chattopadhyay, Debesh Das, Manas Roy Chowdhuri, Shibendranath Kanjilal, Sabitendranath Roy, Bibhas Bhattacharya, Dipankar Sen, Prasun Dutta, Dilip Bhattacharya – secretary, Information and Cultural Affairs Department.

Now the Akademi works under various sub-committees and editorial boards concerning different affairs. Some of these bodies are depicted below:

Akademi Banan Upo-Samiti or Akademi Spelling Sub-Committee was created to reform and rationalize Bengali orthography. This Sub-Committee includes Nirendranath Chakravarty, Sankha Ghosh, Pabitra Sarkar, Jyoti Bhushan Chaki, Nirmal Das, Ashok Mukhopadhyay, Subhash Bhattacharya, Amitabha Chowdhuri, Amitabha Mukhopadhyay, Sourin Bhattacharya, Prasun Dutta, Sanat Kumar Chattopadhyay, Arun Kumar Basu and Shubhomoy Mondal. On the recommendation of this Sub-Committee, the Akademi did its historical reforms on Bengali spelling.

Another important sub-committee is Paribhasha Upo-Samiti or Terminology Sub-Committee which is entrusted to compile standard Bengali terminology for both academic and administrative purposes. This sub-committee includes Ananda Ghosh Hazra, Alapan Bandyaopadhyay, I.A.S., Krishno Dhar, Jyoti Bhushan Chaki, Nirendranath Chakravarty, Pabitra Sarkar, Sanat Kumar Chattopadhyay, Swapan Chowdhuri and Bhabatosh Tapadar.

Editorial boards are generally founded to edit works of great authors. One of such bodies that compiled the Complete Works of Kazi Nazrul Islam, includes Annadashankar Roy (advisor), Buddhadeb Bhattacharya, ex-Chief Minister of West Bengal (advisor), Kalpataru Sengupta, Arun Kumar Basu, Pabitra Sarkar, Golum Kuddus, Krishno Dhar, Manas Majumdar, Sumita Chakravarty, Bandhan Sengupta, Manas Khanda, Biswanath Roy, Prabhat Kumar Das, Shyamal Moitra And Sanat Kumar Chattopadhyay.

Rabindra-Okakura Bhaban at Bidhannagar, Bangla Akademi's second building

The Akademi is the official authority on Bengali language in West Bengal; although its recommendations carry no legal power — but still the educational boards and the universities of West Bengal and Tripura have deep regard for its rulings.

The Akademi accomplishes all its activities in close liaison with other academic and educational institutions including universities engaged in various aspects of Bengali language, literature and culture. Apart from its own programs, it also arranges programs in cooperation with different such societies. Such activities are not confined to Kolkata only, but also in districts and sub-divisions, even in the other states.

The function of the Akademi was initially settled by a seminar held at Sisir Mancha, Kolkata from 24 February to 1 March. These seminars determined the rationale of the Akademi and proposed to make a design and blue print to achieve its goals.

The tasks entrusted on Bangla Akademi are:

1. The rationalization and reform of Bengali script and orthography.
2. Compilation of standard dictionaries, encyclopedias and grammars.
3. Compilation of terminologies.
4. Bridging the gap between Bengali and other languages through translations and other activities.
5. Publication of children books.
6. Performing research-oriented works on Bengali language, literature and culture as well as arranging scholarships for researchers.
7. Distribution of civil literary prizes.
8. Publication of publish books on different subjects
9. Publication of the Akademi Magazine.
10. Preservation of an outstanding library.
11. Preservation of a world-class archive and museum.
12. To conduct seminars and conferences and cultural festivals and fairs.

Scholars at the Bangla Akademi work to promote the Bengali language in various ways. They are doing research on spelling, grammar and the origin and development of Bengali. They are publishing works by prominent writers in the language. They have built a large library to preserve original manuscripts. The government of Japan has donated Rs. 500000 for research in the Academy. The government of West Bengal has also given a lump some amount of money. The Akademi is spending the money on the Indo-Japan Cultural Center in Bidhannagar. The Akademi has also developed a Bengali font designed according to the changes made by them in the Bengali script. The font is available from this link.

Various festivals are being conducted nowadays by Bangla Akademi, e.g., Kabita Utsab (Poetry Festival), Little Magazine Mela (Little Magazine Fair), Kathasahitya Utsab (Fiction Festival), Chhora Utsab (Rhyme Festival) etc.

• Bangla Academy – Bangladeshi counterpart
• Paschim Banga Natya Akademi
• Annadashankar Roy
• Bangiya Sahitya Parishad
• University of Calcutta
• Rabindranath Tagore

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