Dr. Premen Addi

Bengali Journals and Journalism in the United Kingdom

Bengali Journals and Journalism in the United Kingdom (1916-2007) by Faruque Ahmed, Published by The Ethnic Minorities Research Centre, 36 Clanricarde Gardens, London W2 4JW.

This work of translation has clearly been a labour of love. Faruque Ahmed has meticulously put together reports and extracts from a wide range of Bengali newspapers and publications stretching back to 1916, when some of the fiercest battles of the First World War were being fought, when millions of solders from virtually every part of Europe went to their graves as cannon fodder, with the survivors scarred for life by this ordeal of life.

British India made its own special contribution to this conflict, but the story between these covers relates to the earliest immigrants to the UK from eastern Bengal. Into this corner of a foreign field they put down their roots. The overwhelming majority were Muslim and came from a rural background, hence they were driven to communicate in their native Bengali. Their first publications, it would appear, were newssheets. Recognisable newspapers followed in due course; these refracted the divisions and aspirations of their societies back home.

Came Independence and Partition in1947. Those claiming a Bangladeshi cultural and political identity today started off as East Pakistan. In 1971 they threw off the West Pakistani yoke and became Bangladesh. Their travails and ambitions are well captured in myriad publications, some disappearing with time and others taking their place before making space for competitors in a natural progression whose cycle continues to this day without let or hindrance.

In Darwinian terms, it has been the survival of the fittest. Faruque Ahmed's anthology is an absorbing read.