Kolkata: A branch of the century-old Asam Sahitya Sabha wasinaugurated in Kolkata on Monday in the presence of its president DrSurya Kanta Hazarika at the Assam Bhavan.
He described it as a historic occasion because the age of romanticism and development of modern Assamese literature is closely associated with the city.
We have branches in Delhi, Mumbai, soon to be opened in Ahmedabad,and even in North America but not in next-door Kolkata so far thoughwe have had cultural and literary bonding for ages between Assam andBengal, he said.
Journalist Ranjita Biswas has been elected vice-president of the newlyformed Asam Sahitya Sabha, Kolkata.
In the 19th century, at the height of Bengal renaissance, bright youngstudents from Assam travelled to Kolkata (then Calcutta) for higherstudies as there was no such institution in Assam till then. Stalwartslike Chandraprasad Agarwala, Lakshminath Bezborua, Padmanath GohainBaruah while coming in touch with the litterateurs started a magazinecalled Jonaki in 1889 which set forth the Jonaki Yug initiating theromantic age in modern Assamese literature.
The roots of Asam Sahitya Sabha, a non-governmental and non- profitorganisation, established in 1917 lies in that movement. It encourageda sense of pride and nationalism during colonial times and since thenhas been playing a crucial role in nurturing Assamese literature andsocio-cultural life in the north east.
Today it has more than a thousand branches at home and abroad.
The evolution of the organisation can be traced back to two earlierKolkata-based bodies – Asamiya Bhasa Unnati Sadhini Sabha andAssamese Literary Society which had been established by a fewAssamese students.
Today we are looking at re-establishing those bonds of literarytraditions between Bengal and Assam through a free exchange of ideas,translations of books from Assamese to Bengali and vice versa. Thereis scope for exploring many such programmes related to thesocio-cultural arena in both the states. We look forward tocollaborating with the Kolkata branch in such efforts in the future,Hazarika said.
An eleven member executive committee has been formed to implementfuture programmes.
On the occasion was also launched Amar Lakshminath, (and also itsBengali translation) written by Prafulla Barman, president AsamSahitya Sabha, Guwahati.
