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Banga Sammelan Gets a Makeover

Bengali conference hits the streets of Lowell, Mass.

By Audie N.Cornish/AP

Much to the disappointment of her parents, 7-year-old Priyanka Deb is bypassing traditional Bengali fare, like samosas and chick peas. She’d rather eat pizza. Her father, Babu Deb, is in charge of providing food for this year’s Banga Sammelan, a cultural conference designed to create community building opportunities for Bengali immigrants.

Each summer, the North American Bengali Conference attracts about 5,000 people who come to enjoy traditional Bengali dance and vocal performances, Bengali food and buy gold and silver trimmed saris — the traditional sparkling wraparound dresses worn by South Asian women.

One of the additional goals this year is to involve younger Bengalis. Providing American fare for second-generation Bengalis is just one of the many changes at this year’s conference.

Painting by Shyamasree Basu, one of the visual artists featured at Banga Sammelan.

Over the years, participation by young people has been declining, said Abir Roy, president of Prabasi, a Massachusetts-based social club sponsoring this year’s conference.

“They [young people] would come but they would avoid the performances or just hang around the city,” said Roy, a Quincy accountant, and at 25, the youngest president of any Bengali organization in the region. To attract more young people, the conference has opened up the performance space to both English and Bengali singers and dancers.

This year’s talent show included a teen-age band performing rock ’n’ roll, and booths with henna tattoos and Batik fabric making, two South Asian traditions popular with American youth.

The conference also featured the first Banga Sammelan Youth Summit, where teen-agers and young professionals got together to discuss how to communicate with their immigrant parents and how to raise the visibility of the Bengali American community.

“Are we Indians? Indian Americans? Bengali Americans?” Roy said. “We discussed what Bengalis have done in history, on the global stage and how we too need to continue to contribute.”

The conference is typically run by first-generation immigrant Bengalis anxious to hold on to their traditions and pass them on to their children who, like Babu Deb’s daughter, have acquired distinctly American tastes.

“The inflexibility of the community — holding on to those old values can make it difficult for us,” said Monica Biswas, who helped organize the event.

The number of Asian Indians in Massachusetts has more than doubled to about 40,000, according to the last census. Many are taking advantage of the region’s high-technology labor market, and Indians have one of the highest per capita incomes of any ethnic group.

“We have a huge power that a lot of other communities of color do not have,” said Biswas. “Just because people are well off doesn’t mean we should be complacent.”