What does it mean to be British Bengali? How do (inherited) memories of life in East Bengal (later on Bangladesh) and of migration to Britain influence our present? In March 2019 we joined forces with BritBangla to answer these questions. We organised a number of workshops during which participants were invited to explore their family memories and their transnational connections through objects, photographs and clothing.
At the end of the project we realised a photography exhibition at the Kobi Nazrul Centre in Brick Lane, which displayed a series of photographs bearing testimony to the long-standing relationship between Britain and East Bengal starting from colonial times, through the East Pakistani period and the subsequent creation of Pakistan, migration to Britain and the development of a distinct Bengali British scene.
We also shot a short documentary titled Bengali Britain, exploring the themes of memory, migration and belonging in Bengali Britain.
The exhibition featured in the 2019 edition of A Season of Bangla Drama and was launched on 1st November 2019. On the same night we also screened the Bengali Britain documentary, which we were subsequently invited to screen also at the London Museum of Docklands on 7th and 8th March 2020, as part of the #Identity Festival.
Bengali Britain documentary:
Produced by MMPI in collaboration with BritBangla. Filming: Dishad Hussain and Gabriel Martel, Imotion. Editing: Gabriel Martel. Research and content editing Clelia Clini (MMPI), Research assistant Tanha Quadi (MMPI)
Courtesy of Salam Jones
Bengali Britain was in collaboration with:
All rights reserved. Reuse of any materials protected by copyright has been done by relying on the legal exception of ‘illustration for instruction’ Section 32 of the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 UK. For any queries, please contact C.Clini@lboro.ac.uk