Honors 394A: Language That

Binds Us
Heritage Language Final: Bengali in the United
States
Meena Sethuraman

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Meena Sethuraman
Professor Kim
Honors 394A: Language That Binds Us
June 11, 2015
Bengali Language in the United States
This paper serves as a sequel to my midterm paper on the Bengali language. The goals of
this paper are to further discuss the history of the Bengali language, its immigration and
maintenance prospects in the United States (and specifically the state of Washington), and future
prospects for the language.
Having already interviewed a second-generation Bengali speaker, I wanted to gain a
different perspective on the language, so I interviewed Nandini Abedin, a Bengali lecturer at the
University of Washington. I also interviewed one of Ms. Abedins students, Minnie, who is also a
second-generation heritage speaker of Bengali. This was a great way for me to gain multiple
observations on the language because both Sampurna and Minnie are second-generation Bengali
speakers from West Bengal (India) and Ms. Abedin is a first-generation Bengali speaker from
East Bengal (Bangladesh). It was fascinating to see what differences and insights they had to
offer. These interviews will serve as the foundational framework for this exploration, and much
of the outside research will function as complementary support to my findings.
To begin, I will provide the backgrounds of my two interviewees. Ms. Nandini Abedin
was born in Bangladesh and grew up there and in Indonesia before coming to the United States
as an adult. Here, she is a lecturer of the Bengali language at the University of Washington in the
Department of Asian Languages & Literature. Ms. Abedin was one of the authors of the Bengali
textbook the University of Washington uses, Epar Bangla Opar Bangla.
Minnie was born in West Bengal in India and moved to the United States at the age of 2.
Like any other second-generation heritage speaker, she learned Bengali as her first language at

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home. English quickly took over as her primary language but she remained a fluent speaker of
Bengali (her reading and writing skills were not developed when she was a youth). Minnie is
currently a graduate student in South Asian Studies at the University of Washington and is
enrolled in Ms. Abedins intermediate level Bengali class.
The University of Washington is unique in regards to its offering of Bengali classes
because it is one of three universities in the country to offer Bengali classes (University of
Chicago and Columbia University being the other two). On a quick side note, it seems to make
sense that Columbia University is one of the other universities to offer Bengali language classes.
In my midterm paper, I found that many Bengalis settled in Harlem in the 1920s and set up
restaurants and other businesses in the area. As a result, New York is one of the more
concentrated states with Bengalis, thus it seems appropriate that a university from that area
would offer Bengali classes.
At the University of Washington, Bengali classes are offered at the elementary,
intermediate, and advanced levels, though Ms. Abedin remarks that her advanced level class
rarely has anyone enrolled in it. Even the elementary and intermediate classes have very few
students, never more than ten; Minnie is one of two students in the intermediate class this
quarter.
I asked Ms. Abedin about the curriculum she teaches in class. In her elementary class, she
places a heavy emphasis on speaking, reading, and writing, as well as grammar and vocabulary.
The intermediate class focuses more on literature, such as short stories and famous works of
poetry. As I will discuss later, literature is a very important part of the Bengali language. Ms.
Abedin also spends a good portion of the class discussing the Bengali culture in addition to the
language. She says that Bengali language and culture are very closely tied together; without

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understanding the language, it can be difficult to understand the culture. As such, she teaches her
class about holidays, and has them give presentations on Bengali movies and films.
What was most interesting though, was the makeup of Ms. Abedins students and their
motivations for learning Bengali. In her elementary classes, she often sees an equal number of
heritage and non-heritage students. They all come with a variety of reasons for enrolling in her
class. Some students are graduate students in South Asian Studies, such as Minnie, who take the
class as part of their program; others are students who are looking to improve their linguistic
skills for business programs or study abroad programs. There are also heritage students who
simply want to work on retaining and improving their heritage language skills. Some of the nonheritage students choose to take the class because their significant other is Bengali; they want to
learn about the language and culture so they can communicate well with their partner and their
partners family. The intermediate and advanced classes are almost solely heritage speakers.
Minnie offered a perspective of a student and of a second-generation speaker. She had
taken a Hindi class during her undergraduate years, but here, since Bengali was offered, she
chose to enroll in the Bengali classes because she has always liked the language better than
others, perhaps due to her comfort with it growing up. When reflecting on her Bengali language
skills developing over time, she remarked that her speaking had not changed much as she had
already been pretty fluent with it. However, she had not learned reading or writing Bengali, so
that was where her disconnect was. She felt that she had an advantage in picking up the writing
and reading quickly because of her speaking abilities. Minnie says she has improved incredibly
having taken the classes and enjoys how Ms. Abedin teaches. Minnie thinks Ms. Abedin does a
great job with incorporating the cultural aspects into the class as well as the linguistic aspects.
Since the culture and language are so closely tied, she says non-heritage speakers would perhaps

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be culturally confused as to what to use or say and how to say something.
What is also interesting is that Minnie felt that she did not change in how she used the
language, now having taken these classes. She still conversed in English with her parents (but
was able to use Bengali outside of her home if she wanted to say something discreetly to her
parents) and thought in English but she felt that taking the class was a way for her to maintain
the language away from home. At home, she maintained Bengali through her parents speaking
and cooking food for her. Now, she maintains it by having to speak it in class. She also has a
deeper cultural tie because she has more knowledge of the literature and films of the culture.
Ms. Abedin and Minnie both emphasized the importance of literature to the Bengali
language, so I looked more into this topic. The Bengali writing script has been dated back to at
least 300 BCE (Guhat hkurat 33). One of the oldest examples of Bengali literature is in the
form of a collection of songs called Charyapada, which give expression to the mystics
heightened clarity and bliss (Guhat hkurat 40). These songs contained the earliest written
examples of the Bengali language (Guhat hkurat 40). Many other modern languages connect
their histories back to the Charyapada songs. The composers of these songs were numerous poets
between the eighth and eleventh centuries. Ms. Abedin told me about Jibanananda Das, a poet
and writer from the early 1900s, who wrote very popular works that are familiar to many
Bengalis. The literature is very old and important to these people and is thus an integral part of
the Bengali language.
My favorite thing I learned from this entire project was that the Bangladeshi people have
a whole day that is dedicated to their language: Bengali Language Movement Day, February 21.
There are very few cultures that can claim having a holiday dedicated to their language. Ms.
Abedin and Minnie both mentioned that this was a result of a revolutionary movement in East

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Bengal so I had to look into that to find out more.
In 1947, India and Pakistan both gained independence. At the time, India had West
Bengal, and Pakistan had control of East Bengal (present-day Bangladesh). With the question of
language, Pakistan made it clear that Urdu would be the sole official language of the state
(Raghavan 6). This set off a series of protests and demonstrations by the Bangladeshis who
wanted to retain their Bengali language and have it also be recognized as an official language
(Raghavan 6). There were students at the University of Dhaka who protested and were killed by
police officers in 1952 (Raghavan 7). This shows just how much the Bengali language meant to
the people of Bangladesh. They went to great efforts to make sure their language was recognized
and that itself is an act of passion and self-identification for the Bangladeshis. An interesting
observation Minnie told me was that Indian Bengalis dont seem to have the same degree of
attachment to the language as Bangladeshis; the language is important to them but they are just
not as dedicated. Eventually, Bangladesh went on to receive independence in 1971 (Raghavan 4).
Whats even more interesting is that Bangladesh proposed to the United Nations that a
day be made to celebrate all mother languages. UNESCO took it on and February 21 (starting in
2000) became known as International Mother Language Day (Guhat hkurat 516). In
Bangladesh, it is known as Bengali Language Movement Day. It is celebrated on February 21 to
commemorate the protesting students who were killed at the University of Dhaka in 1952 on that
day (Guhat hkurat 516).
An interesting theme that I noticed came up when I collaborated with three of my
classmates on the final presentation of our heritage language projects. The three other languages
in my group were Burmese, Cantonese, and Samoan. Language oppression seemed to be a
common barrier or challenge these languages (including Bengali) all seemed to face. The

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government oppressed Burmese refugees in terms of the Burmese language. Cantonese is slowly
being shunted to the side as Mandarin is in favor at language schools and in policy. Samoan
people were stereotyped and generalized, so they were not as willing to let outsiders into their
culture and language. Bengali was also oppressed when Pakistan was controlling it, but what is
incredible is how the Bangladeshis came out of this situation victorious.
Having seen the theme come up a few times, I then asked about Bangladeshi and West
Bengali differences. Ms. Abedin and Minnie both agree that linguistically, there are not
significant differences; the two areas could converse with each other just fine. Culturally, there
are some differences. The Bangladeshis are predominantly Muslim and the West Bengalis are
predominantly Hindu, as stated in my midterm paper. Thus, they tend to celebrate some different
holidays. The Bangladeshis celebrate Eid, and the West Bengalis celebrate Durga Pooja. The
immigrants from both areas to the United States continue celebrating these holidays here with
friends and family.
Having considered all of this information, we must now consider the maintenance and
future prospects for the Bengali language not only in the United States, but also specifically in
the state of Washington. When I was interviewing heritage speakers, I asked around if they were
aware of any groups or schools of Bengali in the local area. They all mentioned that groups of
families get together to celebrate big holidays and such but there isnt a school for teaching
language acquisition. After quite a bit of searching, I recently came across Uttoron. Uttoron is a
Bengali community in the Seattle area (including Bellevue, Issaquah, Sammamish, Redmond,
Everett, Tacoma, and Olympia) (Uttoron). From their website, it appears that they host four
annual events, Saraswati Pooja, Boishakhi (Bengali New Year), Durga Pooja, and a picnic. This
is an excellent opportunity for Bengali families in the Seattle area to participate in cultural

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activities and meet other Bengali families. This is especially beneficial for second-generation
children because they are now able to experience the culture and immerse themselves in it
despite being in another country. As Ms. Abedin and Minnie both pointed out, the language and
culture are tied closely together, so by going to these events, I think children could have an easier
time picking up the language and understand the value of maintaining it.
Uttoron also has a small Bengali school called Ankur (Uttoron). However, it is not
necessarily designed as a school with lessons and such. The website makes it out to be an area
where children and their parents can come together to work on practicing and improving their
Bengali language skills. The website specifically notes that this school does not provide students
with lessons and that parents must be present with their children. I do not think that this is
necessarily enough for children to pick up the language because it requires a lot of effort on the
parts of the parents who may not be as inclined to put in the time towards doing such things.
Putting that fact aside, it is still better than having nothing at all, so I hope they do continue the
school and perhaps eventually progress towards something more structured that provides
students with easy access to learning materials for the language.
With all this in mind, it is easier to think about the prospects for Bengali in Washington in
the coming years. From my midterm paper, I found that there are currently around 190,000
speakers of Bengali in the United States. This number is growing though, quite rapidly as more
Bengalis immigrate here for jobs in engineering and IT. Something that Minnie said really
resonated with me about this: she says that Bengalis are always abroad, and that they are always
going to want a connection to their home, so the language is going to stick around for a while.
Personally, I agree with her optimistic view on this. Not only are there many Bengalis coming to
Washington and other big cities, but also there are opportunities for Bengalis to continue using

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their language. The University of Washington offers Bengali classes and Uttoron offers
opportunities for celebrations and language improving efforts. This is something very unique to
Seattle just because only three universities in the entire country offer Bengali, and only one of
them is on the west coast. As long as the program can continue successfully, Bengali classes can
continue being offered here.
Seeing as many of them celebrate big holidays here, I dont see how they could do it
without understanding their language. I also dont believe the language will die out because of
the great efforts Bangladeshis took to have their language recognized; a whole holiday came out
of this so there is no way the language can go so quickly especially because this movement
happened in the last 100 years. From my knowledge and research, I believe these people will
continue to speak their language with pride and pass it on to their children even in the United
States and in Washington.

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Works Cited
Guhat hkurat, Meghan, and Willem Van. Schendel. The Bangladesh Reader: History, Culture,
Politics. Durham: Duke UP, 2013. eDuke Books Scholarly Collection. eDuke Books
Scholarly Collection, 22 Mar. 2013. Web. 6 June 2015.
Raghavan, Srinath. 1971: A Global History of the Creation of Bangladesh. N.p.: Harvard UP,
2013. JSTOR. JSTOR, Nov. 2013. Web. 6 June 2015.
Uttoron. Uttoron: Bengali Community of Greater Seattle. Uttoron, n.d. Web. 3 June 2015.