Bengal Studies

Bengal studies (Bengali: বঙ্গবিদ্যা; Bangabidya) is an interdisciplinarry academic field devoted to the study of the Bengali people, Bengali culture, Bengali language and Bengali Literature, and the History of Bengal. The focus of this field (which qualifies as Area Studies and Cultural studies) is on the Indic Bengalis who follow an indigenous system of faith and refer to themselves as Bengalis. It is a subset of South Asian studies and Indology.

However, a study of the history and culture of the Bengali people have been undertaken by the Bengalis themselves and others travelling to Bengal since earliest times. The work of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay is often considered to be a forerunner of Bengali studies in the modern period, while Ishwar Chandra Gupta pioneered the study of Bengali poets through a critically annotated collection of the diverse oral poetic traditions of Bengal. Noted twentieth century Bengali historians like Ramesh Chandra Majumdar and Niharranjan Ray should be mentioned as champions of the study of the history and culture of the Bengali people.

International Congress of Bengal Studies

• 2010: 1st International Congress; University of Delhi, India
• 2011: 2nd International Congress; University of Dhaka, Bangladesh
• 2013: 3rd International Congress; University of Calcutta, India
• 2015: 4th International Congress; Tokyo University of Foreign Studies, Japan