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Nashville is the state
capital of if Tennessee. Bangladeshi community here consists of
people from different professions. Bangladeshi families started settling in
Nashville from around mid 60's., and now many Bangladeshi families are
making Nashville as their second home. Some of the pioneers were Dr. Zillur
Atahar, Dr. Nasrul Hoque, Dr. Habibur Rahman, Dr. M. Ismail, Dr. M. Yunus
(Nobel Laureate), and Dr. M. Fakhruddin.
In the late 70's and early 80's, more families like Dr. M. Mohiuddin,
Dr. M. Qureshi, Barrister M. Hoque, Dr. M. Maleque, Dr. S. Rokeya, Dr. S.
Islam, and Dr. S. Jahan came to Nashville. Some student-families like Dr.
B. Zaman and others also came to Nashville for higher studies and expanded
the existing Bangladeshi community. It has been a continuous growth like in
other cities of North America but the rate of growth increased since mid
90's due to OP-1 and DV programs of American Government. By now many
families have come and gone for different reasons; and presently there are
around 250 Bangladeshi living in Nashville.
Until April 1993, there was no Bangladesh Association in this
community. In July of 1992, Dr. M. Sarkar came to Nashville as a faculty
member of Tennessee State University (TSU). Because of his involvement in
cultural activities, Dr. Jahan initially asked him to form Bangladesh
Association of Nashville (BAN). His vision was that Bangladesh is an
independent country and we should have an association. He tried to convince
Dr. Sarkar that because of his cultural ability, it was then feasible to
form an association in Nashville. In those days, Dr. Zaman (a music lover
and a faculty member of TSU) often invited Dr. Sarkar and other people in
his home and organized singing parties; and he too encouraged Dr. Sarkar to
forming Bangladesh Association.
In April 1993, Dr. Sarkar organized Eid-ul-Fitr celebration party in
his Western Hill Apartment's party room. After dinner, Dr. Fakhruddin
declared the creation of BAN with Dr. Maleque as President, Dr. Zaman as
General Secretary and Dr. Sarkar as Cultural Secretary. This way, the good
old journey of BAN started. In January 1994 Dr. Sarkar, as President of
BAN, wrote its constitution keeping
provisions for Board of Trustees consisting of Dr. Fakhruddin, Dr. Maleque,
Dr. Sarkar, Dr. Halima, Dr. Jahan, Dr. Zaman and Dr. Rokeya. Dr. Sarkar
also registered BAN to the State of Tennessee. Now members of BAN consist
of Nashville and different cities around Nashville like Clarksville,
Hendersonville, Tullahoma, Franklin, and Murfreesboro.
Since then BAN has successfully conducted many social and
international activities to demonstrate the rich cultural heritage of
Bangladesh; such as music, poetry, literature, versatile foods,
hospitality, religiosity, friendliness, political consciousness etc. In
those years, Dr. Sarkar arranged lot of rehearsals and tried his best to
induce Bangladeshi culture to the new generation by training and exposing
them to patriotic songs, poems and other audio-visual activities. Almost
all the children from all families participated in different activities for
different occasions like Independence Day, Victory Day, International
Mother Language Day, Eid Day, International Fair Day, Reception Ceremony
for Dr. Yunus (in 1996, Dr. Sarkar and his son, Milon Sarkar, performed
songs), etc. In 2006, a promising addition of a cultural magazine named
'BORTIKA' was published to further demonstrate the creative ability of the
Bangladeshi community in Nashville.
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