Aaloron is a Bradford,UK based Bengali Cultural Association which tries to involve people with roots in Bengal in cultural activities like music, dance, drama and elocution.

The organisation tries to focus on activities which promotes the understanding of the culture of Bengal and South East Asia within the local community in West Yorkshire. One of the main focus areas is the youth and its understanding of the roots of South Asian Culture. One of the main thrust areas are to break down the barriers of language isolation of the community. Mainly formed by expat professionals like doctors, engineers and accountants with fresh roots to the subcontinent, Aaloron is an endeavour to integrate the community to the mainstream Brtish society.

Five years into being, Aaloron has achieved many allocades for it performances by its young members. In a recent charity cultural program the Lord Mayor of Bradford appreciated the efforts of this organisation to present cultural diversity in the region. The local media has been very supportive to this effort and has given Aaloron the exposure needed.

Bengal and the Bengali

Bengal, known as Bôngo (Bengali: বঙ্গ), Bangla (বাংলা), Bôngodesh (বঙ্গদেশ), or Bangladesh (বাংলাদেশ) in Bangla, is a region in the northeast of South Asia. Today it is mainly divided between the independent nation of Bangladesh (eastern Bengal), and the Indian federal republic's constitutive state of West Bengal, although some regions of the previous kingdom of Bengal (during local monarchial regimes and British rule) are now part of the neighbouring Indian states of Bihar, Tripura and Orissa.

Often confused as a Bangladeshi - the Bengali or Bangla speakers of England fall into two groups:

• a small predominantly Hindu group from the Indian state of West Bengal.
• a larger Muslim community from the neighbouring nation of Bangladesh.

The majority of Bengali speakers in UK are from the Sylhet region and speak a language called Selheti, as well as Bengali. The origins of this community goes back to 19th Century Britain. Read more ...

Historically Bengal has a very rich cultural heritage. Bengal is, indeed, noted for its rich culture in songs, music, drama, dances and language. Bengali language is much older than Hindi Urdu and even Portugese, Spanish and many other established modern languages. Its indigenous style of music, art, dance and drama is very rich. Bengali is one of the oldest languages in the world. According to statistics, jointly with Spanish, Bengali is the fourth largest language group in the world, only surpassed by Chinese, English and Hindi. It is the first of Indian languages to develop western style secular fiction and drama. It originated from Sanskrit - an Indo Aryan language in the 7th century, thus making it comparable to English, French and German.

Music, songs, drama and dances are part of rich Bengali culture and there are three mainstreams of these Bengali Culture: folk, modern and classical. Read more ...