KIRAN Cymru as a part of its dedicated programme 'South Asian Living Heritage Society, UK' has organised a community discussion, in April 2026, about the arts, culture and heritage of Bengali diaspora living in Wales. The intergenerational participants came from both,West Bengal and Bangladesh, Bengali backgrounds.
It was an open discussion, held in Cardiff, in unjudgemental atmosphere. The participants share their opinions and experiences on the following points:

1st question? - Who can be considered to be a Bengali.
Respondents gave two-fold answers. Firstly, they said that those who are born to a Bengali family, speaks Bengali language and takes part in Bengali cultural practices are 'Bengali'. The second interpretation of Bengali was those who do not speak bengali language, but lives in Bengal and takes part in Bengali culture are 'Bengali'. There was a third angle, which was interesting was that anyone can be called Bengali who follows Bengali lifestyle.

2nd question? What are the significant Bengali cultures?
The participants responded - Durga Puja, Dol Yatra, Poila Boishak, Rabindranath, Najrul, Sarat Chandra, Humayun Ahmed and many other writers and poets.

3rd question? Is 'Bengali' as a cultural expression are being extinct?
It was strongly believed that the interest to take the culture forward, e.g., by speaking Bangla Laanguage, following Bengali cultures are diminishing. there are a number of factors cited as reasons. One of them is that studying in Bengali medium school or in Bengali language narrows down the future prosp[ect. As in South Asian Countries also in the UK it is not possible to earn a living in Bengali language.

The participants also brought delicious homemade Bengali food to share among them.

The whole session was conducted in Bengali language of West bengal and Bangladesh dialects.

The discussion includes the personal opinion and not conclusive or objective. We take no responsibility to anyone who is viewing this video. The sole purpose of the video is educational.