BASC ইতিহাস - History of BASC

On our way to Stanford California, during the summer of 1969, we first stopped in Los Angeles as the guest of Drs. Pradip and Sumitra Roy-Burman. Finally we came back here and settles in this Los Angeles area in May 1971. In those days there were only few Bengali families in the greater Los Angeles area.

Up to the mid 1960 a handful of Bengali residents of Los Angeles area used to get together informally from time to time. Around 1967-68 Dr. Bhattacharya and Dr. Samiran Bose of UCLA got together a few families and organized a Picnic at Griffith Park. This get together resulted in the first “Bijoya Sammilani” at the residence of Mr. & Mrs. Ranjit and Aruna Roy. Ranjit Roy became the president of this informal Bengali group. Mr. Tapas Ghosh and Mr. Ranjan Guha were the singer/musicians of this group. Me. Tapas Sinha was also used to sing for this Bengali group. Around 1970-71 this Bengali group was formalized as Southern California Bengali Cultural Association (SCBCA) and Dr. Anjan Bhaumik became the first President of SCBCA (1971-73). At that time the only programs of SCBCA was (a) to organize Saraswati puja in Dr. Manilal Bhaumiks house in Pasadena and (b) to organize a pot-luck Bijoya Samelan usually at UCLA international Center. To attend and celebrate on-\e-day Durga Puja (Ghot Puja) at the Santa Barbara temple of Vedanta Society was also routine to several members of SCBCA. At this time rules and regulations of SCBCA were outlined. Subsequently a newsletter was published by SCBCA.

After Anjan Bhaumik, Mr Ranjan Guha was the President of SCBCA for two terms and in between Mr. Ranjit Roy once served as President (1973-78). Involving the Indian Students of USC and UCLA, Ranjan Guha in Collaboration with Mr. Chandan Das, once organized a Saraswati Puja at UCLA in a larger scale. Several non-Bengali groups were also involved in this puja. During this period SCBCA published a Bengali Literary manazine “KHEYA” underthe leadership of Ms. Dhruba Bose Roy and Dr. Sankar Koyal. Around this time, a preliminary constitution was developed under the leadership of Dr. Prasun De. An attempt was made by Ms. Anjali Bose to start a Bengali School at Ranjan Guha’s house.

In 1978, I was elected as the President of SCBCA, with Dr. Prasun De as the Vice President and Mr. Robin Podder as the Secretary. The first things we planned was to make our organization a non-profit tax-exempt organization. As a preparation to do that first we changed the name of our organization from SCBCA to BASC (Bengali Association of Southern California). Presumably, the word “Cultural” within the previous name of our organization was a hindrance in getting a tax-exempt status. We also wrote a formal constitution of BASC during this time under the leadership of Dr. Prasun De, the constitution committee and myself. In spite of our hard work in this area, we could not get the tax-exempt status during the tenure of my presidency. However, BASC became tax-exempt during the tenure of our next President Dr. Pinaki Chakraborty. Mr. Chandan Das worked hard towards this endeavor.

To Be Continued....