Bangla Academy National Language and Cultural Research Institution of Bangladesh

History and Founding

Bangla Academy (Bengali: বাংলা একাডেমি) was founded on 3 December 1955 at Burdwan House in Shahbagh, Dhaka — the former residence of the Chief Minister of East Pakistan — as a direct outcome of the 1952 Bengali Language Movement that asserted Bengali as a state language and ultimately catalyzed Bangladesh's independence in 1971. The academy was established under the Bangladeshi government and modeled structurally on the Académie française. Following Bangladesh's independence, it was reconstituted under the Bangla Academy Order of 1972 as an autonomous institution under government patronage. Its governance was further refined by the Bangla Academy Ordinance of 1978 and the Bangla Academy Act of 2013, which established a new Executive Council and Governing Body structure.

Collections and Holdings

Bangla Academy maintains a library holding over 300,000 volumes, with ongoing digitization efforts. Its publication output exceeds 5,000 books and journals, making it Bangladesh's largest publishing house. Major publications include comprehensive Bengali-English and English-Bengali dictionaries, a dictionary of Bangladeshi regional dialects (Anchalik Bhasar Abhidhan), encyclopaedias such as the Bijnan Bishvakosh (Science Encyclopedia), and biographical dictionaries. Six journals are published regularly, including the quarterly Bangla Academy Patrika and the half-yearly Bangla Academy Journal (in English).

The Academy also holds archival materials supporting its research programs on Bengali language, literature, folklore, and history, including materials on the 64 districts of Bangladesh and translation archives in Bengali and English.

Notable Materials Related to Journalism and Media

The Bangla Academy archive preserves early Bengali-language publications, research materials on the Bengali-language press, and records of the Language Movement — which directly shaped the political conditions under which Bangladesh's media developed. The Academy's own journals constitute a scholarly archive of Bengali literary and cultural research since 1957.

Access and Usage

The Academy's library and publication catalog are accessible in person at its Burdwan House premises in Shahbagh, Dhaka. Publications can be purchased or accessed through the Academy's website. The Academy is currently undertaking a comprehensive digitization project (DABAL — Digitization and Automation of Bangla Academy Library) to broaden public access to its collections.