Amra Bangali
Amra Bangali ('AMB) (Bengali: আমরা বাঙালী; translation: We are Bengalis) is a radical Bengali political party in India. Founded by renowned philosopher Prabhat Ranjan Sarkar; the party was sparked off by the 1983 Assam movement better known to Bengalis as the "Bongali Kheda" or "Drive away Bengalis" movement. Amra Bangali enjoyed a short stint in the spotlight in the mid-eighties when it even won some gram panchayat seats in border districts.[1] Today, AMB is involved in various movements and protests including those against the Gorkhaland Nepalese calling for the creation of new state of Gorkhaland.[2]
The politics of Amra Bangali is based on Sarkar's ideas of economic and political democracy. The party is organized in West Bengal, as well as in other states with large Bengali populations such as Tripura, Bihar, Odisha, Assam and Jharkhand. The only real political breakthrough the party has had was in Tripura during the 1980s, when the party entered the Legislative Assembly in connection with the mounting ethnic tensions in the state.
The aims and objects of Amra Bangali include:
- Restoration and development of Bengali language and culture.
- Economic self-sufficiency.
- Self-determination in socio-political field.
Few radical elements of AMB have also suggested the re-organization of the territory of Bengal with all the like minded people having respect for Bengali language and culture and giving a new name “Bangalistan” to this territory.[citation needed]
In West Bengal, Amra Bengali has vandalised signs in railway stations, obscuring English and Hindi placenames with black tar, so that only the Bengali name remains visible.[1]
