The UKTA World Telugu History Conference

The UKTA World Telugu History Conference

The UKTA World Telugu History Conference

 

The UKTA is a registered charity dealing with the promotion of the heritage and values of Telugu culture around ‘The England’.

The World Telugu History Conference was organised on July 14th and 15th at The British Library Conference Centre in London, with the aim to bring together erudite Telugu scholars to read academic and literary papers to each other and study the original Telugu manuscripts obtained by  the Library during the times of the British Indian Empire.

The conference brought together many distinguished personalities from politics, diplomacy and academia, such as MP Alistair Burt, Lord Bilimoria, Mandali Buddha Prasad, Chiranjeevi, and others. Dr. A. Chakrapani, chairman of the Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council said that the event was ‘a pioneering effort’ and expressed hope of increased interest in the study of Telugu language, literature and culture.

On behalf of the UK Government, Alistair Burt assured attendants of strong official support for initiatives of investigation into the roots of all ethnic groups living in the UK.

As conceiver and promoter of the conference, Mandali Buddha Prasad encouraged all present scholars and academic figures to continue their interest into ‘Teluguness’ and requested worldwide natives of Andhra Pradesh to maintain their culture and traditions. Biochemical evidence of Telugu population dating since the beginning of Humanity has been brought forth, compelling film star/ politician Chiranjeevi to declare the necessity for all expat Andhras to compulsorily teach the Telugu language to their children.

Foreign delegates representing Telugu culture in Sweden, Germany and Mauritius were there, as well as grand-nephew of Sir Arthur Cotton, the famous colonist-philanthropist.

A dance show performed by Padmaja Reddy, Jayalakshmi and Baby Bhavana charmed the audience before the valedictory function by MP Simon Hughes, honouring the many intellectuals and saying how happy he was to see proud migrants tracing their roots and broadening their knowledge of their mother tongue.

Here and Now 365 was represented at this conference by our colleague Aaditya who was catching up on his dad’s Telugu bequest. These cultural events are a delight for us to attend, both officially as a multicultural agency and personally, as most of us are of ethnic background. Opportunities to see eminent scholars discussing your native literature and language in the UK are not to be missed by anybody, especially since they don’t occur too often outside universities.

We aim to cover as many events of interest to UK foreign communities as possible, in order to keep in close touch with all the people we are usually delivering media communications to.

UKTA official website is: www.uktas.org.uk

 

About Here and Now 365

Leave a reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *