Bangla Stories: telling community histories about migration and belonging

“孟加拉故事”网站是2009年由人权委员会资助的“孟加拉侨民”项目研究小组与Runnymede信托基金会合作开发的。“孟加拉侨民”是一个为期三年的研究项目，探索1947年分治后印度孟加拉邦移民的历史和经历。这是现代最大规模的移民之一，估计有2 000万人- -穆斯林和印度教徒- -因分治和随后的自然灾害、战争以及社会和经济困难而流离失所。这项研究结合了历史、社会学和人类学的理论和方法，来考虑人们为什么和如何迁移，以及他们如何在新的和不熟悉的地方为自己和家人建立家园。该项目主要关注孟加拉穆斯林移民，他们的情况鲜为人知，但他们在战后移民到英国的孟加拉人中占大多数。项目组在印度、孟加拉国和英国工作，收集了180多份移民的生活史，以及家谱和照片，为“自下而上”的移民经历提供了一幅独特而亲密的肖像。这些故事揭示了历史和移民的生活方式，“移民时代”特定移民群体的资源和经历，以及南亚和英国定居地的社会排斥和多元文化主义进程。“孟加拉故事”网站是与英国最重要的种族平等智库Runnymede Trust合作开发的，目的是将这些故事带出学术界，进入下一代英国学童的课堂。其目的是使年轻人，无论背景如何，都能理解塑造他们的世界、国家、城市和社区的广泛的历史流动和运动，以及构成这些事件一部分的个人、家庭和社区历史。该网站讲述了来自印度、孟加拉国和英国的八位移民的个人故事，他们在不同的时间和不同的原因移民，通过这个网站，人们可以看到移民和多元文化的过程。该网站利用伦尼米德已有的专业知识，以通俗易懂、引人入胜的方式呈现复杂的故事和历史，为年轻人提供兴趣和技能，让他们了解自己的家庭和社区历史，并鼓励他们与父母和祖父母谈论他们的移民和变化经历。该网站及其附带的教育资源包虽然侧重于孟加拉穆斯林社区，但为在关键阶段3与英国年轻人接触提供了一个示范模板，涉及与一系列课程相关的更广泛的问题，包括历史、公民身份、地理和英语。当前的项目以这一重要而独特的资源为基础，通过以学校为基础的研讨会和社区活动来“推广”工作，鼓励年轻人和当地社区研究和叙述他们自己的个人和社区历史。在整个学年中，原始研究团队和Runnymede将举办研讨会，在全国范围内传播项目发现和社区历史方法，并围绕英国性、多元文化主义和归属感展开建设性对话。该计划还将开发孟加拉故事网站，使其与当地社区的年轻人更多互动，并将借鉴Runnymede开创性的“3.0世代”计划，制作一系列视频档案和小册子，讲述当地移民的历史。我们还将与政策制定者和其他学者就研究传播过程进行接触，并参与有关移民和公民身份的全国性辩论，以及移民时代的教育课程。

The 'Bangla Stories' website was developed in 2009 as a partnership between the research team on the AHRC funded 'Bengal diaspora' project and the Runnymede Trust. The 'Bengal diaspora' was a three year research project exploring the histories and experiences of migration from the Indian state of Bengal in the period after Partition in 1947. This migration was one of the largest of modern times, with an estimated 20 million people - Muslim and Hindu- displaced through Partition and subsequent natural disasters, wars and social and economic hardships. The research combined historical, sociological and anthropological theories and methods to consider why and how people migrated and how they made homes for themselves and their families in new and unfamiliar places. The project focused primarily on Bengali Muslim migrants, about whom less is known, but who accounted for the majority of Bengali migrants to Britain in the post-war years. Working in India, Bangladesh and Britain, the project team collected over 180 life histories of migrants, along with family trees and photographs, which provided a unique and intimate portrait of the experience of migration 'from below'. These stories shed new light on the way in which history and migration is lived, on the resources and experiences of a particular group of migrants in 'the Age of Migration', and on processes of social exclusion and multiculturalism in places of settlement in South Asia and the United Kingdom. The 'Bangla Stories' website was developed in partnership with the Runnymede Trust, Britain's foremost race equality think tank, as a way of bringing these stories outside the academy and into the classrooms of the next generation of British schoolchildren. The aim was to enable young people, of whatever background, to understand both the broad flow of history and movement which shapes their world, their country, their city and their neighbourhood, and the individual, family and community histories that form part of these events. Told through the personal stories of eight migrants, from India, Bangladesh and Britain, who migrated at different times and for different reasons, the website provides a portal through which to view processes of migration and multiculturalism. Drawing on the established expertise of Runnymede, the website presents complex stories and histories in accessible and engaging ways, providing young people with the interest and the skills to engage with their own family and community histories, and to encourage them to talk to their parents and grandparents about their experiences of migration and of change. Although focused on the Bengali Muslim communities, the website and accompanying educational resource pack provides an exemplary template for engaging with young people in Britain, at Key Stage 3, with broader issues of relevance to a range of curricula, including history, citizenship, geography and English language. The current project builds on this important and unique resource to 'roll out' the work through school based workshops and community events to encourage young people and local communities to research and narrate their own personal and community histories. Working across the school year, the original research team and Runnymede will conduct workshops disseminating the project findings and community history methods across the country, and opening up constructive dialogue around Britishness, multiculturalism and belonging. The project will also develop the Bangla Stories website to make it more interactive with young people in local communities, and, drawing on Runnymede's groundbreaking Generation 3.0 project, will develop a series of video archives and booklets which tell these local migration histories. We will also engage with policymakers and other academics around the process of dissemination of research, and engaging with national debates around migration and citizenship, as well as educational curricula in an age of migration.