Jamshedpur, Dec. 22: Over 2000 delegates from across the country and abroad will participate in the four-day 77th Nikhil Bharat Banga Sahitya Sammelan at Rabindra Bhavan from December 25.

Nikhil Bharat Banga Sahitya Sammelan, the oldest literary organisation in the country, was founded in 1922.

Chairman of organising committee of the association and senior Tata Steel functionary, D. Sengupta, said elaborate arrangements are being made for eminent Bengali scholars, several of them who will be visiting the city for the first time.

Although the sammelan will begin from December 25, it would be formally inaugurated by Union defence minister Pranab Mukherjee on December 26.

Chief minister, Arjun Munda, will attend the conference.

The organisers said, ?Bengali literature has played an instrumental role in reviving the Indian culture and tradition after the intrusion by the Britishers.?

Rabindranath Tagore, Aurobindo Ghosh, Swami Vivekanand, Sharat Chandra Chattopadhyay were the torch-bearers of Indian tradition and literature during the early part of 19th century. The Sammelan has nurtured them apart from eminent scholars of other Indian languages, the organisers added.

The Bengali conference will kick off with a general body meeting of All-India Bengali Literary Association.

The members will elect a new president of the association at the meeting.

Discussions on development of Bengali literature will be the focus in the nine sessions spread over three days.

During the three days, several sessions on Bengali literature including poetry, prose, songs, drama and plays will be held.

During the first session on December 26, speakers on contemporary Indian literature from eastern and north-eastern part of the country will elaborate on tribal languages, Assamese, Nepali, Manipuri, Bodo and Bengali (north-eastern region).

Sessions on contemporary Indian literature, katha sahitya (prose literature), kabya sahitya (poetry literature), children?s literature, drama and cinema session, music and art session will be the main subject for discussion at the conference.

Cultural troupes from Calcutta, Jamshedpur, Indore, Varanasi, Khatra, Bankura, Santiniketan will perform during the evening cultural sessions.

Eminent scholars expected to participate in the convention include professor of south-east Asian countries language of Chicago University, Cliton Seely, head of Bengali department of Dhaka University, Professor Anisurzaman, former vice-chancellor of Ranchi University, Ram Dayal Munda, head of Bangla department of North Bengal University, Ananda Gopal Ghosh and eminent Ravindra Sangeet exponent Subhash Choudhary.

The city had hosted such a conference in 1940 and 1980.