Rezwana Chowdhury Banya, the famous Rabindra Sangeet artist of the subcontinent received the Padma Shri award from the hands of the President of India, Draupadi Murmu. He received the award at Rashtrapati Bhavan in Delhi on Monday (April 22) evening. Indian news agency ANI reported this.
In recognition of important contributions in various fields, the Government of India awarded Padma Vibhushan to 5 meritorious personalities, 17 people with Padma Bhushan and 110 people with Padma Shri. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was present at the event despite the busyness of the election campaign. Home Minister Amit Shah was also present.
On January 25, the Government of India released the list of awardees for 2024. These awards were handed over to people who have contributed in various fields of society on Monday through a colorful ceremony.Rezwana Chowdhury Banya received Bangladesh’s highest civilian award, the Freedom Medal, in 2016. She has also received many awards. ‘Padma Shri’ is one of India’s highest civilian awards. Every year the award is given in three categories namely ‘Padma Vibhushan’, ‘Padma Bhushan’ and ‘Padma Shri’.
Banya was born in Rangpur district in 1957. She took his early singing lessons from uncle Abdul Ali. Later this musical training continued at Chayanaut and Bulbul Academy of Fine Arts (BAFA) in Dhaka under the supervision of Sanjida Khatun and Atiqul Haque. She later received a scholarship from the ‘Indian Council for Cultural Relations’ (ICCR) to study at Sangeet Bhawan, Shanti Niketan. Rabindranath Tagore himself founded this university.
Banya is currently a professor and founding chairman of the Department of Dance at Dhaka University. Before this he was a professor in the music department of the same university. Banya played the role of a promoter in the promotion and spread of Rabindra Sangeet. For this purpose, in 1992 he established a prestigious music school ‘Surer Dhara’ in Dhaka. In 2022, the government of Bangladesh launched a website preserving 5,000 flood songs with autobiographies and photographs.
Banya has received many awards including the prestigious Independence Day Award for his contribution to art and music. Other awards include – Anand Sangeet Award for Best Female Rabindra Sangeet Artist (2002), Gune Gane Gunijan Samvardhana (2011), Sangeet Samman Award in 2013 from the Ministry of Culture of India, Banga Bhushan (2017), Firozha Begum Memorial Gold Medal (2017). , Sangeet Maha Samman (2017) by the Government of West Bengal, Honorary Doctorate of Arts from Asian University for Women (2019) are notable.
