ILS-Co-ed

It's probably the air in Berkeley. Or, perhaps, the answer lies in its long-standing liberal heritage. Whatever the reason, this past month, students at UC Berkeley achieved something more tangible than what beleaguered Indo-Pak diplomats have labored over for more than five decades. Surely something more than a bus-ride across the border.

On Nov. 19, two brand new fraternities – the Indian Students Association and the Pakistani Students Association – came together to organize a joint Diwali-Eid celebration on the University of California campus. With close to 200 people attending the event, it turned out to be a first of its kind, as this is the first known broad-scale Indo-Pak student collaboration at any major university campus in the United States.

The idea behind this Promethean concept was not just to have a celebratory bash, but also to recognize India and Pakistan as regions of a subcontinent that draw their individual flavors from the same cultural and religious pool. “The aim of the event was to look beyond the confines of the nation states of India and Pakistan, and beyond the differences that are dividing us,” explains Sudeep Roy, one of the vice presidents of the ISA.
Roy is a second generation Indian American and an undergraduate student of South Asian studies at UC Berkeley. Like other members on the ISA board, Roy is impassioned about its cause. “It is evident that India and Pakistan have been together for hundreds of years as one nation before the separation and the wars. So our aim was to unite Hindus and Muslims; immigrants and citizens; graduates and faculty, and rediscover the very heart and spirit of that one large Indian civilization,” he points out.

It's not surprising that such an event would gather support on a campus like Berkeley. After all, this university town has cherished its clerisy of bleeding heart liberals. During the '60s, Berkeley was the stomping ground for activists of the civil rights and free speech movement. Even today, a walk down the school's shaded avenues or its surrounding quaint store-lined streets reveals remnants of its hippie, devil-may-care attitude.

While cultural diversity has been its defining mantra, what is happening now at Berkeley is more of a grassroots-level cultural “revolution” – an expression of its various ethnic groups in search of their own voice and representation. And the Diwali-Eid celebration was just its manifestation. “Berkeley has over 400 student bodies. And in the last four years I have been on campus, I've noticed 10-12 new groups emerge – and most them ethnic,” says Roy.

For the average Indian American, INDUS has been the primary ethnic outlet on campus. “INDUS is an umbrella body for large groups of South Asian students. It is not specific to the Indian student population,” elucidates Roy. “Despite the fact that INDUS events attract over 3,000 students and audience members, a majority of its shows focus only Bollywood dancing. These kinds of events promote a culture that emphasizes on partying, promiscuity, Bollywood and socializing. Socialization is not necessarily bad. Except it should not be the defining mark of our culture.”

According to Roy, other aspects of Indian culture like arts and architecture, philosophy, literature and religion get overlooked in this pop-culture styled entertainment package. “For people who seek more than popular entertainment, there is a void for more substantive programming. That's why we decided to start the Indian Students Association that will be specific to the Indian community on campus. We are not rivals to any other organization. But we offer a choice in terms of cultural programming,” he adds.

But there is more to this organization than offering an alternative entertainment option. “Many of us involved with the running of ISA are students of South Asian studies. And we found that under that blanket term, we as Indian students were receiving a very diluted interpretation of our heritage and where we come from,” explains Roy. “That's because there are very few professors in this field who have a personal stake in understanding Indian culture, as they come from other ethnic groups. They interpret the Indian civilization solely from a socio-economic perspective and we wanted to change that.”

Soon after its inception in September, ISA brought in Dr. Subhash Kak, a renowned scholar on Vedic culture and Indian civilization, to talk about “The Aryan Invasion Theory of India: Fact of Fiction.” “This was the first time an academic lecture had been delivered in Berkeley that focused on this huge aspect of Indian socialization and that, too, from an Indian expert,” adds Roy.
ISA is also trying to address an issue they think is misunderstood on campus – the lack of a religious signature from the Indian subcontinent. “A couple of years ago, a few of us wanted to have a Diwali pooja along with the usual dance show. But there was resistance to the idea within INDUS because some felt that they were a secular group. But secularism does not mean ignoring religions. It is the celebration of religious pluralism,” says Roy.
Shelvin Prasad feels equally strongly on the subject. Prasad is the president of ISA and is an immigrant student at Cal. Though he is of Indian descent, his ancestors moved to Fiji in the early 1900s. “In Fiji, the Indian community – whether they are Hindus or Muslims – is very close knit,” he recalls.

“Our social lives revolve around each other's culture and religion. So when I came to Berkeley, I was surprised to see that there is not much of an interaction between Hindus and Muslims or, for that matter, between the Indian students and their Pakistani counterparts. This is sad because as future leaders of the community, there needs to be a portal for open cohesion,” he explains.

Natasha Paracha is a third year political science student and head of the Pakistani Students Association. When they formed the group last year, students from other Muslim associations asked them why they needed to form a separate Pakistani association.

“The answer is that we wanted to have an organization that would reflect the cultural and political views of our country,” says Paracha. “And for some time now, we have felt the need to bring the cultures of India and Pakistan together as they are so similar.”
According to her, there are around 400 Pakistani students on campus. “This time Diwali and Eid fell just days apart, and we thought it will be a great opportunity to forge this alliance,” she adds.

The collaborative effort took a month of planning and every presentation involved a little twist.

The program began with Hindustani instrumental music with the tabla player from Pakistan and the sitar player from India. Both musicians acknowledged that the Hindustani style was a fusion of music from the two regions.

“We also had an Urdu professor who recited his own shairi. And in it he spoke about the significance of the Ramayana, the Vedas and the Quran. It was really wonderful to hear Hindu scriptures sneaking into a Urdu poetry,” says Prasad.

Apart from the usual Carnatic music and Bharatnatyam presentations, the banquet also included speeches from the two associations.

“We decided to shake things up a bit and we had an Indian student talk about Eid and a Pakistani student talk about Diwali,” says Roy.

“It was heartwarming to watch these students interact with each other before the show, getting their facts and pronunciation of certain words right. It was the kind of interaction we wanted to promote: getting to know each other's distinct cultures and at the same time find the similarities.”

For such a new organization, ISA's Diwali-Eid hoopla attracted more attention than expected. “We thought we would have around 90 people. We did not expect the hall to be over-crowded and people having to cram into every available space. People came up to me later and said that they really enjoyed the show,” remembers Paracha.

But now invigorated by the success of the newly formed partnership, the two associations plan to hold a joint Spring and Independence Day celebration next year.