Successful First Year of Foundation for India Studies

By Kalyani Giri

HOUSTON — Instituted a year ago at the College of Liberal Arts and Social Studies at the University of Houston (UofH), the Foundation for India Studies (FIS) celebrated its first successful anniversary at the University Center on August 12.

The program was established to impart to the younger generation, the diverse cultural traditions and history of India, and to instill pride in their ancestry. The FIS would also serve as a valuable tool helping students to compete in the global economy through a better understanding of India and her inherent uniqueness. With the support of the Indo-American community, the organization’s founder and visionary Krishna Vavilala presented a cheque in the amount of $10,000 to the university to benefit the FIS seat, and to provide starter seed capital with the future goal of endowing a Chaired Professor at the UofH by the year 2010. Attending the event were the Assistant Vice Chancellor of the UofH, Dr. Jerald Strick-land; the Dean of College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences of UofH, Dr. John Antel; the Consul General of India, Hon. S.M. Gavai; and Rina Gavai; local community leaders; and FIS faculty.

Speaking on the occasion, Vavilala told gatherees that he hand-selected UofH because of its large student body, numbering an impressive 55,000 from over 100 countries.

“Many of these students will graduate and join government jobs or international companies. The added dimension of knowledge about India will make these young people more sought after,” said Vavilala. He introduced the faculty members teaching the credit courses; Hinduism and Jainism Studies tutor, Andrea Jain; and the Hindi Language Levels I and II teacher, Arun Prakash. Dr. Pramod Pathak will be joining the faculty in the Fall for the new courses in Indian History, Arts, and Architecture. An Anthropology of India course will begin in the Fall of 2008.

Sharing his vision with the audience, Dr. Antel said that the FIS was about a partnership benefiting India and the USA, a program designed to foster cultural exchanges and trade between the two global democracies.

“I recognize the strategic technological advances made by India. And I salute it. But technology doesn’t necessarily mean that we communicate in the larger sense of the word. We have plans to bring in scholars to teach about a field they are familiar with, which is India. We plan on encouraging scholarships, and exchange student programs. We want faculty exchanges. We need to recruit a distinguished scholar from India who can recognize students worthy of higher studies,” said Professor Antel.

Hon. Gavai told gatherees that India is large enough with an identity of its own to merit a school of Indian studies here in this city. He reiterated the importance of relaying to the next generations, India’s significance and contribution to global growth. He added that bilateral relations between the two largest democracies have never been as promising as it is today.

“We are short of one commodity. The relationship between India and the US needs improvement; the economy of India is growing by 9% every year. Last year, trade between the two countries increased by 26%. The understanding of India and her myriad complexities has to be improved and FIS will bridge that gap,” said Hon. Gavai.

A young student at the university, Kranti Kumar, who attended the event and understood the urgent need for such a foundation made several astute observations.

“The second generation of Indians here in US already have been dubbed ABCDs — American-Born Confused Desis. They are a generation that hums the latest tune of A.R. Rahman but can’t understand what the lyrics mean; a generation that relates very loosely to India, and has never has experienced festivals such as Holi, Diwali and Ganesh Chaturthi in the way that their parents did,” said Kumar. “This generation has to know about India that is not shown in films. This is the best thing about the FIS program and its timing. The courses offered will definitely help ignite interest about India for generations to come,” added Kumar, who is working toward a Masters degree in Engineering.
Mistresses of Ceremonies, Avani and Punitha Sunder deftly conducted the event. Entertainment included dances by students of Indrani Parthasarathy, and songs by Nina Tamerisa.

The Board of Directors for FIS is as follows: Krishna Vavilala, Chairman; Dr. Sulekh Jain, Vice Chairman; Vatsa Kumar, Secretary; Professor G. V. Krishnan, Treasurer. Parul Fernandes, Director of International Studies, U of H, is also a director on the FIS board.

For more information, visit www.foundationforindiastudies.org