(The Gandhi statue in Houston, set up by the India Culture Centre, Houston)



I read a news item, where NRI , Krishna Vavilal is about to raise $1 million for India Chair in Houston varsity.

I really am interested in 'Indian Culture and its Preservations'. One of the best ways to preserve a culture is to make it an academic course in a University. One of the best ways to live a culture is to live in it.

The project is to collect $ 1 million (about Rs. 4.5 crores) to set up an Indian Chair in the University of Houston wherein the future generation of the Indian Diaspora could learn and study about the vast and rich cultural heritage of India and its glorious history.

However, once you read the above article, you tend to get the feeling that the Indian diaspora in the US, wants the younger generation to learn more about India. A very laudable effort. But one must realize academics puts perspective into a higher intellectual or artistic realm. Students begin to think they know much about the topic, but do they feel for it, do they live it? And I am sure the second-geners, are facing the tough act of balancing the Indian and the American, will the course address that challenge.

I really am one for confluence of culture and scholarship, but I think the course also needs to address how the younger diaspora can get into mainstream society. Rather than just another community trying only to preserve its culture, which is fine, but you could promote culture much more by being in the mainstream.

This course shouldn't become a right-wing Indian department, but a secular course where anyone interested in India could pick up a course.

Good Luck to Krishna Vavilal.