2008 Woodie Awards
New Hindu student group prepares for Garba festival
Religion
J. Claire Wilson
Issue date: 10/15/07 Section: News
- Page 1 of 2 next >
On the fifth floor of the Union, a small meeting room has been transformed into an iconoclastic Hindu temple, complete with fruit offerings, a statue of a Hindu deity, and literature on Hinduism.
"We started the temple in the Union because there is no [other] temple for Hindu students to worship in," said sophomore Jiger Patel.
Patel is the president of the Hindu Student Councils, group he helped start last semester to provide the "200 to 300 Hindu students and professors on campus with a place for worship," he said.
The goals of the council are to "bring Hindu students on campus together" and "remove misconceptions about Hinduism and give back to the community," Patel said.
Patel has organized a collection of books related to Hinduism that will be donated to the library, and he said he hopes "to do more community service as the group gathers more members."
The Hindu Student Council seems to provide a home away from home for many Indian students at the UA, said sophomore Tanvi Chowdhary, who is vice president of the HSC.
"As an international student coming from India, I see so many Indian people, and I wanted to do something to have a community with these people," she said.
Chowdhary is glad to be studying here, but she said it is important to her "not to get away from my culture."
This same aspect drew Siddhart Ramaswamy, a graduate student in engineering who is a member of the club.
"I want to be more spiritually involved because my family is very orthodox and I want to show my appreciation [for the Hindu culture] when Jiger brought up the idea of a student group," Ramaswamy said.
"There was no such organization on campus," said Kedan Chawle, a sophomore business finance major who is the treasurer of HSC. The club is "not just made up of Indians; lots of people are interested in Hinduism, yoga and other aspects of Hinduism," he said.
For Chawle, a major goal is to "educate people on what Hinduism is," he said.
"We started the temple in the Union because there is no [other] temple for Hindu students to worship in," said sophomore Jiger Patel.
Patel is the president of the Hindu Student Councils, group he helped start last semester to provide the "200 to 300 Hindu students and professors on campus with a place for worship," he said.
The goals of the council are to "bring Hindu students on campus together" and "remove misconceptions about Hinduism and give back to the community," Patel said.
Patel has organized a collection of books related to Hinduism that will be donated to the library, and he said he hopes "to do more community service as the group gathers more members."
The Hindu Student Council seems to provide a home away from home for many Indian students at the UA, said sophomore Tanvi Chowdhary, who is vice president of the HSC.
"As an international student coming from India, I see so many Indian people, and I wanted to do something to have a community with these people," she said.
Chowdhary is glad to be studying here, but she said it is important to her "not to get away from my culture."
This same aspect drew Siddhart Ramaswamy, a graduate student in engineering who is a member of the club.
"I want to be more spiritually involved because my family is very orthodox and I want to show my appreciation [for the Hindu culture] when Jiger brought up the idea of a student group," Ramaswamy said.
"There was no such organization on campus," said Kedan Chawle, a sophomore business finance major who is the treasurer of HSC. The club is "not just made up of Indians; lots of people are interested in Hinduism, yoga and other aspects of Hinduism," he said.
For Chawle, a major goal is to "educate people on what Hinduism is," he said.
Be the first to comment on this story