The India Student Association’s (ISA) fifth annual Diwali Night celebration brought students from various ethnic and cultural backgrounds together for food, dancing and cultural exchange in observance of the Indian Festival of Light on Oct. 17.
Diwali is day three of a five-day Hindu festival celebrating the triumph of light over darkness and good over evil.
“Diwali is the biggest celebration in India, but it has universal appeal,” former Texas A&M University-Commerce student Ravi Ruthala said. “In most other cultures good conquers evil too, and that’s where the universal appeal of Diwali comes from.”
Had members of ISA been in India for Diwali, numerous oil lamps would be lit and placed around their homes to symbolize light conquering darkness and good conquering evil. Diwali night came to A&M-Commerce as the result of weeks of planning by members of the ISA.
Numerous practices were held well into the early morning hours in the Morris Recreation Center, the student center and in the residence halls as ISA members prepared choreographed dance routines to the Indian music as solos, in pairs or groups.
Based on Diwali participation from previous years, ISA anticipated a number of students to participate and prepared accordingly.
“Space has always been a problem since so much room is needed to accommodate all of the activities that ISA plans for this event, especially for the large dance floor needed for the dance routines and the open disco,” Diane Downing, India Student Association advisor said. “Because our organization is so large, we were able to reserve the three ballrooms in the student center well in advance for Diwali.”
Participants, as well as guests of the program, arrived in traditional Indian apparel.
Women came with their bodies draped in brightly colored and intricately decorated sarees, while men wore kurtha and kolahpuri, dress shoes with upward-curved toes. Some women also wore bindis on their foreheads. There was no shortage of Indian sweets for patrons to sample. Indian students provided laddu, gulab jamun, pista rolls, khaji and dhoodh paak.
A&M-Commerce narrowly missed not having a Diwali night. Hosting the event on campus was pitched as an idea by ISA members as early as 2002, but was not actually implemented until later.
“Hosting Diwali night came up as an idea three times before plans actually went into bringing the event together,” Downing said. “When I asked about Diwali and what we needed to do as an organization to bring the event to Commerce, no one spoke up. At that point, I knew if we weren’t ready to discuss Diwali within our own organization, then we weren’t ready to bring it to campus.”
Since its 2002 debut, ISA’s Diwali night has gained appeal as a cultural program with many students, especially those who are curious about the traditions of other cultures.
“People here need to be more open minded, more involved and more culturally aware,” business management major Marcus Lawson said. “Diwali Night is different, because rather than just being an information session, it takes a more entertaining and social approach to learning about India’s culture, so it’s more fun than just getting verbal information.”
Diwali night is also interactive for the audience. In addition to being able to sample Indian sweets prepared by ISA members, students are also given the opportunity to learn to dance the Dandya, or stick dance.
ISA members express how rewarding it is to share their Indian culture and traditions with others who are willing to learn about it, especially when sharing the celebrations of their country.
“If you like what you see, then you’ll be more engaged,” Downing said. “Now that’s real cultural exchange.”