SAS decides cultural events must be educational

Meetings of the Yale South Asian Society (SAS) usually include a half-hour administrative discussion. However, on Wed., Jan. 28, the meeting erupted into a heated two-and-a-half-hour debate. Members discussed whether SAS could still call itself a secular organization while representing the diversity of a part of the world where culture and religion are inextricably linked.

PATRICK MCGARVEY/YH Rahul Rajkumar, SY '00, mediated the Wed., Jan 28 debate over SAS's secularity.

Many students left the meeting early due to its unusual length. Those who remained voted unanimously in support of a clause stipulating that the purpose of any cultural event must be clearly educational. However, they voted against explicitly calling SAS a secular organization. "We reached a compromise," Imam said. "But I don't think we settled the issue."

This debate had not been planned as the meeting's main event. "We were in the process of debating a new constitution to reflect administrative changes in SAS," Rahul Rajkumar, SY '00, SAS president said, like a change in the voting procedure and an addition to the executive board."

However, these changes were never discussed. Instead, debate raged on a proposal to change Article I of the organization's constitution to read, "SAS shall be a strictly secular organization...Recognizing that religion and culture are intertwined, the sponsoring of religious events is by no means prohibited."

Some members felt the proposed change would confuse SAS's goals. "The clause said SAS would be `strictly secular,' yet would still sponsor religious events. I saw that as an inherent contradiction," Abid Imam, CC '98, a Pakistani Muslim said.

The large geographical area SAS represents has a diverse religious population that includes Hindus, Muslims, Buddhists, Sikhs, Jains, and some Christians. However, Rajkumar estimates that 90 percent of SAS's 415 members are Indian Hindu. With such an overwhelming majority, it is difficult for the group to afford equal representation to all nationalities and religions.

SAS's biggest event each year is a dinner and cultural show for the Hindu religious festival Diwali, a celebration that usually attracts some 300 people. This year SAS also sponsored a pooja, or Hindu prayer service, on a different day. The sponsoring of a religious event caused many non-Hindu members to question SAS's purpose. "I don't think it's the place of an umbrella organization that covers one-fifth of the world to sponsor events that are exclusively religious," Imam said.

Maruti Racherla, PC '01, who attended the pooja, challenged Imam at the meeting. "Those who didn't go to the pooja had an idea that it was exclusionary. However, many people came not to participate, but to observe," she said. "I think it's very appropriate for an educational and cultural organization to sponsor activities that are clearly academically worthwhile, even if they have religious significance."

Charu Chandrasekhar, SY '98, opposed the idea of a secular organization sponsoring religious events in the name of education. "[Worship] is just an event for people of a certain religious faith to commune with their God. To keep it in the organization but dilute it and call it educational seems to contradict the point of the ritual," she said.

Students said religious worship and cultural events are often difficult to separate. "At the Diwali dinner, lots of things are connected to religion," Racherla said. "The show included devotional songs. To anyone celebrating the holiday, that is a form of worship. I don't think you can delineate."

The meeting left open the question of how much SAS can cater to its Hindu population, who currently have no campus group of their own. "Those defending the worship felt strongly that SAS is the only organization that represents Hindus. [The compromise] doesn't solve the problem for those who feel they need a Hindu organization to turn to for purely religious purposes, communication between self and God in a sacred manner," Imam said.

Although a graduate Hindu students' group has opened its doors to undergraduates, SAS members say they hope the organization will continue to represent the diversity of its members. "For educational and cultural purposes, SAS shouldn't turn a blind eye to its responsibility to represent South Asian culture completely," Racherla said. "Hinduism is a South Asian religion, and most South Asian culture is based directly on religion."

"To some degree, having the debate was just a matter of principle," Rajkumar said. "[The pooja] was misunderstood, and the misunderstanding caused concern. But I thought it was important that we had that debate. It was a charged issue, but we arrived at a consensus."

Other members wonder if the matter has really been laid to rest. "I'm not thrilled with the compromise," Chandrasekhar commented. "But I think it's an interesting commentary on the fervor of members of a diasporic community. It's a transplanted population that still identifies with [South Asia] as its home."

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