For more than 60 years, Diwali celebration brings light to campus

As the days get shorter and the clocks turn back, the student group Society for India is bringing light to campus with Diya Jale - the longest-standing campus celebration of Diwali, the Hindu festival of lights, in North America.

"In India, there are a lot of states, languages, religions, but every single person I know celebrates Diwali," said Anoosha Mallakanti '26, an operations research and engineering major in Cornell Engineering, international student and events co-chair for the Society for India. "Everyone comes together, everyone celebrates, and the Society for India wants to bring that spirit and that light into everyone's day before daylight savings ends."

The event, which will be held on Nov. 2 from 6 to 8 p.m. in Bailey Hall, will feature performances from seven Cornell South Asian dance teams and singing groups, Cornell's BreakFree, a popular open-style dance group, and comedian Paul Varghese. Last year, more than 900 students attended, and the group hopes this year's turnout will be even higher.

The celebration has been held for more than 60 years - the Cornell Daily Sun first mentioned it in 1959. At that time, it was hosted by the newly formed India Association and included traditional songs, dances, an exhibition of Indian saris, crafts and arts, the lighting of candles and even a mock wedding - Ratan Tata '59, B.Arch '62, who would go on to becomethe university's most generous international benefactorand an advocate for Cornell's connection to India, played the groom.

The president of the club at the time, H.Y. Mohan-Ram, a botanist and Fulbright Fellow at Cornell from 1958-60, said the goal of the event was to "give other Cornell students and Ithaca residents a glimpse into a traditional Indian festival, at times gay and colorful, at others somber and religious."

More than half a century later, the aim of the Diya Jale, and the Society for India in general, is largely the same: to create space for the campus and Ithaca communities to celebrate and learn about South Asian cultures. The group also hopes to create an inclusive community for those on campus who identify as South Asian.

"This will be my first Diwali away from home, and it's a little sad because the holiday really means family to me," said Ayan Kohli '28, a student in the Cornell Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science and the College of Arts and Sciences (A&S), who serves on the group's operations committee. "These types of events have the power to create a place that makes you feel at home."

Kohli added that he has found his on-campus family in the Society for India's 18-person executive board.

"We're very close as a board," echoed Audrey Trivedi '27, a biology and society major in A&S and events co-chair. "We really want to have that sense of community within the group, which then helps us promote events where the goal is to unite others."

While Diya Jale is the group's largest event of the year, they also co-host Masti Mela, a festival with games and food, and a formal in the spring; and Garba, in honor of the Hindu festival Navarati, which drew 600 people in early October.

"When you plan big events, it's all hands on deck," Mallakanti said. "We're moving tables together, we're playing music. For Garba, we spent 15 hours together that day alone. When you work an event like that, everyone just clicks."

The hard work that goes into Diya Jale is worth it, the students said.

"We really want to make it an event where people are getting out of it everything that we're putting into it," Trivedi said. "Just seeing everyone having fun, knowing that we were able to bring that to the community - it's a great moment."

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