National Model of Campus-Community Partnership

STONEY BROOK, NJ (TIP): “We need more Centers like this to train the new generation of Indian American leaders to swell the “Samosa Caucus” in the Congress,” said Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi of the Eighth Congressional District (Illinois).  He said that in the short span of two decades, it has emerged as national model of the Indian American community’s engagement with a public university to create resources for a better understanding of India for the benefit of the campus and the community.  He was speaking at a well-attended gala to celebrate Stony Brook university’s Matto Center for India Studies’ 20th anniversary.

Ambassador Sandeep Chakravorty, Consul General of India in New York, the guest of honor, commended the Center for making public service as much a priority as academic excellence.  He said the Center’s stellar accomplishments deserved to be known more widely, including in India.

Dr. Nirmal K. Mattoo, Chairman of the Center’s Executive Committee, praised the university for its enlightened appreciation of the importance of India’s contributions to knowledge and the India community for their steadfast and generous support of the Center’s mission.

Accomplishments:

Professor S.N. Sridhar, SUNY Distinguished Service Professor and founding Director of the Center, recounted the evolution of the Center from its modest origin in student demand for courses on India.   He recalled that, working with the university administration and Indian community, led first by Dr. Azad Anand and then by Dr. Mattoo, as partners, the Center successfully mainstreamed India studies into the core curriculum.  It created structured programs, such as a Minor in South Asian Studies and helped offer a Major and Masters in Asian and Asian American Studies. Today, Stony Brook teaches more than 30 courses on India every year, and over 22,000 students have taken courses on India.

The Center’s accomplishments have exceeded expectations. The Arya India Studies Library features 13,000 titles; Its publication, Ananya: A Portrait of India includes articles by 40 of India’s leading scholars.  The Center is leading an international consortium of translators of a Kannada Mahabharata to be published by Harvard University Press; its seminars, exhibits, lecture series, performing arts series have brought the best of India.  It has conducted more than 200 outreach programs for schools, museums, and civic institutions and is serving as a resource to mainstream media, including PBS.  It offers student scholarships and supports university departments, community associations, and student groups in their India-related initiatives.

‘Jewel in the Crown’

Students describe the Center’s Study Abroad program in Bangalore as “life-changing;” alumni describe the Center as a “home away from home.”  Community leaders describe the Center as a proud community asset Stony Brook’s former president, Dr. Shirley Strum Kenny, described the Center as “the jewel in the crown of Stony Brook.”

Birthday presents:

The Center received two wonderful presents on its 20th birthday:  a permanent endowment and a prestigious endowed Chair. In a fund-raising campaign led by Dr. Nirmal Mattoo, Mr. Sreedhar Menon, Mr. Rakesh Kaul, and others, the Indian American community raised $2.5 million dollars, which was matched dollar for dollar by the James and Marilyn Simons Foundation, resulting in a $5 million impact, the largest endowment for India Studies at any public university in the U.S.

The endowment  includes the $1.25 million Nirmal K. and Augustina Mattoo Chair in Classical Indic Humanities; $250,000 gift by Drs. Yashpal and Urmilesh Arya for the Arya India Studies Library; three $150,000 gifts, by Sreedhar Menon, by Deepak and Neera Raj, and by an anonymous donor; three $100,000 endowments, by Dr. Krishna Gujavarty for an annual seminar on leadership and values; by Sudesh and Sudha Mukhi for courses and performances in Vedic studies and music; and by S.N. and Kamal Sridhar for teaching and research support; a lecture series by Drs. Rajesh and Sonali Kakani,  and major gifts, by Dr. Vijay Arya, Dr. RishimaniAdsumelli,  Dr. Nungavaram Ramamurthy, and Dr. Latha and Mr. Prem Chandran, as well as many others.

The Center also led an international faculty search, culminating in the appointment of Prof. Arindam Chakrabarti, an eminent authority on Indian philosophy from the University of Hawaii at Manoa, as the inaugural holder of the Mattoo Chair in Classical Indic Humanities.  Professor Chakrabarti, and his wife Professor Vrinda Dalmia, a well-known scholar of feminist epistemology, will join Stony Brook in 2018.

Congratulating the Indian American community, Dr. Sacha Kopp, Dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, said that a public university “has the responsibility not only to serve the public through education but to give back to the public in the form of knowledge and sharing and fostering community and culture.”

Dr. Samuel L. Stanley, Jr., President of Stony Brook university praised the Indian American community for their tireless efforts in building the Center and the generosity that has helped secure the Center’s financial future.

Professor Sridhar, said, that the Center has made vital contributions to the university by expanding its intellectual horizons, to the students by giving them a global perspective and tools to compete in the global marketplace, and the community by enriching its cultural ambience.  Furthermore, he noted, the Center helps Americans appreciate Indian Americans, the successful and increasingly influence 1%.  He called the Center “a symbol of our generation’s gratitude to our home country that gave us the tools to succeed, and to our adopted home country that gave us the opportunities to succeed, and our legacy to the coming generations.”  It is a symbol of our shared values and commitment to public education, he said.  Looking to the future, he said the next goal would be to expand India studies at the graduate level and build the Center as a powerful think tank on Indian perspectives.   To mark the occasion, the Center brought a colorful journal presenting the evolution of the Center and its multifarious accomplishments.

Contact: Professor S.N. Sridhar, Director, Mattoo Center for India Studies, East 5350, Melville Library, Stony Brook, NY 11794-3386.  s.sridhar@stonybrook.edu Phone (631) 327-1318