#southasianyouth

From July 19th to 21st, I attended the South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) Young Leaders Institute in the Washington D.C. area. This year, YLI’s theme is Combatting Islamophobia. YLI brings young people ages 17 to 24 together for a convening, followed by a year-long fellowship focused on cultivating projects to create justice in our own communities. 

During my time at YLI, I came to realize that many of us are struggling with the same issue: apolitical South Asian communities on our college campuses.

Over the past few decades, many of the country’s colleges and universities have established groups and organizations for their South Asian populations. From Club Zamana at Columbia and Barnard, to Ekta at the Claremont Colleges, to the South Asian Students’ Association at UChicago, South Asian affinity groups have taken shape within several unique campus environments. It seems that, for years now, South Asian communities at many colleges and universities have seen a common shift that centers around the question: should this be a space for South Asian people to feel connected to their culture through parties and other social events? or, should this be a space for South Asian-identifying folks to engage in reflection about their positionalities and identities, and take action against injustice?

During YLI, our cohort shared dinner with Deepa Iyer, founder of South Asian Americans Leading Together and author of We Too Sing America. In talking about South Asian organizations on our college campuses, many of us asked Deepa about her experience with her South Asian Students’ Association in college at Vanderbilt University. She told us that she had experienced many of the same struggles with regard to an apolitical SASA organization, but also noted that since she left Vanderbilt, the club has maintained political programming. Deepa advised each of us to mentor the next generation of South Asian college students, in order to sustain the efforts of radical South Asians on campus. Later in the evening, I asked Deepa what to do when my SASA has repeatedly used my labor and drained my energy, without becoming self-critical enough to genuinely take up the work of dismantling anti-Black racism, sexism, transphobia, queerphobia, classism, Indo and Hindu-centrism, and so on. Deepa told me that in this pivotal political moment, we must invest our energies in people and spaces that are willing to do the hard work of resistance.

Deepa also told us about the history of SAALT. Originally, SAALT was focused on Indian American leadership. However, after 9/11, Deepa and others made a conscious decision to make it a truly South Asian organization. At this point, the organization lost several of its Indian-identifying board members, demonstrating the Indo-centrism that pervades many South Asian spaces. From then on, SAALT has been the primary advocate for the civil rights of South Asian Americans on a policy level.  

As South Asian American young people, we must engage deeply with our own communities, and build unwavering solidarities with other marginalized communities. We must remember the resistance and resilience of South Asian people and mobilize against injustice in these tumultuous times.

To find out more about SAALT’s Young Leaders Institute, please click the link below:

http://saalt.org/programs/young-leaders-institute/

Sahana Mehta is a rising second year at Scripps College majoring in Feminist Gender Sexuality Studies and International Intercultural Studies. She is currently a Development Intern at Sakhi. Sahana is involved in a lot of organizing work on her campus and is committed to cultivating radical South Asian spaces wherever she can. If you want to connect with her, feel free to message her on Facebook!