Bhavan Directors pledge to realize Bhavan’s cherished goals of promoting education and Indian culture

NEW YORK (TIP):   Bhavan USA the famous Indian Institute of Culture and Arts completed its glorious journey of forty years and Who’s Who in Indian community in the Northeast USA were present to celebrate this important milestone at the Romanti Auditorium of Bhavan’s campus on Fashion Ave in New York, December 13. A well-known freedom fighter in India’s struggle for freedom from British, with the blessings of Mahatma Gandhi, founded Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in 1938 in India to preserve, promote and celebrate five thousand years old cultural heritage of India.Today, BVB has 119 institutions in India and 7 abroad, with another 367 constituent institutions. The entire world was coming out of economic depression at that time. Mahatma Gandhi had already energized Indian masses and unified them, Shaheed Bhagat Singh and his associates were executed in 1931 and freedom fighters were willing to pay any price to free India. That’s the time when people wanted to celebrate and show pride in their own culture by unifying their diverse religions, cultures, languages, customs and come together as one formidable Bharat and fight against the British through nonviolent movement of Mahatma Gandhi. Cultural celebrations added a potent force in Indian community as we do when we organize India Day parades in America and celebrate India’s culture to find a place of pride in our own towns, counties and metropolitan cities. Mahatma Gandhi showed to the world that we can shake the whole world in a gentle way when you take your own cultural values seriously and fight your battles in a disciplined way by marching your beats to reach the goal.

The founder of Bhavan Dr.  K. M. Munshi” s Cultural movement or revolution filled the vacuum, filled Indian’s hearts and minds with love of their own culture and pride in their own country.

Dr. K. M. Munshi knew very well that British wanted to increase western influences by attacking India’s traditional educational system, ignoring India’s rich cultural heritage, and create a bureaucracy that helped British to maintain foreign yoke. Mahatma Gandhi appeared before Macaulay’s commission to make the British realize that they were doing more harm than good to the Indian educational system becauseit was based on Indian values of respect, sacrifice, family, doctrine of Karma, positive outcomes based on emotional intelligence and not sheer intelligence that could be used against humanity for exploitation and destruction of cultures and races.

          In New York State we have 128 billionaires out of which 46 of them live in New York City. Yet the responsibility of preserving, developing and celebrating Indian culture depends on Indian community and not others. It’s fairly on the shoulders of Institutions like BHARATIYA VIDYA BHAVAN and likeminded institutes and associations. The way Indian Community is growing with their culture we may be able to make a cultural contribution to America.

      In a short period of four to five decades, Indians created a respectable place of distinction economically with education and fertile minds in technology, sciences, medicine, business and other fields. America is developing a liking for Yoga, meditation, Indian cultural performances and above all Indian values that are based on strong ties to family, vegetarianism, not excessive involvement in materialism and investing in business and also supporting many causes of humanity surrounding their neighborhoods.

     The current Board consists of several Philanthropists and dynamic leaders.  Padma Bhushan Dr. Jayaraman, S. P. Hinduja family, Padma  Shri  Emeritus Chairman Dr. H.R. Shah’s help in setting up Romanti Auditorium in his daughter’s name who he lost during his early struggles,  Chairman Dr. Navin Mehta,  Vice Chairman Mr. Kenny Desai,  Secretary Dr. Parveen Chopra, Executive Director Mr. Sudhir Vaishnav, Director of Operations Mr. Minesh Patel,  Ex Chair Dr. Dinker Rai, Ex Chair Prof. Robert Goheen  of Princeton University who was erstwhile United States of America’s Ambassador to India and several India’s Consul Generals in New York  and several India’s Ambassadors to United Nations have worked on the Board of Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan USA. Several known Directors were represented by Mr. Ravi Iyer.Well known CPA Dwarka Kalantry is the current Treasurer of the Bhavan, USA.

   The current Board of Directors has many distinguished leaders. Almost half of them have been conferred Ellis Island Medal of Honor, with Congressional approval, and military honors which they share with six Presidents of United States of America, and several of them have worked as President of Federation of Indian Associations of New York Tristate Area organizing largest parade of Indians and Americans outside India. Our Secretary Dr. Parveen Chopra is the only Asian American who has been conferred Liberty Bell Award by the largest Nassau County Sub Urban Bar Association; Haywood Burns Memorial Award by the largest New York State Bar Association; and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Award as well as the Dr. Martin LutherKing jr. Philanthropy Award by the Dr. Martin Luther King Committee of America.

Prime Ministersof IndiaAtal Behari Vajpayee, PV Narasimha Rao,and Inder Kumar Gujralwere among the dignitaries who visited the Bhavan in New York.

  Bhavan USA has organized some of the mega shows like Amitabh Bachchan and whole Bachchan family’s tribute to family stalwart Harivansh Bachchan Rai; Pankaj   Udhas’s mega show in New York City; Padma Bhushan Anupam Kher’s Show ‘KUCCH BHI HO SAKTA HAI’ in 2020 at Romanti Auditorium; three-day conference on Ayurveda, Yoga, Meditation and Astrology at Fashion Institute of Technology’s Auditorium.Pandit Ravishankar, Anup Jalota and some other artists have also performed at the Bhavan.

Giving a description of the work undertaken at the Bhavan to The Indian Panorama, Bhavan Executive Director Sudhir Vaishnav said that the primary concern of the Bhavan is promoting Indian culture and spreading education. As such, the Bhavan runs special classes to familiarize young Indians with Indian culture, Yoga, Ayurveda and the classical forms of language, music and dances. The Bhavan organizes joint programs with the Permanent Mission of India to the United Nations, the Indian Embassy at Washington D.C. and the Indian Consulate in New York. The library at the Bhavan is richly stacked and available to general public.

       The Fortieth Anniversary Grandcelebration was held at the Romanti Auditorium on December 13, 2021, with packed dignitaries from tristate area with many distinguished artists joining the celebrations and was sponsored by Dr. & Mrs. Parveen & Usha Chopra, well known in tristate area.

(With inputs from a Press Release issued by Dr. Parveen Chopra)