On Sunday, Nov. 12, members of the 7C community gathered around Beckett Hall at Claremont McKenna College (CMC) to celebrate Diwali. Organized by the 7C Hindu Society, Asian Pacific American Mentoring (APAM) and Asian Pacific American Student Association (APASA), the celebration welcomed international Indian students, Indian American students and the broader Claremont community.
Diwali, alternatively known as the Deepavali or the Hindu festival of lights, is a holiday celebrated primarily among Indian followers of the Hindu, Sikh and Jain faiths. Tracing back more than 2,500 years, the celebration has transcended religion and become a national staple in Indian culture. Today, South Asian people everywhere join to create lanterns, listen to music and celebrate ancient Indian folklore about the triumph of good over evil.
“[Diwali] is a festival of lights and comes from the Indian Epic, the Ramayana. It is a day when God is coming back home … so [we] set up a bunch of lanterns and lights to show him the way,” Ishika Keswani PO ’26, a 7C Hindu Society officer said. “Essentially, it is the start of a new year and a new chapter.”
Entering the Beckett Hall courtyard, attendees were welcomed with Indian music and an array of Indian food and drinks such as paneer chicken, garlic naan, samosas and mango lassi. The event’s main activity was rangoli making, an art form where unique patterns are created with lanterns and powder. Some of the patterns included peacocks, a common motif in the Diwali tradition, flowers and other elaborately crafted designs.
Many attendees of Diwali echoed the significance of the celebration for the Desi community as a whole. According to attendee Sanah Anand PO ’26, Desi has become a term that 7C students can use to articulate the broader umbrella of their identities.
“The Desi community at the 7Cs is really important to foster to ensure that the South Asian culture is brought together — this can be done in so many ways … we have the Oldenbourg table at Pomona, we have the Marsha dance culture and laughter that brings us together,” Anand said.
For organizations like APAM and APASA that are not exclusively Indian or Desi affinity groups, collaboration in hosting Diwali was paramount in building a space for different Asian-Pacific communities to celebrate each other’s cultures.
Laura Rich CM ’24, APASA’s events co-chair, emphasized the importance of building a cross-Asian-Pacific community.
“For events such as Diwali, it’s important to bring as many people together as possible,” Rich said. “I’m half Japanese and half white … and I think it is really fun when people try to learn about my culture so I want to learn about other cultures as well.”
“For events such as Diwali, it’s important to bring as many people together as possible,” Rich said. “I’m half Japanese and half white … and I think it is really fun when people try to learn about my culture so I want to learn about other cultures as well.”
Along with welcoming members of the broader Asian-Pacific community, the Diwali celebration fostered community between the Indian American and international Indian students.
Richa Parikh CM ’24, the APASA event co-chair and an Indian American herself, spoke on the crucial function of celebrations like Diwali in building meaningful transnational relationships.
“A lot of my friends are international students from India, so I always pitch the events to them and they always show up to support,” Parikh said.
For international Indian students such as Anand, Diwali helps her stay in touch with her Indian culture while attending a college thousands of miles away from her home of Mumbai, India.
“I have lived in Singapore, Indonesia and Mumbai,” Anand said. “What I’ve noticed throughout all the places I’ve been is that Diwali is the main cultural event that brings everyone together, no matter where [they] are. Having a Diwali celebration at the 7Cs really helps to bring a feeling of family and home between all of us — it really takes care of some of the homesickness.”
After the festivities concluded, students walked to Pitzer to see a performance from Claremont Tamasha, the 5C’s Bollywood Dance Company. Diwali is one part of a larger list of events organized by several Asian-Pacific affinity organizations at the 7Cs. Organizers in these groups hope to continue fostering community and building connections for APIDA identifying students here at the Claremont Colleges.
“At the beginning of the year, APASA hosted a social gathering … for the 5C APIDA orgs to get to know each other,” Rich said. “We plan to organize a dinner for a lot of APIDA students and next semester we are looking to do events for Lunar New Year and Holi as well.”