Indian Cultural Center offers community to Bloomington's growing Indian population

As is the nature of college towns, Bloomington's population is cyclical. Every four years, nearly half of the population — young adults from out of town, out of state or even out of the country — gets their degree and moves on, with another set of 20-somethings shuffling in to take their place.

This can make it difficult to plant roots in Bloomington. It was a struggle that Sonny Shah and his friends knew all too well.

Shah has lived with his family in Bloomington for the past 15 years. Like many parents, Shah wanted to share the customs and celebrations he had while growing up in Gujarat, a state along the western coast of India, with his children. He described community-wide gatherings — nine nights of dancing during Navratri, throwing colored water and powders at Holi, submerging Ganesh's statue in a water tank on the final day of Ganesh Chaturthi.

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"It's kind of an activity, as we grew up as kids, that was a fun thing for us to do," Shah described.

But space was always a limitation. During his children's youth, most of these communal gatherings happened in someone's home. He recalls hosting as many as 20 children, eager to learn more about their shared culture, at his own house.

Having a physical space to get together has been a longstanding dream, but with Bloomington's fluid nature, it was difficult to assemble enough people to make that vision a reality.

In recent years, however, the city's Indian population, most notably its young adult demographic, has been on the rise. Last year, India sent the largest share of international students to Indiana University's Bloomington campus, surpassing China for the first time. Just 10 years ago, there were only 683 Indian students at IU Bloomington. In fall 2021, it was 1,637. This year, that student population jumped again, now at 2,295. This spike in students is coupled with a growing number of Indian families settling in the area.

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"Our objective is to maintain the culture," Shah said. "The whole idea of the Indian culture center is for our next generation to experience the culture, not just read it on Google or have to go visit India."

Luck struck at an otherwise inopportune time. In 2020, during the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, a property on Ind. 45, just before the offshoot of Airport Road, became available.

Shah is one of the five founding members of Bloomington's Indian Cultural Center, the only of its kind in the area. For the past two years, an entirely volunteer collective has worked to turn a former Christian church into an exuberant, all-inclusive center for generations of Indians to connect and celebrate together. The center is a place for prayer, recreation, community dinners, performances — and even a wedding or two. Now, this center serves more than 50 families — and it's still growing.

Indian Cultural Center has sports, spirituality, dinners and dances

The walls of the community space are lined with vibrant colors, courtesy of several women who donated saris to be hung up and displayed. The floor has a tape outline for volleyball or badminton games. A garland of leaves hangs above the doorway of the Shantam Spiritual Center. In the auditorium, a stage, once part of a pulpit, now has hardwood flooring for performances.

The center offers a well-rounded experience for its community members. The building features an auditorium, a meditation room, open space for sports or dinner tables and a Hindu temple. The temple was only finalized a month ago, with volunteers knocking down walls to allocate more space for worship.

"When we started out two years ago, this was more of a culture (and) activities type of thing. But sometimes, language, culture, spirituality — they kind of go hand-in-hand. It's hard to separate the three," Shah explained.

The center is for all ages, and each generation gets something unique out of their time there. For example, Shah points to senior citizens like his mother.

"For (the older generation) living in America, other than watching TV, there's nothing they can do. They don't drive. They don't speak English. But ever since we've started all these events, and almost every weekend, we have something going on here. My mom loves it."

For adults like Shah, who grew up with communal celebrations, the center can be a point of pride and nostalgia. For Indian students attending college, the space can be a place of comfort and a home away from home. Shah said college students get special discounts to participate in the center's activities.

Families also have enjoyed raising their children in a community-based setting. Shah referenced a cultural belief that one's behavior can be observed and then taken by others, meaning it is important to lead by example.

"It takes a village to raise a child," Shah noted. "This allows for a village, so kids can observe not only their parents but they can observe others."

He's already noticed this happening at the center, such as young members imitating clean-up practices without having to be told. The center also allows young people "to enjoy and share their culture with others," which was challenging without a centralized place.

Recently, visitors gathered at the center to celebrate Diwali, also known as the Festival of Lights, with high-spirited performances.

Promoting Indian music and art is one of the center's chief objectives. The stage gives performers a place to celebrate their heritage and community. Their performance, tied with their identity and connection to the center, can help inspire younger generations. Shah's son, who is on a singing scholarship with Purdue, performed last weekend as part of the festivities.

“If there is a young child who enjoys singing, they go, 'Oh, well, that Indian guy can do it.' Sometimes we think that somebody who looks like us is easily approachable," Shah explained. "So if you talk to him, it's not somebody who's standing on IU's stage and you don't know who that person is. It's somebody who comes to your center and sings."

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A community center is about preserving culture, but it's also about making lifelong connections. Shah recently attended his nephew's wedding, where his other nephew served as the best man. As cousins, they didn't see each other often because their families live on opposite sides of Detroit without the opportunity to intermingle. However, they were able to meet and hang out at their local cultural center.

"(The best man) gave a speech and said, 'He's my cousin, but not really. You know, he's my best friend. And the reason he's my best friend is because we met at the center.' Now the both of them are 30 years old, and I'm thinking here we are starting something like that," Shah said. "Right now, we're looking at 7- to 10-year-old kids, and when they get married, they will talk like that. We are not only looking at today, but we're developing future relationships."

The Indian Cultural Center, located at 4645 Ind. 45, is typically open daily between 7 a.m. to noon and 3-7 p.m.

This article originally appeared on The Herald-Times: Bloomington IN's Indian Cultural Center an all-inclusive center