Indian Students’ Association reveals new logo
Design should encompass culture, represent students who take part, leader says
“When the newcomers are in our community, we want to comfort them and make their lives as easy as possible,” ISA President Ruchira Tandel said.
September 28, 2018
The Indian Student Association is one of the largest and most diverse international groups on campus with over 150 Indian students of all different Indian cultures. They unveiled a new logo to better represent themselves through colors and culture.
ISA’s IT and Communications Chair Vishnutej Ellur, a Ph.D student, said the common Indian saying “unity in diversity,” is important to ISA.
The members of ISA decided to change their logo while laying out the flyer for India Night, a popular event they throw every year, ISA Treasurer Praveer Tiwari, also a Ph.D student, said.
“We realized the old logo didn’t represent Indian culture at all,” Tiwari said. “It was too bland in nature. We sat down and talked about what we wanted WSU to see from us. We decided on Holi, tricolor and Ashoka Chakra.”
The colors of the ISA in the logo represent colors commonly seen during Holi, the festival of colors. The font itself combines both Hindi and English inspiration, Tiwari said. The waving tricolor banner at the bottom represents the Indian flag. The background of the wheel with 24 spokes is referred to as Ashoka Chakra and represents the 24 life principles sacred to the Hindu religion. It is partly derived from the Indian flag.
One of the main goals of the ISA is to help prevent the culture shock many Indian students may face when they move across the world.
“The culture here is so different from our cultures back home,” said President Ruchira Tandel, a master’s student. “When the newcomers are in our community we want to comfort them and make their lives as easy as possible.”
Though India recognizes 23 official languages, the 2001 Census of India reported that across India over 1500 languages are spoken. To connect with Indian students from their own cultures, each member of the ISA committee comes from a different part of India.
“We all are from various parts of Indian, we all speak different languages and eat different food but we all come together as Indians,” said Vice President Karan Raval, also a master’s student.
The ISA members agreed their goal is to share their culture with WSU and learn about the cultures here. They hope this will bridge a gap they noticed in the communities.
“We don’t know a lot about the culture here and people here don’t know a lot about us,” Ellur said.
The ISA will hold India Night on Nov. 3 at the Gladish Community & Cultural Center. Tickets go on sale next week in the CUB and are $12 for students and $15 for non-students.
