By Siddharth Muchhal, Special Writer
Middle school and high school students were presented with awards for their writing and art as part of the 12th Mahatma Ghandi Art and Writing Contest ceremony at Princeton University.
The contest is held in honor of Mahatma Gandhi’s birth anniversary and his message of nonviolence. The ceremony was sponsored by the South Jersey Chapter of the Association of Indians in America (AIA), with the help of South Asian Affinity Group (SAAG) of Princeton University on Oct. 11.
Gandhi’s birthday — or “Gandhi Jayanti” — is annually celebrated by Indians across the world as remembrance of Gandhi’s nonviolent actions and philosophy that helped India achieve its freedom in 1947. Since 2004, AIA has been hosting this art and writing competition to spread Gandhi’s message of nonviolence among students across New Jersey.
The New Jersey Commission on Holocaust Education and its leader, Dr. Paul Winkler, as well as the Mercer County Cultural and Heritage Foundation, supported this event at Princeton University’s McDonnell Hall and AIA of South Jersey as a whole.
AIA is a national organization that attempts to unite the Indian diaspora in America and has chapters across the nation. The president of the South Jersey chapter is Anwar Feroz Siddiqi. SAAG is a Princeton University-affiliated group, and the president is Vinod Gupta. Both Gupta and Siddiqi were co-hosts at the event.
More than 1,500 middle school and high school students from around the state participated in the event by sending their artwork, essays, or poems that reflected Gandhi’s message and the theme of this year’s event: “Nonviolence is the weapon of the strong.” There were four categories: art from middle school students, art from high school students, writing (essays and poems) from middle school students and writing from high school students.
Many contestants strove to showcase the importance of Gandhi’s message by using symbolism. Pushti Hitesh Shah, from Kingsway Regional High School and second place winner in High School Art, described her acrylic painting and how it connects to the theme:
“(The painting is) an old abandoned workshop, and I have a punching bag and abandoned boxing gloves, basically representing that the person that’s in the boxing gloves are the ones doing violence, and in the end they are worn out and crushed, while the punching bag keeps on staying strong and is still hanging. No matter how hard you punch, it will never get worn out, but the boxing gloves will get worn out,” she said.
All pieces were judged on originality, expression and connection to topic. The writing was further judged on grammar while the art was also judged on artistic qualities.
Rekha Gupta, vice president of AIA in South Jersey and one of five judges, described the difficulty in picking winners.
“We got over a 1,000 entries. We shortlisted, then we shortlisted once again, and then finally we found about 25 top contestants,” she said.
“It was a very close competition. In fact, we ran it through, among all five of us, then everybody scored it twice or thrice, and then we decided which one should be given the first prize,” she said.
The organizers started the event by singing both the American and Indian national anthems, after which they held the traditional diya (candle) lighting ceremony. Afterwards, Gupta and Siddiqi introduced themselves and their organizations, and their goal for the competition, which was to “introduce the young generation with ideas and philosophy of Gandhi.”
Later, Michele Minter, the vice provost of institutional equity and diversity at Princeton University, Ambassador Dnyaneshwar M. Mulay, the consul general of India in New York, and Upendra Chivukula, the first Indian-American elected to the New Jersey Assembly, all spoke on the topic of Gandhi and how his message can be translated in today’s era.
Afterward dancers from the Shishya School of Performing Arts, founded by Sukanya Madadevan, performed a traditional Indian dance that commemorated Gandhi by combining elements from both Indian folklore and India’s independence. Dancers were Ahimsa Aradhya, Elina Roychowdhury, Natasha Chaudhari, Neha Premanand, and Latha Kandasam. The dancers and founder were all presented with a certificate of achievement.
Finally, awards were presented to the top contestants in each category. Certificates and prizes for first, second and third place were presented as well as for honorable mentions.
First place in each category went to: Alexandra Catylnn Seewald from Long Valley Middle School for Middle School Art, Rosa I. Sanchez from Rosa Parks High School for High School Art, Olivia Katherine Chandler from Orange Avenue School for Middle School Writing and Selene Baugh from New Jersey United Christian Academy for High School Writing.
The organization holders also presented the Renu Agarwal Award of Excellence, named after the late founder of the AIA South Jersey chapter. The award went to A.J. Wargo, a high school student from the Forum School for children with autism, who participated in the art category.
Closing remarks came from from D.C. Agrawal, a member of the AIA national committee and a past president of AIA of South Jersey.
