EKTAA club celebrates South Asian culture, advocates for global causes

Matthew Burkhart Staff Writer

EKTAA, NC State’s South Asian Association, is a club that unites NC State’s South Asian community by hosting events, supporting global causes and advocating for university recognition. The club’s Get Involved page says “ektaa” is Hindi for “unity.”

Abhishek Singh, a third-year studying cellular, molecular and developmental biology, is a co-president of EKTAA. He said the club was established in 1970 to represent students from Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, Nepal, Bangladesh, the Maldives and Bhutan.

Singh said the club’s largest commitment is to unifying the South Asian community on campus and advocating for causes specific to South Asian countries.

“We’ve been able to bring the community together, especially in times of hardship and need,” Singh said. “We also do fundraisers … We did a fundraiser for Afghanistan [and] fundraisers for Pakistan … So, our biggest thing is trying to create unity. Our motto is ‘unity within diversity.’”

EKTAA’s commitment to unity within diversity has been recognized and is being featured by the Multicultural Student Association as the theme of Asian Pacific Islander South Asian American Heritage Month this year.

Esha Bhatnagar, a third-year studying human biology and secretary of EKTAA, said the club hosts large events throughout the year, the biggest being Holi, Garba and

EKTAA night, the club’s annual showcase.

Bhatnagar said a priority of the club is to uplift South Asian culture by helping to organize events between South Asian organizations such as the Pakistani Student Association and Maitri, the Indian graduate student association.

As a South Asian student on campus, Bhatnagar said she feels South Asian culture is often minimized in the greater Asian community, but EKTAA provides a space to feel recognized.

“There are times where I’ll tell people that I’m Asian, and they look at me funny because they just consider Asia to be East Asia,” Bhatnagar said. “India is in Asia, so just bringing awareness to that fact as well.

With EKTAA being made up largely of Indian students, Singh said a common misconception of EKTAA is it is catered only to them.

“We really want to represent the entire South Asian community,” Singh said. “It may seem that we are very focused on India, but we try our best to make sure that we represent all cultures in South Asia. And one way we do that is on our Instagram. If there’s ever a holiday, say, in Nepal, we post about it and let other people know what this holiday is [and] why people celebrate it.”

Singh said EKTAA’s officers are dedicated to holding the University to support the

South Asian community on campus.

“One example that we commonly talk about was two years ago when the government of Afghanistan fell to the Taliban — there really wasn’t a response from the University,” Singh said. “Just last year, Pakistan flooded, and a third of the country was underwater. And again, there wasn’t really a statement of support from the University for Pakistani students or people who are of Pakistani descent. So we’re really trying to identify these areas and think of ways the University could support these students.”

Singh said the University owes this recognition to South Asian students because of how heavily the student body depends on them.

“South Asian students make up the backbone of this University,” Singh said. “If you go to the library, you go to the dining hall, like look at your teaching assistants, a good amount of them are from South Asia. We serve as the backbone. We should feel that we should be receiving some support.”

EKTAA will be present at APISAA month events throughout the remainder of March and the first half of April. Information on these events can be found at news.ncsu.edu.

EKTAA Night, the club’s end-of-the-year showcase, will be hosted April 21 from 6-10 p.m. in Talley Student Union.

Additional information on their upcoming events and club membership can be found on EKTAA’s Instagram page @ncsu_ektaa.