Uka Solanki Helps Set Up Yadunandan Center For India Studies By Francis C. Assisi

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The center, funded by endowment from husband-and-wife philanthropists Uka and Nalini Solanki, is devoted to social sciences, humanities, arts and education, and came into being when the Board of Trustees of California State University gave its approval on July 19th for naming it in honor of the Solanki family.

The pair initially donated $75,000 to the center, raising the endowment to $500,000 at the end of last year. The eventual goal is to expand the center endowment to $1 million.

While the center’s naming recognizes Yadunandan Yadav, Nalini Solanki’s great-great grandfather who was known for his leadership and advocacy for education in Haryana in the mid-nineteenth century, it is also the name of Lord Krishna.

The center is expected to promote India studies through a variety of academic disciplines including the social sciences, humanities, arts and education. Its curriculum is designed to build bridges with the large and diverse Indian American community in Southern California and beyond through its programs, fellowships and scholarships.

"We have a responsibility to educate our students to become good global citizens," said Arnold P. Kaminsky, professor of Asian studies and history. "So we want them to be aware of other cultures or international situations, to be able to discuss them." He added: “Thanks to the generosity of the Solanki family, we look forward to becoming a regional center for India studies with the support of the community.” Kaminsky has been working to bring a greater focus to India studies on campus and in the community. With a long list of India-related courses already offered at CSULB, Kaminsky also noted that new courses will be made available in the near future, including Sanskrit and Hindi Language, Literature and Culture.

“Being born and raised in India, I learned to have a great appreciation of the abundant and diverse cultures and remarkable history of my native country, including the laudable principles of nonviolence and tolerance,” Solanki said. “I feel both fortunate and blessed to be able to contribute back to society in such a way as to help bring the richness of India to many people who ordinarily would not be able to experience it. I am proud to be able to help Cal State Long Beach in these endeavors.”

Solanki originally bought Big Saver Foods, a small market in Lincoln Heights, in 1977. Working tirelessly to master the grocery business, he had three stores, including a second in East Los Angeles, by 1984. From those small beginnings, the Solankis now own and operate 14 retail supermarkets and a distribution warehouse under the trade name of Uka’s Big Saver Foods, the 20th largest chain of grocery stores in Los Angeles.

Solanki's gratitude for such good fortune motivates him to donate tens of thousands of dollars each year to charities around Los Angeles and back home in India. In the city of Junagadh in Gujarat, a school has been established to educate girls aged 10-18 of all religions and races. The Nalini Solanki-Chatralay School now educates more than 1,200 girls each year and a facility next door provides girls with handicaps the services they need to be able to attend school and to better function in every day life.

The Solanki philanthropy also extends to medical clinics and other schools in India. In addition, he is the founding president of the Indian Council for the Advancement of Education in India, and founder, president and patron donor of the Sardar Patel Award at UCLA.

Solanki has received a number of awards for his entrepreneurship and for his charity, including the highest Rotarian honor, the Paul P. Harris Award. He is the first non-Rotarian to receive this award. Among his other awards are Progressive Grocer’s “Grocer of the Year” for 2001 and Ernst & Young’s “Entrepreneur of the Year” for the Los Angeles area in 2002.

Nalini Solanki is an active community leader and is vice president of Big Saver Foods. She partners with her husband in his philanthropic endeavors and has special interests in education in the Los Angeles region and in India.

The first of its kind in California, the Yadunandan Center for India Studies, a Solanki Foundation Endowment, is dedicated to the impartial study of India’s cultures, peoples and history. It is expected to promote India studies through a variety of academic disciplines including the social sciences, humanities, arts and education. Its curriculum is designed to build bridges with the large and diverse Indian American community in Southern California and beyond through its programs, fellowships and scholarships.

Established in 2002, the Uka Solanki Foundation Lecture series already brings a well-known scholar in the field of India studies annually to CSULB. The purpose of the lectures is to bring the rich culture and heritage of India to students, faculty and the public and to provide K-12 students and teachers with first-hand knowledge of India.

It is understood that a group of about 20 CSULB faculty members has worked to develop new curricula on India for the university and has conducted workshops for K-12 teachers. Future projects for the center are the exploration of potential partnerships with Indian universities, the hiring of social science faculty members dedicated to contemporary India, and a campaign to make CSULB a repository for Indian films.

All along, Uka Solanki, who holds a B.S. degree in electrical engineering from Pacific State University, continues to be a strong supporter of education and medical philanthropy. Philanthropist Solanki also led The Sardar Patel Award Association (SPAA) which was organized in 1999, in conjunction with the creation of the Sardar Patel Award at UCLA. The endowment was established by a core group of individuals who, along with the UCLA history department, created and funded the endowment. The endowment was funded with the initial amount of $250,000, with the understanding that it would be able to generate an annual income to confer an award of $10,000. Earlier this year, when CSULB invited Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to inaugurate the Yadunandan Center for India Studies, 136 South Asian faculty and specialists from around the US (and none from CSULB) sent a petition dated March 17 decrying the move. Their petition stated: ‘By inviting an elected official and RSS member who has been indicted for genocide and crimes against humanity in India to inaugurate the program in Indian Studies at Cal State Long Beach you are unwittingly helping to sanitize Mr. Modi's image, even as you are compromising the academic integrity of the new Center for India Studies all of us who are South Asia faculty would like to fully support. Many of us, as South Asia specialists, are particularly concerned by the attempt of Hindu nationalist organizations to gain access to college campuses and universities by endowing India centers and programs of study.’

Subsequently Modi was denied a US visa.

francisassisi@hotmail.com