Diya is Duke’s South Asian students’ association.
It was founded in 1985 as DIA, the Duke Indian Association, but its scope soon widened to include members from all over South Asia. In the early 1990s, DIA became Diya, deriving its name from the word for “light” in Hindi-Urdu.
Today, Diya is proud to have members from all over South Asia and the world. Diya is not a religious organization, nor is it an association for only Indian or South Asian students. We emphasize diversity, engagement with Duke, and a commitment to sharing the culture and experience of South Asia with our community. And, of course, we want to have a lot of fun doing that.
What does Diya do?
- runs Awaaz, the largest student-run production at Duke, involving nearly 500 students and selling out our biggest auditorium for two nights
- funds and supports academic working groups studying topics from Bollywood to Sanskrit
- brings speakers, like Salman Rushdie and Russell Peters
- teaches about culture
- throws parties
- promotes awareness through political forums, like our 2010 Hindu-Muslim forum
- works with the Hindu Student Association and Muslim Student Association
- supports academic initiatives
- publishes Sanscript, a leisure magazine
- founded the Duke Undergraduate Journal of South Asian Studies, the first of its kind in the country
- works with Duke’s South Asian dance teams
Diya can be whatever you make it. And you don’t have to be South Asian to get involved.
P.S. What is South Asia, you ask? Also known as the Indian subcontinent, South Asia is a historically and culturally related set of regions now identified with the modern nations of India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Maldives, Afghanistan, and Bhutan.
