The India Foundation, Dayton celebrated its 15th anniversary last Thursday, March 28 at the Dayton Marriott with a Champagne Reception and Dinner. The distinguished guests for the occasion were Hon. Ambassador Lalit Mansingh and Hon. Shashi Tripathi, the Consul General of India, New York.

Nearly two hundred guests attended the event that included Mr. Charles Curran, President, Montgoemry County Commission, Mr. Steven Abels, Exec. Director, Multi-Cultural Affairs in Governor Taft's office in Columbus, state representatives and heads of arts, education and business community around Dayton.

The main focus or the theme for the evening was Celebrating India by Celebrating Diversity. A Salute to minority, ethnic and nationality organizations from south-eastern Ohio. About 15 organizations were represented that included, SCLC (the Southern Christian Leadership Conference), NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, NCCJ (National Conference on Community and Justice), the Asian American Council, Dayton, Japanese-American Citizens' League, Chinese-American, Korean-American, Vietnamese-American and six Asian Indian organizations were represented. Service organizations such as United Way and Fair Housing Coalition and FAIR (Federation Against Incidents of Racism)......

At the reception and dinner the Ambassador paid complements to the India Foundation for its work in increasing awareness about India and Indian culture in this country in general and in Ohio in particular. He said that it is only appropriate that the India Foundation was celebrating diversity because India itself is a pluralistic country and we know how diversity enriches our nation and our lives.

This was second visit to Dayton by the Ambassador. He had visited the city when he was serving as the Chief of the Mission during Ambassador Karan Singh's term in 1989.

The India Foundation is a not for profit organization and its activities are conducted through voluntary contributions and occasional grants from local, State and national funding agencies. It annually recognizes people who have made outstanding contributions in promoting India or Indian culture in this country. Mrs. Dorothy Norman, Journalist, Mrs. Beatrice Pitney Lamb, Photographer, Prof. Ram Joshi, a Gandhian Scholar and the former Vice Chancellor of the University of Bombay, Mr. Ismail Merchant are some of the India Foundation Honorees.

During the last fifteen years the India Foundation has presented over 400 performing artists, hosted four arts and photography exhibitions, five festivals of films from India, six classical music festivals and folk and classical dance festivals in Dayton. Many of the artists then have traveled to other cities across the US.

It has published an anthology of poems written by expatriate Indians living in the US and Canada that is called 'Poetry India'. It is the very first of its kind in the sense that it has poems in thirteen Indian languages and the poems appear in the original Indian language together with its English translation.

Early that afternoon the Hon. Ambassador Mansingh and Hon. Shashi Tripathi had a luncheon meeting with Asian Indian community leaders that are active in the local and state political arena. Those present included Mr. Mahendra Vora, Cincinnati, Mr. Indra shah, Lake County Republican Party, Cleveland and Chairman of the Outreach Committee, Mr. Rajesh Soin, CEO, MTC International, Mr. Ray Mehan, Dr.Thomas Percy, Dr. Ratnam Oza, Harish Trivedi, Chairman, the India Foundation, Dayton, Ohio.

The Dayton Council On World Affairs and the Center for International Programs at the University of Dayton hosted a lecture by the ambassador and the topic was India -United States Relations and Terrorism. About 150 students, faculty members and members of the community attended the lecture.

The Ambassador said that 'the relations between India and the United States have been the best in many years and have been closer than ever before.

Mr. Mansingh said that the date Dec. 13th holds the same meaning in India as Sept. 11 does in this country. That is the day a well-armed group of Islamic militants attacked the Indian parliament. The attack was the result of the ongoing dispute between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, which is partly controlled by Pakistan.'

'As America presses the war in Afghanistan, India is very concerned about Taliban and al-Qaida forces slipping into India, which has the largest Muslim population in the world, nest to Indonesia.'

Mr. Mansingh further added that 'There have been reports of Taliban forces regrouping in Pakistan. There is fear that they will try to penetrate into India.'.....

Talking about the nuclear weapons he said ,''Our nuclear arsenal is purely defensive. We will never be the first to use nuclear weapons against a nuclear power and never would use them against a non-nuclear power.

Harish Trivedi is the Founder Trustee and Chairman of the India Foundation.