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Maya
Chadda --
- Timeless Virtues Resonate
- In Politics and Culture
- Timeless Virtues Resonate
by Robert A. Manuel
The fate of the world is the subject of India's ancient epic poem, the Mahabharata, which is longer than the Bible and far longer than Homer's Iliad and Odyssey. Its two overriding themes - power and revenge - play out amidst tragedy, disgrace, murder, defeat, war, and slaughter before victory and justice are achieved. In telling its story of a family torn asunder, the epic has been described as mankind's poetical history. Unfortunately, the story's strife is repeating itself today.
It seems only fitting that Dr. Maya Kulkarni Chadda, a William Paterson University professor of political science, who is of Indian origin, is now part of the world's most prominent, prestigious, foreign relations think tank - the Council on Foreign Relations - trying to avoid Mahabharata-like cataclysmic wars and stanch human follies from engulfing humanity once again. Annihilation (both India and Pakistan are the newest nuclear powers with the technology to kill their more than one billion people), vicious religious and/or civil wars, and terror - all threatening South Asia today, which is the focus of Chadda's considerable expertise - could make the original epic's turmoil seem like child's play.
In March 2000, Maya was invited to join the Council, a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that is not associated with the United States government but that has helped the country find its place in the world since its founding in 1921. The Council is composed of Americans from all walks of international life: government, business, law, finance, politics, and academia. Dedicated to the belief that the United States's peace and prosperity are linked to the rest of the world, its mission is to foster America's understanding of other nations through study and debate.
Chadda made the Council on her first try. Other members of the organization - there are more than 3,600 - often don't make the cut in such record time. Its prestige and elite status ensures there are significantly more candidates than there are vacancies.
According to the Council's own literature, "Each candidate is judged on the basis of his or her intellectual attainment; [and] degree of experience, interest, and current involvement in international affairs ," among other criteria. Candidates must be proposed for membership by other members. "I don't come into the picture at all," Chadda says. "There isn't anything I can do to ensure my acceptance. Insiders talk to other Council members to see what they think of me and my work."
Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., the renowned Pulitzer Prize-winning author, historian, and advisor to President John Kennedy, together with Theodore Sorensen, President Kennedy's speechwriter and special counsel, and Peter Rodino, former congressman and chairman of the House judiciary committee that voted to begin impeachment proceedings against President Nixon, supported her nomination.
Asked why her nomination was accepted so expeditiously, Chadda responds, "I got in immediately partly because of my academic and public service record, my leadership in the South Asian community, the growing importance of this region for the United States, and the growing number of South Asians in America. Only a few have made it into the world of a national policy forum. That is why my membership is so prestigious."
Although
it certainly does not hurt to have influential friends in high
places, Chadda's candidacy could not be finessed even by the
likes of a Schlesinger if she did not have the rock-solid credentials
of a distinguished scholar. Her intellectual achievement is easily
recognizable: books, journal articles, and conference presentations
support her erudite claim to fame. Chadda's natural intelligence,
inquisitiveness, and cultured stateliness enhance her academic
credentials from distinguished institutions - a B.A. in economics
from Bombay University before coming to the United States to
obtain an M.A. in government from New York University (NYU),
and a Ph.D. in political science and economics from the New School
for Social Research. While at NYU, Maya and her husband-to-be,
Vijay Chadda, met at a foreign student function. Today, he is
a financial investment advisor and manages a portfolio of clients.
(Photo: Dr. Chadda engages in an animated conversation with then
Indian Prime Minister I.K. Gujral at a reception in the United
Nations in 1997)
Research is indeed Chadda's first love, and she has written four books: Indo-Soviet Political Relations Since the Bandung Conference of 1955, published in 1968 by Vora & Co.; The Paradox of Power: The U.S. in Southwest Asia, published in 1986 by ABC-Clio; Ethnicity, Security and Separatism in South Asia, published in 1997 by Columbia University Press and in 1998 by Oxford University Press; and Building Democracy in South Asia: India, Nepal, Pakistan, published in 2000 by Lynne Rienner Publications. A fifth, Coalition Politics and Economic Reform in the New Global Age, is expected to be published shortly.
William
Paterson Professor Stephen Shalom, a political science colleague
of Chadda who started the same day at the University that she
did in 1977, heartily trumpets her intellectual accomplishments.
"What an opportunity it is for students," he explains,
"to share the excitement and expertise of a teacher whose
knowledge comes not just from her considerable reading but from
first-hand conversations with policymakers from around the world."
Courses Chadda teaches include United States foreign policy,
international relations, and human rights and democracy. (Photo:
Dr. Chadda, second from right, engages students Diana Mocarski,
left, Christina Flanagan, second from left, and Joe Nieto in
an Introduction to Politics class.)
Shalom adds that in bringing that excitement about her own research to class, "She returns a tremendous amount of intellectual energy to all her endeavors in or out of the classroom. Students then pick up on that energy and are excited in turn."
Former students agree. Eric Leonard, who graduated in 1995, praises his professor. "I was lucky enough to have Dr. Chadda for several classes. A large reason I pursued a career in academia is her influence," he enthusiastically explains, adding, "Dr. Chadda has a passion for both research and teaching. Her classes were always dynamic, thought-provoking, and educational." Leonard, who is a political science Ph.D. candidate at the University of Delaware, concludes, "Dr. Chadda displayed the ability to let students teach themselves. Instead of engaging in rote-learning exercises, she would have us engage in structured debates, presentations, and dynamic discussion sessions. I only hope my students are impacted in the same manner that Dr. Chadda impacted me."
Many of Chadda's proteges reiterate Leonard's warm sentiments. Anthony Francin, a market researcher by day and Rutgers Law School student by night, graduated from William Paterson in 1991. Not only did Francin take many of her classes, but he also worked as Maya's research assistant for one of her books. "Her classes were very challenging and intellectually demanding but she had the knack to make the subject matter interesting and understandable," Francin says. "As she is one of the most brilliant people I know, it still surprises me that she is able to relate to suburban New Jersey students and do so in such a warm, caring way."
Right now, when she is not teaching at William Paterson or conducting research projects, Chadda is being whisked away by her interests in the Council on Foreign Relations. "I could spend every day at the Council if I didn't have my many other obligations," she confesses. Meetings, roundtable discussions, study and task groups, and talks - all part of the process that enhances the critical role of the Council in shaping foreign policy - take place daily at its palatial headquarters, located at 68th Street and Park Avenue, in New York.
This past September, for
example, as part of the United Nation's Millennium Summit, Chadda
met to discuss politics and policy with such world leaders and
luminaries as Indian Prime Minister
Atal Behari Vajpayee; General Pervez Musharraf, Pakistan's current
military strongman; and Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez. Currently
she sits on the European, Middle Eastern, Southeast Asian, and
Eurasian roundtables. Ironically, the Council did not have a
South Asian roundtable. They have one now, thanks to Chadda.
"I meet with movers and shakers almost every week and discuss many things of importance with them," she says matter-of-factly. "For instance, on a debate on globalization last spring, I was seated next to George Soros, the global financier, who is believed to have single-handedly triggered the 1997 Asian economic crisis. I asked him where he stood on the issue of the market versus the state. He told me that he was convinced about the benefits of globalization but also recognized the important role the state needs to play in protecting the poor from the onslaught of market forces. This coming from a convinced globalist!"
Today it may seem that her appointment to the premier body of foreign policy experts in America if not the world had a preordained, karmic quality about it. But her life almost took a totally different tangent early on. Upon meeting her, one may wonder from where does her poise, charm, and sparkle arise?
Most of it is innate, of course, including her immediately recognizable beauty. But, it has all been honed and cultivated by her training in the world of Indian classical dance. Maya Kulkarni's (Kulkarni is her stage as well as maiden name) delicate, graceful movement as epitomized by Bharata Natyam, a southern Indian style of dance, was recognized by chief dance critic of the New York Times, Anna Kisselgoff, in a column after a 1996 performance. She calls her "a dancer of assurance and maturity [whose] dance was expressly poetic."
This other fascinating
facet of this characteristically unassuming woman was something
that, until recently, only her closest friends were privileged
to know. "I find wherever I go I come up
against this conundrum," Chadda explains with an easy, infectious,
slightly embarrassed laugh that arises when another of her talents
is brought to light. "My colleagues in dance don't know
anything about my scholarship and they're always asking me, 'What
are you doing there?' They don't understand this [scholarly]
world. And when I talk to my academic colleagues, they don't
take me seriously as a dancer at all. They never come to my performances.
I have a large following among connoisseurs of Indian classical
dance. That's good enough for me.
"Even as a child I
wanted to dance," she admits, and her parents obliged by
providing years of formal training with professional dancers.
It is not surprising to hear she considered making dance
her career.
Dance in India has sacred roots, and Bharata Natyam, one of the most complex of Indian dances, began in temples as another mode of worship. It displays a constant flowing of the body, hands, and limbs, together with facial expressions. Chadda explains that this involves not just physical movement but knowledge of anatomy, sculptural forms, Hindu philosophy, mythology, and folk tales. "The dances are dramas, which tell stories," she explains, "and the dancer must create the character."
She performed extensively until 1979 when she chose academia over dance, and has performed at Lincoln Center and the World Music Institute. She still performs occasionally and practices three times a week "so as not to lose the sense of myself as a dancer." Judging from recent critical acclaim, she need not fear. In September 1996, Village Voice critic Deborah Jowitt said "her maturity has given her new freedom Her expressivity has grown." The Sunday Times of India reviewer Ashish Khokar wrote, "Maya's art was the talk of the town." And Back Stage critic Jennie Schulman says, "The dancer's fluttering fingers and constant weaving of the arms was hypnotic Ms. Kulkarni created a veritable vortex in dance."
Chadda not only dances but plays the tanpura, a stringed, drone instrument, as well. This other talent led her to one of the most iconic, American, cultural experiences ever: Woodstock. She accompanied the famous Indian sitar musician Ravi Shankar, whom she has known since childhood, on tanpura when he played at the legendary 1969 concert. "My students think I am ancient when I tell them this story," she relates with a hardy giggle. "I met Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Joan Baez. Every one of them. And I didn't know who they were. They didn't mean anything to me; I just thought they were weird people. But, I'm used to a little strangeness in artists.
"There were so many people that we had to be airlifted from the highway by helicopter to our hotel and to the stage. Performers were sitting around on this little farm; there were chickens running around, and one man is chasing them. I'm looking at the man while thinking, 'Well, I guess it's something to do.' [She chuckles]. Only later did I find out that it was Jimi Hendrix. Whenever I tell this story to students, they are absolutely horrified. Imagine, not knowing Jimi Hendrix!"
As noted, it was Chadda's parents who actively encouraged her to take up dance and music. Who were these people who raised such a talented, intelligent, free-spirited daughter? Close friends and devotees of Mahatma Gandhi, they were national patriots who were imprisoned by the British for their support of the nonviolent campaign to free India from colonial rule. Her father, Gopalrao Kulkarni, was a writer and editor of Harijan, a weekly newspaper published by Gandhi. Her mother, Nalini, was active in the labor movement; upon independence, she eventually became a member of the Indian Parliament. Her family lived in Gandhi's ashram, or spiritual community; three older brothers (two of whom died in childhood) were born there. No wonder Chadda says, "Politics is in my blood."
Although her parents renounced their Brahmin status (India's highest, most privileged caste), they did not give up all Brahmin traditions. Education, the arts, philosophy, and ethics remained vital to this Bombay family, even though traditional religion did not. Obviously, Chadda learned these early lessons well and, although she herself is not religious, the Hindu concept of the cyclical nature of life resonates within her.
That concept continues to come full circle for Chadda: She teaches as she was taught, and in so doing, changes lives for the better; she dances in a tradition that stretches back millennia and each time she does, beauty is reborn anew; and she researches, the consequence of which just might prevent nuclear confrontation in her homeland. Hindu scripture reads: "From the unreal lead me to the real. From darkness lead me to the light." Chadda's entire life has been a resounding affirmation of that teaching. W ." WP
