Education: Project India

It was exam week, and U.C.L.A. students were concerned with such practical problems as marks and last-minute cramming. But a group of them found time to attend an extracurricular lecture at the religious-conference building. There the Rev. James H. Robinson, a Presbyterian minister, told them about his recent visit to India (TIME, April 28). As a Negro, he had been able to visit places that white Americans seldom see, and he was convinced that the best way to solve India’s misunderstandings about the U.S. was through personal meetings and discussion.

Later that evening, talking about the lecture, the students wondered if they had understood the minister correctly. Did he really think that they could help international relations by going to India as unofficial salesmen of the U.S.? A telephone call got the tired traveler out of bed. For half the night he answered questions. Before the meeting broke up, the students had decided to put Visitor Robinson’s suggestion into practice. They would go to India themselves.

Odd Jobs & Seminars. Enthusiastically, 30 of them went to work on “Project India.” They had no money, no promises of help, and most of them were already busy working their way through college. But they took on extra odd jobs to earn the $250 they figured it would cost each of them to stay in India for two months. One worked as a clerk, another in the library, another helped out at primary elections. Their enthusiasm spread across the campus. The local chapter of Alpha Phi went without desserts and saved $80 for the project. Sunday-school classes contributed their pennies. Then an anonymous patron donated $15,000 to cover transportation costs.

Besides all their other work, the group held seminars to bone up for their trip. They began by studying India, but on the advice of the Indian embassy they soon switched to learning more about the U.S.; that is what the Indians would ask about. They combed local libraries and began tutoring themselves in subjects that might interest their Indian contemporaries: federal v. states’ rights, U.S. foreign policy, capitalism v. Communism, racial problems in the U.S., the Korean question.

Geography & Faith. The toughest question of all was which of the 30 original enthusiasts should go. There was money enough for only ten. As carefully as they had planned their seminars and pinched their pennies, they picked their representatives. The chosen ten belonged to ten. different faiths, traced their backgrounds to eight different countries, included two students who are part Negro, two who are part American Indian. At the last minute, alert Episcopalians collected another $1,700 so that they, too, could have a representative.

Last week, escorted by their two chaperons, the seven boys and four girls took off from Manhattan by air for Bombay. For the next two months they will visit universities and live in student hostels at Poona, Madras, Mysore and Travancore. There they will explain U.S. democracy to their Indian colleagues. “Some of us will soon have to do military service,” said Mormon David Lund, 21 (who won $120 on a radio quiz show to help finance his trip). “It struck us that here we are ready to go to Korea and fight, but that right now we’re not doing anything for our country … I can face dying for my country, but I’d like to do something constructive for it first.”