When I first came to Colorado State University, I was initially studying just English Literature, with the goal of going on to become a professor of English. I had never known another individual in my South-Asian community or just any other South-Asian in general with the same goals as me. 

But that changed last week. 

I was emailing Dr. Aparna Gollapudi in regard to an education abroad program, and I saw that she was an English Professor. 

Knowing that she was South-Asian, I reached out to her, explained my project, and asked her for an interview that she excitedly agreed to. 

I was thrilled as well to explore the depths of her journey as a South-Asian in academia, where I hope to find myself at some point in the future.

Not only did I learn about my culture and how it relates to Gollapudi’s unique perspective, but I was able to go deeper into the very origins of the STEM and humanities relationship in South Asia, and its roots that go all the way to the British rule of South Asia.

Dr. Aparna Gollapudi

Gollapudi was born and raised in India. She was always drawn to English, but she wasn’t able to study this without her parents attempting to push her into STEM.

She took a lot of medical school entry exams, but didn’t get into one, something she is actually very proud of not accomplishing. She was then able to study English on her own terms. 

However, this passion and drive to pursue this side of academia was seen by her father as her giving up on education entirely.

“As soon as I told people I wanted to study English people thought ‘Oh so you’re basically not interested in education anymore,’” Gollapudi said. “‘Is it because you want to get married and be a housewife? What else is an English degree good for?’”  

Her parents, who were typically very supportive, had their reservations about her studying English, and the situations in which they had butt heads on the topic were very traumatic for her. 

“I think I might have erased some memory of that simply because of how unpleasant and traumatic it was.” She said. 

These reservations were somewhat ironic. Gollapudi is a storyteller, a trait she got from her father, and for a period of time, her mother was an actress

Storytelling was in her genetics, yet she was still criticized for it. 

The Exclusive Power of the Humanities

Gollapudi brought forth a new perspective of English that I hadn’t really explored before: the very origins of why South-Asian cultures seemed to be STEM-centric.

When India was colonized by the English, the only way for South-Asians to move up socially and economically was by knowing English and being a part of the established British government. 

“The humanities, more than STEM, has been a tool of historical oppression and the colonization of the mind.” Gollapudi said. “The British wanted the best and the brightest to be admitted to English speaking schools. The only avenue for people to gain upward mobility was to be a part of the British government.” 

English was seen as powerful, but inequitable. There is a cultural value that is placed on the language due to its oppressive history. 

Alongside people seeing Gollapudi’s decision to study English as her giving up on education, it was also, seemingly paradoxically, seen as her attempting to be better than others. 

“There was also the ‘You’re doing a degree that raises you above other people that are not good speakers of English.’” Gollapudi said. “That fact that I wanted to do English made me aware that I am constructed by a history that is less than equitable.” 

It is impossible to say that the relationship between South Asia and the humanities was not shaped by the colonization and oppression that happened during the development of the country. 

When India was colonized, British rule changed the educational curriculum to be more centered around the English language. 

Their goal was to produce South-Asians that were infused with British culture. English became a priority, as opposed to the study of any of the other 300+ languages spoken in India. 

Gollapudi’s relationship to her mother tongue is limited to speaking, she is not able to read or write it. In school she was taught English and Hindi, but was never really taught Hindi literature, the focus was on English Literature. 

The South-Asian sense of the humanities was colonized. It wasn’t their own literature and stories, it was that of the people that had taken over their country and changed everything. 

“There’s a loss in the humanities that we have been taught to appreciate.” Gollapudi said. 

The Importance of Humanities in South-Asian Culture

A common experience South-Asians have on campus here at CSU is being the only student of color in a classroom. I was intrigued to find that this was not just the case for students, but also for professors on campus as well. 

Gollapudi has often been the only person of color in many of the classrooms she has taught in, the classes mostly being focused on British literature as well.

She had only recently started to teach a literature class focused on Indian literature and she has loved it. 

“Knowing the South-Asian culture they are reading and writing about has a different kind of weight to it,” Gollapudi said. “I hope to do more of it.” 

She had pointed out how STEM is seen as something that is typically more masculine, and how there are gender roles present in academia that contribute to the devaluation of the humanities. 

South-Asian boys are pushed into STEM because it is seen as more powerful. The culture makes it so that it is more of a letdown for boys to do something not in STEM, as boys are often seen as the men that they will become, with the weight of providing for their future families on their backs.

And the lack of humanities in boys can lead to the lack of vulnerability, emotional expression, and empathy in them as well, which is destructive to the bigger picture of South-Asian relationships as a whole. 

The Flowers in Words

“When I first came to the US, I took my son to a little league game,” Gollapudi said. “There was this amazing blooming plant, it was purple and smelled lovely. I asked another parent what it was and it was a lilac. I thought back and I had read poetry about lilacs throughout my entire life, but it wasn’t a part of my everyday life. The kind of literature I read gave me knowledge about parts of the world I had not known.” 

The humanities was Gollapudi’s way to travel to different countries, as it is for many people all over the world. 

Gollapudi has a cousin in the United States who did not get into the STEM program that he wanted to get into, and he started going to local standup comedy shows without his parents knowing, and he actually discovered that he was a natural talent. 

He has become more successful and is able to earn a pretty good living, though it wasn’t what he had initially intended on doing and it’s far from what his parents thought he would be doing with his life. 

“And that just makes me so happy,” Gollapudi said. “Not only for him as an individual, but so that he could see he has this other talent in him which he would have never found out about unless there was that shift in his idea of success and the gradual awareness that people could be successful in other ways.” 

Gollapudi knew about lilacs through the words she had read. Imagine the spread of South-Asian culture if there were more writers, comedians, and actors. People that spoke about their experiences in India or Bangladesh or Pakistan, about the smells that would fill their homes when their favorite dish is being prepared, or of the flowers that flow in the fields near the villages.

And then, only then, can there be an American on the opposite side of the planet from India, who can experience the scent of an Indian flower in India that they had only read about in a poem.