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Journalism of Courage
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This is an archive article published on April 2, 2019
For Afghan students, Chandigarh is their second home
Every year, hundreds of students from Afghanistan arrive in India to pursue their higher education. India, they say, is their second home. The cultural similarity is such that many spend years here.
Afghan students perform in a play at the Law Auditorium of Panjab University, in Chandigarh on Monday. Kamleshwar Singh
“FOR US, coming to India is like going from Kabul to another province since we are culturally very similar.’’
Mujib Mehrdad, an Afghan national and student of DAV College, Sector 10, speaks for many of his young countrymen. Every year, hundreds of students from Afghanistan arrive in India to pursue their higher education. India, they say, is their second home. The cultural similarity is such that many spend years here.
Mehrdad, who is pursuing his Master’s in English, says, “I could have gone to another country for my studies but I chose India. The education system and culture here is very appropriate for us. We never feel far from home. When I was in Afghanistan, I had a different perception about India, but after coming here I felt the difference.”
Easy scholarship
Getting a scholarship to study in India is not difficult for Afghan students. They just have to clear a language exam.
Rahm Khoda Haider, a 23-year-old student of the public administration department of Panjab University, says easy scholarships are also one reason they prefer coming to India.
“Every year, nearly 2,000 Afghan students get scholarships to study in India. I left my job to do post-graduation in PU. We are not only neighbours, we have a lot in common. We also find it very easy to learn Hindi,” he said.
There are around 500 Afghan students in different colleges and universities of Chandigarh. These students also feel that education in India will give them a better future.
“I am pursuing my Master’s in Defence Studies at PU and I came here because there is no such department in our colleges except in army schools, where we cannot go, ‘’says Syed Suhrab, an Afghan student who came here in 2015 and studied in Khalsa College before shifting to PU.
Afghan students get two kinds of scholarships in India —one is from the higher education ministry of Afghanistan and the other is from the Indian Council for Cultural Relations.
Assured placement
Shah Masud, a student of DAV College, Sector 10, says that students with degrees from India are highly placed in the government sector in their country. ‘’Indian graduates hold key positions in Afghanistan. Advisors to many ministers in Afghanistan have Indian degrees,” he adds.
The occasional homesickness
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Shah Masud says that earlier, a restaurant in Sector 16 used to serve Afghani food and it had become a favourite hangout of students from Afghanistan.
“We love Indian food like chana bhatura, rajma chawal, veg thali but some of us sometimes travel to Delhi to savour the Afghani cuisine,’’ he says.
Many Afghanis are mistaken for Europeans because of their light skin and eyes. “It is ridiculous that I face problems when I travel around Chandigarh because of my looks. Everyone thinks I am of European origin and I have to bargain whenever I go shopping. I love the look on their faces when I start talking in Hindi,’’ says Shukriya Sadat of Guru Gobind Singh College for Women, Sector 26. “I will miss India when I go back to Afghanistan,” she signs off wistfully.
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