South Asian legal leaders urge city to make Diwali a school holiday

A performer dances during a Diwali celebration at City Hall last year. Photo courtesy of the City Council

By David Brand

Legal leaders of South Asian and Indo-Caribbean descent urged the city to make Diwali a public school holiday in a letter to Mayor Bill de Blasio and New York City Schools Chancellor Richard Carranza Monday.

The letter, written by South Asian and Indo-Caribbean Bar Association of Queens County General Secretary Sagar Chadha, a Queens attorney, highlights the importance of Diwali — known as the “Festival of Lights” — to hundreds of thousands of South Asian and Indo-Caribbeans living New York City, particularly in Queens. 

“Celebrating Diwali requires daytime and late night prayers, accompanied by gatherings and celebrations of family and friends, which impact our children's ability to attend school and function properly while in school,” Chadha wrote in the letter. “For our children and our community, recognition of Diwali as an official holiday for NYC public school students will represent acceptance of our faith and culture.”

More than 550,000 people of South Asian and Indo-Caribbean descent live in New York City, including people from India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Guyana and Trinidad and Tobago, some of the city’s largest and fastest-growing immigrant groups.

South Asian and Indo-Caribbeans have advocated for the city to make Diwali a public school holiday for years, pointing out that the city has already declared Eid al-Fitr, Eid al-Adha and the Lunar New Year as public school holidays in recognition of the influence of various religions and cultures.

“We know that the Guyanese community is the second-largest in Queens. Trinidadians are right there and Indians are right there. That’s what the data shows,” Assembly candidate Richard David told the Eagle last year. David, a Democratic district leader in Queens was raised in a Hindu household in Jamaica and is a professor or Caribbean studies at York College.

David wrote an op-ed in October 2019 there is a “disconnect” between the diversity and growth of the South Asian community that is celebrated by city leaders and the lack of action in recognizing Diwali as a public school holiday.

“Communities have been organizing around getting Diwali [recognized] for a long time, as long as the 80s and 90s,” David wrote. “I see it as inevitable because the populations are growing. I'm incredibly hopeful this is something the mayor will do before he comes out of the office.”