WEST ORANGE, NJ — Indian Independence Day was once again celebrated in West Orange, with residents and elected officials breaking in a new flagpole to raise the Indian flag on Aug. 16. The town wasn’t able to hold the flag-raising event last year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. This was only the third time residents have gathered on the steps of Town Hall for a township event since lockdown began.
“Establishing this event was a way to embrace my Indian heritage and celebrate the country of my ancestry,” Riya Goel, who graduated from West Orange High School this past spring, said at the event. Goel started this event back in 2018 when she was just 14 years old. “It inspires me to see all of you here today, celebrating with me. Being the child of Indian immigrants, I always grappled with my identity as an Indian American, trying to find a balance between my Indian heritage and my life here in America.”
Goel said she has been made fun of for her pronunciation of certain words and has felt embarrassed when she wore Indian clothes.
“This past year has been tough for everyone,” she said. “We have not only gone through a pandemic, but have also seen political turbulence and injustice for people of color in our community. But we’ve also seen the unity that we create when we come together. The power of togetherness lies in the young people that pave the way for our future, and with an intersectional approach in our advocacy for our community, we can take a not-so-great world and make it better.”
Goel is starting school at Barnard College of Columbia University, located in New York City, in a few weeks, and joked that she would pass off flag-raising planning to her sister. She is confident that the community of people who have shown up every year will keep returning.
“When we started this, I thought, ‘It’s just a flag raising,’” younger sister Sachi Goel said at the event. “But it meant bringing together a community that hadn’t been brought together before. A group chat started, and conversation between Indian families also started. There was always a reason to come together. This never would have happened without the flag raising.”
The COVID-19 pandemic hit India especially hard in the spring, peaking with an average of 391,232 cases a week in May, according to The New York Times. The average number of daily cases on Aug. 16 in the country was 37,893.
“Having the Indian community’s support in a tough time is really the power of community,” Riya Goel said in an interview with the West Orange Chronicle at the event. “I’ve struggled with Indian identity, with school being one thing and home being another. So this has been a way to celebrate where my parents came from and my background.”
Photos by Amanda Valentovic
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