Sep 11, 20202 min read

Bharat and Her History—VTSEVA Youth Report

During this pandemic, Bharat and Her History was created in order to provide an easy way for families and kids to learn about Indian history. Classes were structured and created in an easily understandable format, allowing for people of all ages to be able to engage with the classes in a meaningful way. Through this program, we managed to teach 60 families about Indian history from the ancient times all the way to the beginnings of the colonial era.

Thank you to our wonderful volunteers and teachers (Kiran Vangala, Chinmay Koimuttum, and Swadesh Sistla) for devoting many hours to organizing, planning, and preparing the classes and lesson plans. The PowerPoints and presentations were designed in a way to be both informative, captivating, and entertaining for the kids and families that joined these classes.

Once a week, over the course of four weeks, we were able to present segments of Indian history in a concise and chronologically sound format. Classes covered significant wars, inner politics, external politics, major empires and dynasties, exceptional heroes, significant kings and queens, foreign invasions, indigenous resistance, and many aspects of Indian history that are quite substantial to India’s history but remain undiscussed. It is our hope that these classes would inspire and trigger a spark of desire to learn more about the plethora that is Indian history. We also wish that it would provide some inspiration for the youngsters present to delve deeper into the history of their own ancestors and culture, allowing them to remain connected to the ethos of India despite living abroad.

Thanks to our partnership with JETUSA, we were able to connect with families all over the country, allowing the impact of this program to extend beyond the boundaries of Seattle. It is our hope that this program impacted and inspired the families and youth watching to learn more about the history of India.

Thank you,

Chinmay Koimuttum

VTSEVA Seattle

Jai Srimannarayana! My name is Chinmay Koimuttum, and I have been on the VTSEVA youth board for two years. One of the many incredible aspects of VTSEVA that I love is the support and guidance that the youth board is provided with by all of our adults and mentors.

I initially fell in love with Indian history after learning about the marvelous life of Maharana Pratap, which eventually led me to explore further about the history of India.