To truth seekers, to all travelers on the long road of learning, and all fellow souls of like-minded purpose—

I do not write this appeal because I must. I do not write this because my position requires me to. I write this as a forever listener, for whom this pedagogical appeal to the South Asian community is long overdue — a listener of South Asia’s tenuous symphony, its bright contradictions and overwhelming, painful unfinished quality.

I have been and continue to be a person without a title. As Patron Emeritus of the Sundar Singh Institute of South Asian Studies, I have been and will always be a wanderer, a sojourner, someone who has been transformed, humbled, and inspired by this region’s indefatigable spirit.

The Institute was never intended to be an escape from reality. It was intended to be part of the world’s wrestling match. An intersection. A sanctuary of mind and spirit — where separation of life is impossible as intellectual pursuits float not above life but below the depths of struggle. Where we inhabit a society too fast for its good, we chose slowness. Where we inhabit a society comfortable with easy answers, we chose the hard questions instead.

South Asia will not allow you to forget it exists. It exists in its terrains and topics, the tongues spoken and unuttered legacies repeating elsewhere to which one must respond anew. It prompts us to question sooner than leap to conclusions. It critiques the tyranny of a single story. It implores engagement with discourse and the wrestling of ideas compassionately.

This is why the Institute exists — as we know that humility is at the basis of all knowledge creation. As we know that learning absent love is a fool’s errand. As we know that when ideas are shaped by ethical imagination, they can and should do more than move policy; they should move people. They should move hearts.

What fills me with the most joy is that this vision became reality in ways beyond a reputable publication or international lecture — beyond notions of credit and acclaim — but instead credits filled the souls of those regrettably overlooked and inflexible to dignity. Our Scholars are Scholars not only for their pedagogical excellence but also for their dreaming, activist, bridging tendencies. Their work exists where truth cannot remain silenced.

We walked with the learned and everyone in between still learning — village elders and international advocates — not because it was trending or deserved a hashtag but because it deserved the attention. Climate justice, public health, cultural memory, and democratic renewal are not debatable topics but sacred endeavors. They are labors of love.
So as Patron Emeritus, I do not look back at the past and give thanks. I look forward—with anticipation, with longing, and with promise. Sadhu Sundar Singh’s legacy is not one to rest upon. It is one to charge forward with ever greater spirit into the great wide open, armed with love as our South Asian compass and integrity as our guiding principle.

To the scholars who enter our doors, to the donors who give from afar, to the friends of this Institute—know this: you have not sacrificed in vain. Your research matters. Your faith in not giving up on humanity is essential.

May this Institute always be a home of difficult truths, a temple of radical compassion, and a beacon for all who recognize that the story of South Asia is still being written—from weary hands, but outstretched arms.

Dr. Maharaj Devendra Shankara
Patron Emeritus
Sundar Singh Institute of South Asian Studies