Amita Jain and Niteen Patkar have donated $1.35 million to the University of California, Berkeley, establishing two permanent funds for Hindi education and graduate study. The university announced the gift on July 30.
The couple gave $850,000 to create the Usha and Santosh Jain Endowment for Hindi Language Instruction. They also contributed $500,000 to establish the Usha and Santosh Jain Endowment for Graduate Students, an amount that UC Berkeley will match. The gift is the largest in the history of Berkeley’s Department of South and Southeast Asian Studies.
Both funds honor Jain’s parents, Usha and Santosh Jain, who came to Berkeley from India in 1960. While Santosh pursued a master’s degree in engineering, Usha studied Asian studies and began working as a teaching assistant. That opportunity grew into a 44-year career teaching Hindi at the university.
Usha Jain helped shape Berkeley’s Hindi program and wrote instructional books that remain in use by students around the world. Her courses reached thousands of learners, including heritage speakers and students encountering the language for the first time. She and her husband also built a tradition of mentorship, often welcoming students and teaching assistants into their home.
The new language instruction endowment is designed to protect Hindi teaching from changing financial conditions and expand access to the program. The graduate student fund will support future scholars working in Hindi, South Asian languages and related fields.
Berkeley said the endowments will also help develop teaching materials, strengthen academic partnerships with institutions in India and other countries, and bring visiting scholars, lecturers and artists to campus. The funding is expected to support research and a broader intellectual community around Hindi language and literature.
Munis Faruqui, director of Berkeley’s Institute for South Asia Studies, said the gift could help make the university’s Hindi Studies Program a leading program nationally. For Jain and Patkar, the endowments preserve a family legacy while creating lasting opportunities for students and scholars.
Key Takeaways About Amita Jain and Niteen Patkar
- They donated $1.35 million to establish two permanent UC Berkeley endowments.
- Their gift is the largest in the department’s history.
- The funds will support Hindi instruction and graduate students.
- UC Berkeley will match the $500,000 graduate student endowment.
- The endowments honor Usha and Santosh Jain’s educational legacy.
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South Asian Spotlight is an initiative of the American South Asian Network (ASAN), a national nonprofit connecting and advancing younger South Asians across the United States through community, mentorship, leadership development, professional opportunity, representation, and well-being.
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