The members aspire to take the fraternity national. UC Berkeley, with its large South Asian American student population, has traditionally been a hotbed of South Asian organizations. Now, DPB members feel that the South Asian community is large enough across the nation for a fraternity to thrive.

The group is open to anyone interested in South Asian culture. "The reason we chose the Greek letters was for people to understand where we're coming from and what kind of ideals we want to set," said Belur. "We're not trying to get away from our culture. We're very into maintaining our culture."

Aside from the name, he said, the fraternity is not affiliated with the formal collegiate Greek system. Nor do they pattern themselves after traditional fraternities. "We don't do hazing," said community service coordinator Meera Ojha.

"When people hear fraternities the first thing they associate with that, besides the parties, are that they're a close-knit group. There's this union where people are really close and they depend on each other," said social coordinator Mani Dhanoa. "That's the only thing we want to transfer from the letters.

"Besides that we're not officially in the Greek system and we'll never choose to be."

The members are quick to emphasize that when they say "brotherhood," they include women. "It's really important that we give a lot of respect to South Asian women," said Belur, "because South Asian culture in general has put them down and put them in a bad role throughout history."

"I tell a lot of people I'm joining a fraternity and people start looking at me all funny," said Shirin Dewani, a Berkeley freshman thinking of joining DPB. "I always forget to say the 'co-ed' part. She believes the co-ed concept can work. "There's already three girls in the fraternity and it seems like they're doing pretty well," she said.

However, the majority of the fraternity's activities involve community service. Many fraternity members praised community service, saying that South Asian Americans need to give back to the community. "A lot of people see the South Asian community as a group of people who are very individualistic and successful on a very individual basis," said DPB member Shobha Mahadev. "It's a good idea to become known as a people who are also successful collectively and who can give back to their community, not being selfish and taking materialistically what we need."

Ojha outlined some of the programs DPB members regularly volunteer in:

• Project Open Hand: delivering food to people who are HIV-positive;

• Adopt-a-Highway: cleaning up a stretch of a local freeway in return for a roadside sign bearing the fraternity name and motto;

• East Bay Conservation Corps: painting over graffitti, maintaining gardens, and cleaning up playgounds at local schools;

• Berkeley-Oakland Social Services: ladling food at a soup kitchen;

• Alzheimer's Services of the East Bay: talking with elderly people afflicted by Alzheimer's disease.

"We're going to organize an India Day thing," said Ojha. "Ten of the fraternity members are going to throw a three or four hour party for them where we're going to show them India. We're going to show them saris, how to make samosas or Indian food, show them the different kinds of music, from bhangra to Hindi to classical. They just love to talk to young people."

The organization is also looking into volunteering for groups like Narika and the Asian Women's Center of S.F., which counsel battered Asian women. However, their lengthy training programs and women-only rules may present difficulties.

Mahadev agreed. "Our own country is not a cohesive group. When we come here, in order to be any kind of functioning group we have to be cohesive."

"If fourteen of us who are from different groups of friends, ideas, religions and cultures have all come together so strongly and are so close," said Dhanoa, "then I think [DPB has] served [its] purpose."

In addition to unity, DPB aims to forge a strong sense of South Asian American identity. "We want to show South Asian kids growing up in this country that there is a place where they can go and be a majority," said Belur. "Growing up as a South Asian kid I had no sense of identity in that sense. There weren't any South Asian kids around me."

The fraternity plans to host high school students for a day and a half and show them around the South Asian American community at UC Berkeley. Members will speak at high schools with large numbers of South Asian students. "There's a high school in Fremont [California] where they're having a Multicultural Festival Week. The person who's organizing it is South Asian and she called me up and asked if I would come down and talk to the students about the fraternity," said Ojha. "[DPB] is somewhere they can turn to and be proud of."

DPB also has a political aim: for South Asian Americans to take a higher profile in U.S. politics. Said Belur, "The thing with South Asians is that we're the silent model minority. We put that on ourselves. What we want to do is to let everybody know that we are here. We will make some noise if we're not taken into consideration when decisions that affect our lives are being made.

Jaehoh Sua, a Korean American student at UC Berkeley, concurred that Asian American fraternities don't include many South Asians: "There's talk about Indians not being Asian, having certain facial features. Most of the Asians in Asian fraternities are Chinese, Japanese, Korean. They don't see Indians as being Asian. I don't know if they tend to exclude them but I think Indians themselves don't go into those groups because they feel they're not from a similar cultural background."

Rukhmini Timmaraju, another prospective DPB member and former president of South Asian Students' Alliance, explained that UC Berkeley is clearly Balkanized along lines of race. She described her experience running for office in the Asian-Pacific Council, a UC Berkeley Asian American umbrella organization: "Even with all the progressive and political people on this campus, you could tell who was voting for who. I got most of the Filipino, the Vietnamese, and the Southeast Asian vote, and these are, quote, the 'darker' Asian people. [My opponent] got most of the Chinese, Japanese, and the Korean vote. It was pretty stupid.

"Even [in] a coalition group where everyone there is supposed to be a leader, you get that kind of thing."

Members are heartened by DPB's increasing visibility on campus. "When I go to the gym, a lot of people see my [fraternity] hat and say, 'That's the Indian fraternity, right?'" Belur continued. "People are starting to recognize who we are.

"In the South Asian community there's such a stereotype that either you're whitewashed or you act black. I think we need to create a South Asian identity."

For more information about Delta Phi Beta, contact Kiran Belur or Yash Dhillon at (510) 549-1003.