Blog #18

Chapter 22 (pp.1087-1119)+ Hallmarks of SND de Namur

India and South Africa had different struggles in trying to gain their independence.  All around the world different countries waited from close to a year to almost 70 or 80 years to get their freedom. Many relied on peaceful political pressure to achieve their independence. Some looked at new nations as religious while others viewed them as secular with some leaders trying to co-mingle everything together including religion. As always seemed to be the case, either religion or race played a role in what happened and how things were perceived. India’s conflict was religion based while in South Africa it was race, ethnicity that generated violence. Both Asia and Africa had a population explosion from 1950-2000 which made things more difficult on an economic scale. People became disappointed when freedom did not solve all of their problems, but at times actually added more problems for them to solve. Independence did not bring a better way of life for many and the Africans no longer showed support for their government because of this and also resented the well educated elites. Africa’s economic performance was bad in that they were supposed to be independent yet there were still millions of poor peasants. India initially drew support from all people and religions (Hindus and Muslims). However, the one of the biggest problems became the division between the Hindus and Muslims. When Britain allowed more Indian participation, the Muslims felt they were out numbered and demanded separate voting.  A common thought was stated “Muslims and Hindus belong to two different religious philosophies, social customs and literatures. They neither intermarry nor interdine (eat) together and inded, they belong to two different civilizations (p 1096)  Gandhi sought moral transformation of individuals and looked for villages to become self-sufficient and no more struggles for women.

All of this leads to what others have spoken in the past and goes hand in hand with the hallmarks of SND,  “To value life as an on-going spiritual journey of deepening relationships with self, others and God, respecting individual differences!, supporting individuals spiritual journey, not to discriminate against any diversity that is different than yourself.  Being open minded and not judgmental is the way everyone must be in order for there to be more peace and freedom in the world today.