India Chapter Summary
Bhawuk discusses the general state of peace existent in India and details the contributory cultural factors. Recognition of over two thousand represented ethnic groups, hundreds of languages, and diverse religions practiced reveals a unique continuing tradition of harmony. Proposed mechanisms of the conceptual framework termed General and Complete Peace are utilized to explain serenity in India and offer hope for engendering peaceful coexistence in other regions.
Exploration of cultural beliefs reveals significant importance placed on values of individual peace and care for others. Discussion of various spiritual texts provides additional insight into acceptance of contradiction and impermanence, which are viewed as contributing to inclusion. The value placed on dialog that permeates spiritual traditions provides evidence of understanding and appreciation of others. Further recognition of spiritual beliefs elucidates an unusual acceptance of various forms of religious practice as leading to the same God. In fact, the author points out that people from different religions may revere the same saints.
In describing current conflicts, Bhawuk notes the existence of the caste system which many credit with the existing conflicts; however, he iterates that this was historically functional in society. Delineation of study results implicates economic and political factors in local, minimally violent conflicts, although statistics are cited which show that these are escalating in specific regions. Religious conflicts are also explored, revealing the catalyst of conversion to Christianity as a major factor.
Bhawuk describes peace as a natural state, the absence of which begins at the individual and interpersonal levels. Results of a cited study provide insight into the need for compassion to reduce differences and promote humanitarian efforts.
Cheryl Jorgensen
Some of the ideas in this paper were presented at the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology conference in Bremen, Germany, July 2008. I appreciate the stories and insights shared by Dr. E. S. Srinivas, Dr. Vikramaditya Ekkirala, and Anand Chandrasekar, which helped me improve the paper. I am grateful to Susan Mrazek for working with me on peace research because preparing for our weekly meeting constantly inspires me to think about world peace. I am grateful to Acharya Satya Chaitanya for his comments and to Dan and Rosita for their support and guidance. This paper is dedicated to Mr. Khan, a taxi driver in Mumbai, who lives by the highest standards of peace and offers incense daily to Lord Venkateswara of Tirupati in his taxi and gets deeper in his own faith, Islam. I hope to be able to emulate him by chanting the name of Allah every day.
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Notes
- 1.
Dinkar (1956) argued that internal conflict among kings, caste-based disagreement, and absence of a strong central level government were some of the causes for India’s inability to protect itself from external aggression after the decline of Harshavardhan’s monarchy (607 to 641 AD), which was the last strong central government that northern India saw. He also noted that for the most part people in the villages did not care about the kings and the shifting power between them. Life was quite peaceful for the most part for people in rural India, and hence there was no need for them to be concerned about the invaders, except for the occasional attack on the temples.
- 2.
A Muslim spiritual teacher who is respected as a Peer (or saint) and lives in Bhagalpur brought to my attention during my visit with him that Islam has existed in India from the time of the Prophet. See the following two blogs that provide some information about this claim. http://adhvaitha.blogspot.com/2009/01/oldest-mosque.html http://www.pakspectator.com/second-oldest-mosque-in-the-world/
- 3.
There is another claimant for the second oldest mosque, the Al-Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, where the Prophet prayed.
- 4.
“Scheduled” in “Scheduled Caste/Scheduled Tribe” refers to the schedule of the constitution that includes certain communities as disadvantaged group of people, and provides affirmative action type of protection to them in education and employment.
- 5.
In 2008, the eastern states had the least number of violent crimes: Sikkim, 91; Meghalaya, 497; Tripura, 931; Mizoram, 166; Manipur 1,213; Nagaland, 377; and Arunachal Pradesh, 363. Assam had, with 9, 691 incidents, had the highest number in the eastern region. Lakshadweep (18), Daman and Diu (52), Dadra & Nagar Haveli (65), Chandigarh (239), Pondicherry (297), and Goa (308) were other geographic areas with small number of incidences. States with incidences in the range of 1–5,000 included Jammu and Kashmir (3,864), Punjab (3,639), Uttarakhand (1,573), and Himachal Pradesh (1,284). Twelve states with more than ten thousands incidences of violent crimes during 2008 included Tamil Nadu (10,518), Kerala (11,363), Karnataka (13,128), Andhra Pradesh (12,275), Maharashtra (22,862), Orissa (10,478), West Bengal (16,504), Bihar (23,247), Uttar Pradesh (26,921), Madhya Pradesh (15,663), and Rajasthan (10,127). Total number of incidences all over India for 2008 was 228, 663 (Crime Statistics, 2008).
- 6.
This section draws from reports obtained from the Hindustan Times using LexisNexis.
- 7.
Where is my faith? Even deep down … there is nothing but emptiness and darkness … If there be God – please forgive me. When I try to raise my thoughts to Heaven, there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul … How painful is this unknown pain – I have no Faith. Repulsed, empty, no faith, no love, no zeal, … What do I labor for? If there be no God, there can be no soul. If there be no soul then, Jesus, You also are not true. (Kolodiejchuk, 2007). Kolodiejchuk, who was her postulator or the official responsible for gathering the evidence for her sanctification as a saint, noted that some may interpret her personal thoughts as a lack of faith, but it was just the opposite. Christian saints like St. John of the Cross, St. Theresa of Jesus, and St. Ignatius Loyola have all noted this as the third phase preceding the final stage of union with God in which one feels dejected and has no connection with God, unlike the first two phases of purgation and illumination where grace is constantly experienced.
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Bhawuk, D.P.S. (2012). India and the Culture of Peace: Beyond Ethnic, Religious, and Other Conflicts. In: Landis, D., Albert, R. (eds) Handbook of Ethnic Conflict. International and Cultural Psychology. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4614-0448-4_7
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