Bucks County Herald – April 23, 2009

Nancy Donnelly India Quakers

Dear Friends,

Good morning. In the January 22^nd edition of the Herald, I wrote about my friend Rich Diffenderffer who survived the terrorist attack at the Taj Mahal Hotel in Mumbai, India. It was prompted when I spotted a picture of his rescue in the New York Times on November 26, 2008.

That very week, the Head of the United Friends [Quaker] School was also in India. Fortunately, Nancy Donnelly and her husband, Philip, were not involved with the massacre (163 killed), but their families must have been worried for their safety. It was ironic because their trip concerned the Quaker central theme of peace…while a part of India was experiencing violent chaos.

Nine Quakers from the Philadelphia Yearly Meeting (the umbrella organization which presides over Quaker meetings in Pennsylvania and New Jersey) traveled to India for three weeks to share their ministries. The topics included education, spiritual formation, and entrepreneurship in India, cross-religious exchange, and social justice advocacy.

The meeting of the Friends World Committee on Consultation attracted 120 people from Australia, Europe, Hong Kong, Japan, New Zealand, Philippines, South Korea, and United States.

Nancy gave me the itinerary, which outlined the group’s mission: meet [Mahatma] Gandhian practitioners; visit schools; offer workshops and performances; learn from villagers and women’s self-help groups; hear stories from survivors of the 1985 Bhopal gas leak; tour Sanchi- an ancient Buddhist site; and visit Asia’s second largest Islamic mosque.

Nancy’s husband designs and supplies seating for auditoriums. Because some of the chairs are manufactured in India, Phil has made many trips to India…15 in all. He left for India again three days ago. “My introduction to India was business related but it grew into participation with the Quaker group,” he told me.

The Donnelly’s began their travels in New Delhi, the Capital of India, and stayed in a Hindu Ashram for five days. There are not many Quakers in New Deli. The vast majority of its 1.1 billion people are Hindu, followed by Islam. Nancy told me that only half a dozen Quakers meet in a room in a New Delhi YMCA each week.

Nancy told me that the United Friends School in Quakertown is teaching the children about Mahatma Gandhi, the revered father of modern day India. It was ironic that Gandhi, the pioneer of “Satyagraha,” which means resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, was assassinated in 1948. Satyagraha is founded on the term “Ahimsa,” or total non-violence.

Think about the religious complexity of India and its 1.1 billion people, second only to China. Hindus make up 80 percent of the population; 12 percent are Muslims; 2 percent Sikhs; 2 percent, Christian; ¾ percent and ½ percent are Buddhists and Jains, respectively. In 1945, two years before the birth of India and the departure of Great Britain, there were 23 main languages, 200 dialects, and 3,000 casts with 60 million untouchables. There must be more today.

Gandhi thought that he could forge these separate and volatile, conflicting parts into one nation through peaceful means. You can understand why Quakers have such a strong affinity to Gandhi and India.

Nancy believes that the cast system won’t survive because of the advent of inexpensive technology, namely the Internet and the cell phone. She told me that cell phones have leap-frogged over the number of landline telephones.

India is changing, Phil continued. “On one hand, you’ll see plowing in the fields with oxen…and on the other, high technology,” he said. “India has a vast reservoir of young engineers.”

“But there are hundreds of millions of poor [people] left behind,” Nancy chimed in. “While education is based on merit, the path to higher education goes through private schools. It’s always related to class and how much money you have. The issues of race and class are everywhere.”

The group spent seven days in Bhopal, in conflict resolution workshops. Bhopal is the site of the Union Carbide disaster, which caused 50,000 deaths in 1985. The Donnelly’s believe that the Indian government is too lax about the regulation of industry, constantly weighing the risk of frightening international corporations away.

For the Indian people, there’s constant competition for natural resources. Land and water are rallying points for “Ekta Parishad,” which means help the powerless. “Ektra Parishad is Gandhian in origin,” Nancy said. “It helps people who are landless.”

The Donnelly’s spent a day in a village reached by a two-hour drive, plus one hour of walking. They met 50 families from a farming village who were uprooted from their land because the Indian government chose multi national companies over the citizens. The farmers brought two stone tablets from their former home.

“In 2007, 25,000 landless people walked 350 kilometers to protest [their condition],” Nancy told me. “Janadesh,” or justice of the people was the theme. The chant, “Jai Jagot,” means victory to the world through non violence.”

In New Delhi, the Donnelly’s visited a school filled with 800 street children. The youngsters go to school half a day and work half a day. The school educates them and provides income for the families.

Nancy spoke glowingly about the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA). “It’s an Indian trade union that empowers poor women through their own work,” she continued. “SEWA lends money to women to create their own business. The women are mostly from villages and the city slums.”

Nancy remembers the three-weeks in India fondly. “The people were lovely and kind,” she said. “Their hospitality was over whelming. And we never felt unsafe.

“By the way, everyone that we met was thrilled that America elected Barrack Obama,” she laughed. “‘Today, finally, your nation matured,’ ” an elderly person told me, the day after the November election.”

Last, I enjoyed Nancy’s story about the “Flat Stanley’s” which she took along as icebreaker presents for the children that she met. Flat Stanley mystified me until she explained. “Flat Stanley is a fictional character who got flattened,” she laughed. “It’s flat and travels easily. Kids get a kick out of them.

“I love India,” Nancy concluded. “It’s a wonderful country. Yes, there’s terrible poverty but there’s also great beauty. I think about the colors…the women in saris, the flowers, and the markets. I want to return to India some day.”

Sincerely,

Charles Meredith