Question

Conclusion of social and religious reformer

Answer 1

South Africa’s Indians embodied varied regional, religious, and cultural backgrounds. Worship in temples, mosques, and churches and the celebration of religious festivals were essential parts of their identity. As immigrants, Hindus and Muslims sought to recreate the worlds they had left behind. Hindus, for example, observed eight major religious festivals, and countless smaller ones either in their homes or in temples. A few responded to traveling missionaries seeking to reform traditional Hindus ways; the greater majority held on to narrow nyati concepts to identify themselves. Muslims were equally strong in preserving their religious traditions around five major festivals. Mosques and madressas were central to the way these traditions were honored in South Africa and in the ancestral towns and villages from which Muslims hailed. Our research uncovered little about Christian Indian cultural and religious traditions, but they were likely as vibrant as those of Hindus and Muslims who created a myriad of organizations