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As usual, the number of such fault finders was larger than those who appreciated him. The admirers though fewer in number, were of greater mettle. The whirlwind of opposition to the idea of an Aryan going to a Non-Aryan country to talk about religion had not died down till Virchandbhai returned.
In this atmosphere, the admirers of Virchandbhai organised a number of functions under the aeges of 'Buddhivardhak Sabha', 'Arya Samaj', etc. and asked Virchandbhai to speak at those meetings, the hostile groups broke the meetings with slogans like, 'Excommunicate Virchandbhai'. He also received personal threats.
Here is the text of the pamphlet that was issued when Virchandbhai went to the Parliament of Religions: PUBLIC NOTICE
Bombay
9th july 1893 "All religious minded Jains are hereby informed that it has been decided by the Jain Association, without the consent of the Jain community, to send a representative, in the name of the (Jain) Sangha to the religious conference to be held in Chicago on the American continent. Some facts, against that decision have recently come to light, and so a number of people are unhappy. This story is now so wellknown, that there is no need to discuss it further. And so we, the undersigned openly declare that we are not at all in favour of the decision to send a representative to Chicago and we hereby cancel the decision and that we disapprove of the decision'.
There were 137 signatures and a note saying, 'We have printed only a few signatures to avoid undue length of the notice'.
. 437.
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