Jain Journal 1996 07

SR No.: 520123
Original Sutra Author: N/A
Author: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publisher: Jain Bhawan Publication
Publication Year: 1996
Total Pages: 58
Language: English
Classification: Magazine, India_Jain Journal, & India
File Size: 4 MB

Page 46

KUMAR JAINS AND THEIR RELIGION IN AMERICA: A SOCIAL SURVEY
the last century of this millennium to Africa, Burma and to part of Pakistan before its statehood.20
The first arrival of Jains in America is recorded in the visit of Virchand Gandhi in 1893 to attend the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago. During the time, one American family-the Howards of Inglewood--were said to have become Jains, following Virchand Gandhi. The next record of a Jain visit to America was by Barrister Champatrai Jain to address World Fellowship of Faiths held in Chicago on 30th of August 1933.21 Records in the mid to late sixties show that there were handful of proselytized Jains in Canada and America. 22
Jains in America
The Account leads to a small number of Jain immigration to America from early fifties to the large arrivals in the seventies and eighties, largely due to exodus from Africa. Thus, the Jain immigration to America can be divied into four phases, based on kind. period, political expulsion and home grown population.23
First phase consisted of the coming of the professionals and the students, the immigration being directly from India. These men were mostly married before landing in America. So, they sent for their wives as soon as they had set up a home. The students sought immigration instead of going home, and these unmarried men devised a system of their own to get a wife. They arranged marriage in India, and sometimes they made two or three trips to India before they returned with their wives.
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Second Phase consisted of family years of the first arrivers. This was the period of building a foundation in the new country. Between the spouses, the male assumed the role of a patriach, with specific duites and responsibilities.
Third phase consisted of immigration due to political expulsion. They came as a family unit, often as a joint family. The period saw the numerical strength of the Jains grow, and thus, Jain communities came to existence in many regions.
Fourth phase consisted of the second generation Jains, where North American Jains have established their own independent families, and
20. Ibid., pp. 95-96. 21. Ibid., p. 100.
22. Idibd., p. 101. 23. Ibid., pp. 102-103.