Gandhi Before Gandhi

Author(s): Bipin Doshi, Priti Shah
Publisher: Jain Academy Educational Research Center Promotion Trust Mumbai

Page 110

GANDHI BEFORE GANDHI
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H18 INDIA
Powerful and influential community in the history of India.
the shedding of blood. Mewar has from the remote period, offered a refuge to the followers of the Jain faith, which was the religion of Vallabhi, the first capital of Rana's ancestors, and many monuments attest the support that this family has granted to its professors in all the vicissitudes of their fortunes. One of the best preserved monumental remains in India is a column most elaborately sculptured, full 70 feet in height, dedicated to Tirthankar Parshvanath-in Chitor.
Contribution in field of Education
The Jains have been a powerful and influential community in the history of India. Some of them held high positions under native and Mohammedan rule. Writing so far back as 1829, Colonel James
Tod says in his "Annals of Rajasthan, "The
number and power of these sectarians (Jains) are little known to Europeans, who take it for granted that they are few and dispersed. To prove the extent of their religious and political power it will suffice to remark that the Pontiff of the Kharataragachha, one of the many branches of the faith, has 11,000 clerical disciples scattered over India; that a single community, the Oswal, numbers 100,000 families and that more than half the mercantile wealth of India passes through the hands of the Jain laity."
The Jains are ardent advocates of education. Their benefactions to Western education and intellectual progress in India are well known. The University of Bombay owes to a Jain merchant, Sir Premchand Raichand the means of erecting a stately library and a grand campanile, which are among the chief ornaments of the city. The Calcutta University has received an endowment of two lacs of rupees from the same hand. Another Jain merchant has recently bequeathed five lacs of rupees for establishing a Jain college. Female education in Gujarat depends almost entirely on Jain munificence. Many schools, libraries, and scholarships have been founded or endowed by Jains.
Rajasthan and Saurashtra are the cradles of the Jain faith and three of their sacred mountains, namely, Abu, Shatrunjay, and Girnar are in these regions. The officers of the State and revenue are chiefly of the Jain laity, as are the majority of the bankers. The chief magistrate and assessors of justice in Udaipur and most of the towns of Rajasthan are of this sect and their voluntary duties are confined to the civil cases, they are as competent
ties are confined to the civil cases, they are as competent in these as they are the reverse in criminal cases for their tenets forbidding
It may be noted that Lord Reay, as Governor of Bombay, having after careful study, settled the disputes between the Jain Community and the Chief of Palitana, fifteen years ago. An address of welcome was presented to him when he, with Lady Reay, visited that hill. That was the first official and public presentation to a British representative.
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