Book Title: ISJS Jainism Study Notes E5 Vol 01
Author(s): International School for Jain Studies
Publisher: International School for Jain Studies
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needs were looked after by about thirty associations. Of these the following three were the most important: Jaina Samāja Europe, the Oswal Association of the United Kingdom and the Navnata Vanika Association (U.K.).
"The Jaina Samaj Europe has established a Jaina Centre in the city of Leicester. This centre is a major symbol of Jaina unity, the first centre of its kind to embody co-operation among Jaina groups by including in one building a Śvetāmbaras temple, a Digambara temple, a Guru Gautama mandira, a Sthānakavāsīs upāśraya and a Śrimad Rājacandra mandira. Its fine Jaina architecture, including elaborate interior and exterior carvings, has made it a major tourist attraction and place of pilgrimage for Jainas. The Jaina Samāja in Europe has published books and a journal on Jainism. Jainas are seeking to widen their activities through the creation of inter-faith' links such as the Jaina-Christian Association, the Jain-Jewish Association and the Leicestershire Ahimsā Society for the Care of Nature" (Shah 1998: 80).
A Jaina Academy was founded in 1991 which has been offering an undergraduate course in Jaina philosophy and religion from De Montfort University in Leicester. The Academy is also associated with an educational and research center at Bombay University. Presently, the Jaina population in the U.K. is estimated at around 50,000.
4.4 U.S.A. Sri Virchand R. Gandhi is credited as the first Jaina visitor to North America when he attended the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago in 1893. The next Jaina to have visited the U.S. was Barrister Champatrai Jain. He addressed the World Fellowship of Faiths in Chicago on 30th August 1933. A third name often mentioned in this context is that of Sri J.L. Jaini of the World Jain Mission of Aliganj, Etah, India, who had traveled to the U.S., the U.K., Germany and some other countries.
Until 1950s there was no Jaina diasporic community worth the name in the U.S. From 1960s onwards a large number of professionals, academics and students began to settle in North America. In the mid-1960s the Jain population in the U.S. was estimated at about 20,000; a majority of them being Gujaratis “A statistical profile of the Jaina community given in the 1986 Directory of Jainas shows that the majority of the respondents were either engineers (33.1%) or in the medical field (19.8%); even though Jainas are known as businessmen in
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