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JAIN CHAIR AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY, UNITED STATES THE ENDOWMENT OF A PROFESSORSHIP
A Progress Report by Dr Paul L. Kuepferle
Numerous conversations in the past two years with the members of Jain community in India and the USA about establishing an endowed professorship in Jain Studies in an American university have lead to the consensus that Harvard University be selected.
Why Endow a Professorship? Why Harvard University?
These two questions are interrelated. An endowed professorship is a symbolic statement of commitment by the Jain community. It lays the foundation for promoting the study of Jain Religion in the West and helps to insure that Jainism receives proper recognition as a World Religion. It is equally important to endow funds for a comprehensive research library and Bibliographer for Jainism within the existing university library. This type of infrastructure of scholarly expertise and materials will enable the professorship to act as a center for Jain intellectual activity outside India.
Harvard was selected as the site due to its outstanding track record in implementing visiting Professorships, and more importantly, Harvard has a unique interdepartmental structure that enables the professorship to be allied to both Indology and Center for the study of World Religions. The latter enables the professor to reach out to broad spectrum of the world's best young minds at the BA level. The goal is not to produce dozens of Ph.D.s in Jainism but to put Jain Religion on the same platform as other world religions and make it accessible to a broad range of non-specialists. It will be possible to make information on Jain Religion available to tomorrow's world. Given these considerations, Harvard seems the best choice.
Description and cost of the Program:
The cost of an endowed Professorship is U$1,500,000. The Professor's salary is paid from interest earned from the corpus or basic block of money invested by Harvard. This is a large sum of money. Put it must be kept in mind that the primary objective of endowing a chair is to ensure that the subject will always be taught. It is literally an anchor for Jain Studies. The cost of establishing a permanent Jainism library will total about U$750,000 while establishing scholarships to encourage students will cost another U$500,000.
Why spend this money in the West? Why not spend the same in India? There are three components to the answer. First, most Westerners ask "Why has it taken so long? Chairs endowed by non-Westerns in other eastern religions have existed for a long time. The endowment can be justified simply on the grounds that Jainism deserves a platform on the forum of world religions. However, there are two reasons of Jain self-interest that should make them look to America. Secondly, Jain children in America are the embodiment of challenges that will confront Jainism in India in the future. Thirdly, Jain Studies can tap into the dynamism of western scholarship and technology and create projects beneficial to Jainism in India.
For Jain children growing up in the West, the challenge to understand is urgent. They face problems today that their counterparts in India will experience in the future. Their parents are content with rituals and practices performed whilst they carry little meaning for the children. The children are desperately looking for an anchor for their lives and need to explore the ideas and values of Jain tradition. But their parents are often unable and unwilling to discuss ideas with their children. They live in. a world where religious PUNYAfar outweighs religious ideas and values. Parents compound the problem further by not providing their children with educational material on Jainism. In the USA, children see that the only time their parents interact with other Jains as Jains is to enter into business negotiations and the when arranging marriages. In process, many children have become cynical towards the very value structure that they see inside cover page ...
Jain Education International 2010_02
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