Jain Heritage and Beyond

Author(s): Shailesh Shah
Publisher: Oshwal Associations of The UK

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elite which were gradually implemented from the late 19th century onwards. The first modern Jain educational institutions were public libraries, where the new printed community journals and books can be read, boarding schools or vidyalayas (the first in Bombay 1900), student hostels or chatralayas, and schools or gurukulas (Karanja 1918). Later, Jain research institutes or shodha sansthanas (Arrah 1925), private colleges or vidya pithas (Varanasi 1937), and private institutes for the publication of the scriptures such as the Prakrit Text Society (Ahmedabad 1952) were founded. Initially, most of these institutions were not open to the public but served exclusively the interests of the members of the Jain community or particular sections thereof. But the intention to spread the knowledge of the Jain doctrines throughout the secular educational system in India and beyond was in evidence early on. The Jaina Gazette reported in 1926 that M. J. Mehta, M. J. Jhaveri and A. H. Shah had approached the Hindu University in Benares (BHU) with the offer to finance a chair in Jain logic and philosophy in the University, under the condition "that the General Secretaries of the Jain Swetambar Conference should be consulted in prescribing the course". The offer was declined. Only when the Indian Government itself made resources available with no strings attached were degrees in Prakrit and Jainology institutionalised at recognised Universities. Degree courses were established at the L. D. Institute of Indology and the Gujarat University in Ahmedabad in the 1950s, at the Universities of Vaishali 1955, Mysore 1971, Varanasi 1972 (P. V. Institute with BHU), Udaipur 1978, Madras 1982, and in 1991 at the Jain Vishva Bharati Institute in Ladnun, which remains the only 'deemed to be' Jain University to date. Degree courses in Jain Religion and Society are offered for the first time in Kolhapur 2005.
Sadly, the impressive expansion of the institutional provisions for the study of Prakrit and Jainology masks a continuing decline of Jaina Studies in India after the renaissance of Jain scholarship in the 19th and early 20th centuries. For economic reasons, nowadays few Jains choose an academic career in Jainology or to become Pandits. As a consequence, University courses are empty, research is declining, and most of the remaining experts are Hindus (which is not bad at all but symptomatic). The only area of unabated excitement seems to be the craze for degrees as status symbols to be worn in tandem with Jainness itself. Similar tendencies can be observed elsewhere.
While India witnessed the progressive widening of access to Jain knowledge, culminating in the establishment of recognised University degree courses, Jaina Studies in the UK experienced, for a while, a reverse process. Jain education (as opposed to research) started in the UK with the journeys of three prominent Jain lawyers to Europe and to the US. All of them studied in London at the Bar, at different times, and returned frequently for various reasons: C. R. Jain (1867-1942) 1892-7, 1925-6, 1930-3, V. R. Gandhi (1865-1901) 1894-5, 18961901, and J. L. Jaini (1881-1927) 1906-1909 and 1913. As ardent Jains, the three lawyers were interested in spreading the knowledge of Jainism in the West and co-founded Jain study circles and learned societies for interested Europeans such as F. W. Thomas, the Professor of Sanskrit at Oxford, or Herbert Warren. In 1909, J. L. Jaini founded in London The Jain Literature Society together with F. W. Thomas and H. Warren, and in 1913 The Mahavira Brotherhood or Universal Fraternity with H. Warren, J. H. Dunn, A. & E. Gordon, D. Sainter, R. Wightman, and others. In 1930, The Rishabh Jain Lending Library was established by C. R. Jain and others in North London, and maintained at different places until 1946. The World Jaina Mission, finally, was founded in 1949 in London by M. McKay, W. H. Talbot, F. Mansell, and Mrs. K. P. Jain. The character of these societies, whose Mahavira Jayanti meetings attracted between 30-100 participants, resembled The Theosophical Society and it would not be out place to call their members 'Jain Theosophists'. They were educated professionals, vegetarians, and greatly influenced by the international peace movement during the period of the great wars, but less so by the interfaith movements such as the Parliament of World Religions, since most members were disillusioned with both the organised religions which they sought to transcend by finding a more fundamental spiritual dimension and with the materialism which came to dominate the world.
Due to the lack of interest amongst the Jains in India, the project of a World Jain Mission which was also promoted by The Voice of Ahinsa (Delhi 1949), was given up after the death of Herbert Warren (1866-1954), and apart from isolated research work of renowned scholars such as A. L. Basham, D. Derrett, P. S. Jaini, and R. Williams at the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS) at the University of London, few Jain
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