Jain Spirit 2003 06 No 15

Author(s): Jain Spirit UK
Publisher: UK Young Jains

Page 13

GLOBAL NEWS
CULTURE HITS CAMPUS
In very few campuses outside India is Jainism taught as a subject. Sadly, very few young Jains today would even consider studying Jainism as a curriculum subject at university. However, campuses in the UK and North America have a large number of Jain students, with concentrations in excellent institutions such as Berkeley, Harvard, Duke, NYU, Manchester, Cambridge, The London School of Economics, Warwick, Nottingham and London Universities. As Jainism is an intellectual tradition, the active partici- pation of Jains in Higher Education is not surprising, and it is heartening to see that some young people are keen to learn their identity by starting Jain societies at their universities. In the UK Manchester, De Montfort, Cambridge and Warwick are the first examples of such initiatives. In fact, at Warwick University, Bhavin M. Shah set up a student Jain Society which was nominated for Best New Society at the
from Hindu or other organisations, but instead to also foster awareness of their own culture. Dr. Atul K. Shah, Editor of Jain Spirit was recently invited to lecture at both Warwick and Cambridge Universities and discovered that those students who attended had a keen interest in Jainism and raised a lot of questions. Many left with a very positive impression of Jainism as a dynamic tradition, as opposed to one which was dogmatic and frozen in time without any relevance to the modern world. It is very clear that most young people have a very partial knowledge of Jainism at best, and even that is rather stereotyped. For example, the question as to why Jains do not eat root vegetables is very common. In fact, at Manchester University, where there are over one hundred and fifty Jain students, the ignorance is so great that very few students make an effort to attend the events or go to the beautiful Jain centre in Manchester. The founding committee works very hard to inform students and to invite them to events. The embryonic Jain Student Network has been formed and students are now building up a presence on
campuses across the UK. There is evidence of a parallel development in North America, where the Young Jains of America is encouraging its members to initiate Jainism related activities at colleges.
There is a need for campuses to become aware of alternative cultures and philosophical heritages. Jainism's place is not just in the Departments of Religion, but as a living vibrant culture. It has much to offer as traditional disciplines like sociology, economics, psychology, philosophy, medicine, as well as more modern ones like business and finance. As a tradition informed by ecological and ethical principles, students in different disciplines could draw from their heritage and conduct research relevant to those subjects. For example, the area of Jain Business Ethics is wide open for research and this could potentially enrich our understanding and others' awareness about Jainism. The campuses provide us with a unique opportunity to educate and inform one and all. It is heartening to see young people seizing this opportunity.
University,
The purpose of these student societies is to encourage young Jains to come together and learn about their roots. There is no intention to segregate
NEW PLATFORM FOR PROGRESSIVE EDUCATION
On 1-2 March 2003 in Jalgaon, India, some 1200 trustees of Jain educational institutes came together at the first national conference of the embryonic Federation of Jain Educational Institutes (FJET), to discuss the challenges and changes facing the education community in the 21st century. The conference was inaugurated by Shri L.M. Singhvi and hosted by Shri Bhavarlal Jain, with several eminent speakers from the Jain education community in India and from
all over the world. The conference | population, they run about 3000 of the unveiled a broader vision for education country's educational institutions. FJEI in the coming years and focused on the will act as an apex body, which will need to upgrade Jain educational mentor, guide and support all its institutions to enable them to be members and provide a common progressive and adaptable to a changing platform where the strengths, world. This first national conference knowledge, expertise and experiences also provided delegates with an of members are shared for mutual unprecedented opportunity to network benefit. FJEI hopes to draw upon this with their fellow Jain educationalists, to synergy and become a strong national share experiences as well as to learn voice that will represent all member about FJEI's future plans. Although institutes, while also handling issues at Jains only constitute 2% of India's state and national level.
June - August 2003
Jain Spirit
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