Jain Spirit 2003 10 No 16

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

Page 17

T18192 YIL 301221
literature that influenced him most, Mahatma Gandhi having had the biggest impact on LM's life. One will not come across many towns and cities in Britain where a bust of Mahatma Gandhi does not adorn an important square or park. LM put up 125 of them to mark the 125th birth anniversary of Gandhiji. He was equally at ease in the company of royalty. He accompanied Prince Philip to the Swaminarayan Temple in Neasden, London. Other members of the royal family also met him on various occasions. HRH the Prince of Wales and Dr.Singhvi have a mutual affection for each other. Prince Charles once remarked to an Indian diplomat in Kathmandu some years ago: "Do you know Dr.Singhvi? He is an extraordinary man, isn't he?" A very close friend of LM introduced him as "a lawyer by profession, a professor by temperament, a politician by compulsion, a parliamentarian by choice, a researcher by habit, a gentleman by character and a humanist by nature; each manifestation excelling the other." Surely, a polymath!
During their stay in London, LM and Mrs. Kamla Singhvi created tidal waves of understanding and goodwill, which truly made India and Indians proud. The book leaves the
Guradians of the Transcendent:
An Ethnography of a Jain Ascetic Community Anne Vallely
University of Toronto Press, 2002
ISBN 0-8020-8415-X
Itinerant, white-robed ascetics represent the highest ethical ideal among the Jains of rural Rajasthan. They renounce family, belongings and desires in order to live a life of complete non-violence. In their communities, Jain ascetics play key roles as teachers and exemplars of the truth; they are embodiments of the lokottar - the realm of the transcendent. Based on the author's thirteen months of fieldwork in the town of Ladnun, Rajasthan, India, among a community of Terapanthi Shvetambara Jains, Guardians of the Transcendent explores the many facets of what constitutes a moral life within the Terapanthi ascetic community, and examines the central role ascetics play in upholding the Jain moral order. Focusing on the Terapanthi moral universe from the perspective of female renouncers, Anne Vallely considers how Terapanthi Jain women create their own ascetic subjectives, and how they construct and understand themselves as symbols of renunciation. The first in-depth ethnographic study of this important and influential Jain tradition, this work makes a significant contribution to Jain studies, comparative religion, Indian studies and the anthropology of South Asian religions. Anne Vallely is a part-time lecturer in the Departments of Anthropology and Religion at Concordia University, and also in the Faculty of Religious Studies at McGill University.
dad? 2 lat od
FOR
GLOBAL NEWS
A
DIPLOMATIC SOJOURN
Dr. L.M. Singhvi in the UK Edited by Dr. KL. Nandan
reader in no doubt that Dr. L M Singhvi is a true citizen of the world, whose altruism and humility is an inspiration to Indians everywhere from Fiji to the Caribbean. As Kathleen Raine has said, "He is truly the son of eternal India."
ANNE VALLELY
GUARDIANS of the
TRANSCENDENT
AN ETHNOGRAPHY OF A JAIN ASCETIC COMMUNITY
September November 2003 Jain Spirit
15 www.jainelibrary.org