Jain Spirit 2004 06 No 19

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

Page 50

A MULTI-FAITH WELCOME
The experience of 'living through hell together' has produced one of the closest communities of religiously diverse South Asians in the world. While I was in Rangoon, the task of helping me find my way around what was left of the Gujarati community there was shared by a network of friends and diverse faiths. My Muslim hosts introduced me to one of the last survivors of Rangoon's Jain community. It was wonderfully ironic, given the prejudices against Muslims, which unfortunately persist among some of my relatives, that at both ends of the century, my family was helped in Burma by the kindness of Muslims.
MIRA KAMDAR RECALLS HER
UNIQUE
EXPERIENCE OF UNITY THROUGH SUFFERING
Photo: Dinodia.com/Sudharek Olwe
Y
oung Premchandbhai Khara was taken in and given a job by a Kathiawari Muslim merchant in Akyab. One hundred years later, I am taken in and offered all manner of assistance by a Muslim family in Rangoon. The family who helped me did so at considerable risk from a government that does not look kindly on fraternization between Burmese and foreigners, especially those holding US passports. Their generosity was humbling.
The Jain gentleman told me, "Any vegetarian who may come to this city, everyone knows, they can just come to my house and they will be fed. Just give me one hour's notice, and I will accommodate anyone." He lives in the 'Middle Block' of the former