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No. 1732.
3rd. May 1927. To,
K. B. MARZBAN Esq. B, A, Chairman, School Leaving Examination Board,
University of Bombay. BOMBAY. Sir,
With reference to the letter of your Board No. 596 dated 20th April 1927, we the undersigned beg to bring to your notice the strong objections of the Jain Community all over India and in particular Gujerat to a book like "Gujerat-no-Nath" by Mr. K. M. Munshi being prescribed as a text book for study at any of the University Examinations. The lower the examination and by consequence the younger the age of the candidates studying for it, the force of our objections to the book is obviously all the greater.
You will realize our objections to the said book and other similar book of Mr. Munshi from a copy of the report prepared by the Sub-committee appointed on 29-8-26 by the Standing Committee of our Conference. A printed copy of the said report is here with enclosed and marked A.
We may mention here that Mr. M. G. Kapadia who has made a dissenting minute to the said report has changed his view and has sent his explanation to Jain Dharma Prakash in Chaitra Issue wherein he states that the writings of Mr. Munshi are such as to offend Jain feelings.
Without going into the details as regards other books of Mr. Munshi referred to in the report of our Sub-Committee, we will specially invite the attention of your Board to our objections as regards "Gujerat-no-nath ”. The author has therein depicted Udayan who is well known in the history of Gujarat as a Jain Minister of great calibre and political insight so low and wicked as to get the houses of Mohomedans burnt and killing Mussalmans and that a particular surviving Mussalman victim by name Khatib is made to reach Jaisingh's Durbar where justice is meted out to him and his community. Prof. N. B. Divetia in his prefece to the said book as also the author's note on page 78 leads one to believe that the author was not drawing, on his own imagination for such acts of cruelty on the part of the Jains but had relied on a book called Jame-ul-Hikayat for drawing materials. On reference to the said book we find that the writer of the said book has depicted that the fireworshippers a term which is never applied
