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Hence the above proposal for two separate organisations for both, so that whilst the Government servants may not be able to join the Jain Political Association, they may be able freely to join the Jain Literature Society.
Need for a Separate Political Association. Without taking its proper share in the public life of the country, the Jain Community is bound to lose its entity.
The Jain Community has been neglected by the Congress. The working committee of the Congress issued invitations to a good many Associations all over the country to meet in the All-parties conference last year. But they did not issue any invitation to a single Jain Association. But they are not to blame for this. The Jains have not a single representative Association of their own worth the name to whom such an invitation might be issued.
The Jain Community made several representations to the Government during the past regarding its political rights as a minority, but now with the demise of the one able Leader Mr. J. L. Jaini, it has fallen in such a lethargy that it could not see its way to make a single representation to the Indian Statutory Commission, and as such there is no likelihood of any provision being made for the Jains, as that for other minorities in the future constitution of the country.
A Jain political conference was also established by P. Ajit Pershad about ten years ago, but it held only one session first and last. It did nothing to advance the political rights of the Jain Community or of the country at large. Hence it failed for want of the sympathy of those on whose behalf it purported to act, and is now as good as dead.
Here it must be clear that political advancement is as much necessary for the uplift of a Community as religious, social and educational reforms are, and that without political
advancement the Jain Community cannot be treated with Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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