________________
156
THE JAINA GAZETTE
set fire to or otherwise destroyed by bigoted non-Jains. In spite of ages of acrimony and antagonism on the part of non-Jains, the Jaina works are still unequalled in point of literary grace, dignity of style, wealth of beauty, philosophic grandeur, and sublimity of thought. The scions of such an advanced and cultured community are now passing their days quite calmly like pigmies in a land in which they once lived Anteus-like.
It needs no mention that education is the root cause of all progress, communal or national. Again, once a community or a nation has a thorough and well-organised system of education to be worked out as the first principle in its regeneration, its social, political and economic progress is sure and certain though its course may in some cases be retarded on account of unforeseen or unavoidable circumstances. Educational progress should always precede social reorganisation. And any leader that strives to eradicate alleged social-evils before the mass is fairly educated to assimilate his principles and act upon them, is verily attempting to kill the patient with an overdose of prescription. Therefore we would earnestly request all our leaders to work for the educational progress of the entire Jaina community. Once they achieve fair success in this direction all other progress will follow in due course.
To be brief we want more educational institutions, more secondary schools and colleges and above all we want a University of our own, which will be a Jain institution in every sense of the term. While we do not disparage donations to non-Jaina institutions we only want to emphasize on the proverb,
Charity begins at home." Therefore we would earnestly appeal to our leaders to convene a conference of the Jains of all sects to meet at Calcutta during the Christmas week this year, and draft a scheme for a Jain University.
"
*
*
*
*
The following is an extract from the Journal of the Bombay Historical Society Vol. I No. 2:
-
Did Jaina bastis serve as educational institutions? If so, what was the method followed in teaching? What were the subjects taught, etc?
Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
www.umaragyanbhandar.com
