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NOTES AND NEWS
139 Jain Dharmasala in Simla. We have published elsewhere an appeal from the members o! the Digambar Jain Sabha, Simla, lor funds to erect a Dharmasala, in the summer capital of the Government of India. The advantages of a Dharm isala are too many to be enumerated here. The difficulties which people undergo in a strange place for want of a convenient place of stay and rest can better be imagined than told. The Jains, Digambar as well as Swetambar, will be doing a charity of permanent worth and in no way less meritorious than any other kind of charity by contributing liberally to the fund of the Dharmasala.
Jain procession stopped in Bayana. The Secretary of B. B & O. Digambar Jain Sabha, Calcutta, writes:
The Jains of Bayana (a town in Bharatpur State) applied with the previous consent of other communities for permission of Jain procession to the Superintendent of Police Bharatpur who, recommended the application after careful investigations to the Judicial Secretary with the remarks that no other community had any objection to this procession. Thereupon the Judicial Secretary granted permission.
When, however, all arrangements in connection with the procession were complete, some interested Hindus, all of a sudden, approached the Dewan Saheb to stop the procession ; at the same time they began to threaten the Jains who are in a great minority with violence. On the attitude adopted by these mischievous Hindus at the eleventh hour, the Jains in order to avoid a communal disturbance thought it prudent to postpone the procession temporarily.
Now it has been ordered that any one who has objection against the Jain procession being allowed on the public road should file such objection by the 27th August 1929. The question as it concerns the entire Jain Community of India has attracted the attention of the Hindu leaders who have unanimously condemned the attitude of Bayana Hindus in obstructing
the Jain procession and questioning their legitimate right. Shree Sudharmaswami Gyanbhandar-Umara, Surat
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