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Jainism: The Cosmic Vision Bonny, the President of the Conference of world religions, was impressed by him. At the time of the famine of 1896-97 in India, Mr. Bonny was the president of the Famine Relief Committee founded in America by Virchand Gandhi. This committee immediately sent to India forty thousand Rupees and a steamer full of corn. During this travel Virchand Gandhi delivered as many as 535 lectures. He had the command of fourteen languages including Gujarati, Hindi, Bengali, English, Sanskrit and French
Thus, a young man of twenty-nine, preached religion in foreign countries in the face of opposition from his own community who objected to travel abroad. He toured abroad trice to spread the message of Jain Philosophy and he was equally a spokesman of Indian Philosophy.
The short life span of Virchand Raghavji Gandhi is full of multifarious achievements. He was the first graduate of the Jain society to get his BA with Hons. in 1884. When his father died in 1890, he did not allow the primitive practices of wailing and breast-beating during mourning. At the age of twenty-one, as the secretary of Shri Jain Association of India', he worked for the abolition of poll-tax levied on pilgrims at Palitana.
Annoyed by poll-tax and other forms of harassment, the Anandji Kalyanji firm had filed a suit against the rule of Palitana. But Sursinghji, the ruler (Thakor) of Palitana, was a right-hand man of the Political Agent. The Political Agent did not give fair justice. Virchand Gandhi took up the problem. In those days to protest against the dictates of the ruler was to invite severe punishment and even death. He often went up from Mahuva to Palitana and prepared the ground for
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Virchand Raghavji Gandhi compromise. He met Lord Ray, the governor of Bombay, and Colonel Watson, the Political Agent and made a strong representation and eventually forced the abolition of the polltax. An English man set up at Mt. Sametshikhar, a place of pilgrimage in Bihar, a factory for extracting pig's fat on order. Virchand Gandhi went all the way of Calcutta to have the work on the project stopped. He stayed in Calcutta for six months studying the papers regarding the case and learnt the Bengali language and ultimately got this verdict issued.
"Sametshikhar is a place of Jain pilgrimage and nobody else has any right to interfere there." He did not give up his fight until he achieved his objectives and got the factory closed down. He brought the dispute regarding the temple at Kavi to a happy resolution. He attended the international Commerce Conference as an all-Asia delegate. As a delegate from Bombay, he attended the Indian National Congress held at Pune in 1895. He was a strong advocate of Rashtriya Mahasabha or the congress. He seems to have come in intimate contact with Mahatma Gandhi. In a letter written to Vrichand Gandhi's son, Gandhiji sends his blessing and asks:
'Have you adopted any ideals of your father?"
Virchand Gandhi passed away in 1901 when he was only thirty seven. He rendered yeoman service to India and Jainism by interpreting Indian culture and religion in its true spirit to the western worlds. In this respect, he enjoys the pride of place in the galaxy of Indian thinkers and philosophers and his name will continue to be remembered as a great champion of Jain religion.
The late Virchand Raghavji Gandhi was fondly
