________________
Their Diversity : 31 businessmen or traders and so, due to their activity, they are members of the “Vaniya” or “Vanika” caste, with sub-groups like the “Shah” (money-lenders), the “Bhandari" (treasurers), the “Metha” (accountants), the “Jhaveri ” (diamond merchants), etc. 90% of the Jains in U.K and USA are either “Oshwals" or "Vaniks”.
Each of these castes and sub-castes, groups and sub-groups, tends to constitute autonomous entities, with their own national and local associations, temples, reviews, rituals, etc. Copying Hindu habits, some of them practice endogamy, exclusion, non-commensality etc. We can see such tendencies surviving in communities that have emigrated from India. London, for example, has a large “Oshwal" community with its own temple, its periodical and religious festivals, like in the cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata where different Jain castes and sub-castes are more or less ignoring each other.
Some castes, like the “Porvads” and the “Humbad, exist between Digambara and Śvetāmbara. As mentioned by Dr. Vilas Sangave, in his book “Aspects of Jaina Religion”, there are also some of these sections among Hindus like “Vaniks and various others.
This diversity, that dispersion in space and religious communities, plus the fact that Jains are relatively few in number and have never tried, until recently, to proselytise, is not favourable to their expansion, in a world looking for new ideas and new spiritual values and flooded with religions that multiply their speeches, publications and propaganda on the same principles of non-violence, tolerance, detachment and respect for life and environment. To react against such a situation, some great Jain lay leaders, especially in the USA, hope to see a limitation of doctrinal quarrels between Digambara and Svetāmbara and an actual continuation of their faith in the
Jain Education International
For Private & Personal Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
