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the publication of this thesis in 1959 scholars in social sciences from India and countries of the West were attracted to the study of Jaina Community from different points of view. In fact there were two major considerations in selecting Jaina Community as a separate subject of study by social scientists. In the first place, the Jaina Community was the only community in the world which actually practised non-violence in all its aspects and in all its activities. As such, the Jainas were the only persons who represented the non-violent way of life in this world of violence and destruction. Secondly, the Jaina Community had preserved its separate identity and culture through all these centuries inspite of the fact that the small minority community of Jainas had to live amidst the other major communities of India.
In view of these pressing and important academic considerations social scientists and especially Social Anthropologists, Sociologists and Social Historians from different parts of the world began to devote their serious attention to the study of Jaina Community from their particular points of view. These studies got impetus in 1974 due to the world wide observance of 2500th Nirvan Mahotsava of Lord Mahavira and then in 1980 due to the publication of the second edition of Dr. Vilas Sangave's pioneering book in the field viz. Jaina Community: A Social Survey'. As a consequence, these studies in 'Jaina Community, assumed the form of interdisciplinary studies-with actual fieldwork attached to it in some cases-and were carried out with devotion by the Universities and Advanced Research Institutes not only in India but also in Western Countries like U.S.A., England, France and Germany.
In this connection it is very heartening to find that the old, prestigeous and very well-equipped and developed Department of Social Anthropology of the ancient and world-reputed University of Cambridge in England took the lead in the matter, carried out extensive field-works for studying different aspects of social conditions actually prevailing in the Jaina Community at present in different parts of India and England, and even organised in June 1985 at Cambridge the "First International Seminar on Jainas as a Community". This International Seminar of an interdisciplinary character was the first attempt to bring together for discussion the leading social scientists and orientalists like Dr. Mrs.
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