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Part IV. Rise and Glory
and was more in touch with things happening in the outside world a sense of revolt was rising in them. They were appalled by many old customs. They wanted to abolish child marriages, underage marriages, mismatch-marriages (marriages of young girls to old men), holding feasts after people died, and other customs. They wanted widows to be allowed to remarry. An organization called Visa Oshwal Yuvak Mandal was formed in Nairobi on February 1928.
The Youth league started many activities in Nairobi. Athletic activities were started on the grounds of Jainshala. A debating society was formed. A newsletter called Agad Dhaso (move forward) was started in 1929 A.D. under the editorship of Amratlal Raishi Shah. In the beginning it published handwritten articles due to lack of funds. To increase the distribution in wider areas, some of the members traveled 10 or 15 miles on foot. The articles were revolutionary written by young people. The older generation did not like it and made every effort to stop these activities even confining the leaders to their homes. In spite of all the obstacles the newsletter continued circulating for a year and a half but due to adverse circumstances it had to be stopped. But the spirit among the young people remained alive.
Eventually the first Yuvak Mandal died away and a vacuum was left behind. In 1935 A.D. a second young people's association was formed called the Jain Youth League. A monthly publication was also started called Jyotsna (moonlight). But due to lack of spirit neither the association nor the publication lasted very long.
The expansion of Settlement: Initially the settlement of Oshwal community was confined to Mombasa, Nairobi and a few in Mwanza, a small town near the shores of Lake Victoria. As railway extended to places like Thika, Kisumu, Nanyuki, Thomson Falls and others, the early settlers followed the railway, catered to the railway laborers, and started opening small businesses all over in
