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CHAPTER 31
RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES
India
The majority of the Halari Visa Oshwals practice the Jain religion. But because of poverty and lack of education during the early part of the settlement in Halar the true practice of religion was forgotten. Also because of a contemptuous attitude by the well to do fellow Jains many even became followers of the Swaminarayanis and Vashnavis.
There are Jain organizations and foundations that will voluntarily come to rescue and help the community to regain faith in the religion. Jain Shreyskar Mandal of Mahesana is one of them. They took on the task of helping the Halari Visa Oshwal community. Arrangements were made to send teachers, distribute religious books and conduct classes and religious discourses in various villages. The entire financial burden was borne by the Mandal. When the Oshwal community became financially sound the community took over the financial responsibility from the Mandal.
Members of the Halari Oshwal community who had settled down in Jamnagar lived in the area called Digvijay Plots located outside the Khambhalia Gate. As religious activities were increasing and they were not welcomed in the temples, which already existed in the town, the community needed a temple of their own. A separate fund was established. A resolution to build the temple in the compound of the boys' boarding house was rejected by the Board on the ground that the boarding house belonged to people of all sects, while the temple was going to be of one particular sect (Svetamber Deravasi).
