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Part IV. Rise and Glory
member of Vidhan Sabha (Legislative Assembly) from Madhya Pradesh. In 1982 A.D. he worked very hard to establish the Svetamber Murtipujak Jain Samaj in Pandhurna.
Nemu Chandaria: Nemubhai, Deputy Chairman of the Institute of Jainology, U.K, was born in the small village of Ravalser, near Jamnagar, Gujarat, India, in 1938 A.D. He is closely associated with the activities of the International Sacred Literature Trust (ISLT) and was instrumental in getting the Jain scripture the Tattvartha Sutra translated and published jointly under the ISLT. In 1993 A.D. Nemubhai co-coordinated the Jain participation in the Parliament of World Religions in Chicago, and again, in 1999 A.D., in South Africa. Nemubhai coordinated the visit of the Jain delegation to the Vatican in February 1995 A.D. for an audience with His Holiness the Pope John Paul II and that relationship between the Vatican and the Jains is still very active.
Her Majesty the Queen Elizabeth II honored Nemubhai Chandaria, on her birthday, as an officer of the Order of the British Empire (O.B.E) for his work with Institute of Jainology for creating awareness of Jainism.
On the occasion of the celebration of the twenty-sixth Centenary of the birth of Bhagwan Mahavir the Prime Minister of India, Atal Behari Vajpayee, conferred the Jain Ratna award on Nemubhai in appreciation of his services to the Jain community.
Every single person who left his or her homeland and traveled far on a foreign soil in early part of the twentieth century is a hero in the mind of this author. There are many torchbearers Gjyotirdharo) of Halari Visa Oshwal community who gave selfless services to the community. They all worked very hard to bring this community, which had fallen to the bottom and was neglected by all, to the height it is today. It is a shame that their names cannot be included in this book.
