Selected Speeches of V R Gandhi

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi
Publisher: Vallabhsuri Smarak Nidhi Godiji Jain Derasar Mumbai

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SHRI VIRCHAND GANDHI'S SPEECH AT THE WORLD CONGRESS OF RELIGIONS HELD IN
CHICAGO, 1893
Mr. President, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I will not trouble you with a long speech. I, like my respected friends, Mr. Muzumdar and others, come from India, the mother of religions. I represent Jainism, a faith older than Buddhism, similar to it in its ethics, but different from it in its psychology, and professed by a million and a half of India's most peaceful and law-abiding citizens. You have heard so many speeches from eloquent members, and I shall speak later on at some length. I will, at present, only offer on behalf of my community and their high priest, Muni Atmaramji, whom I especially represent here, our sincere thanks for the kind welcome you have given us. This spectacle of the learned leaders of thought and religion meeting together on a common platform, and throwing light on religious problems, has been the dream of Atmaramji's life. He has commissioned me to say to you that he offers his most cordial congratulations on his own behalf, and on behalf of the Jaina community, for your having achieved the consummation of that grand idea, of convening a Parliament of Religions.
I wish that the duty of addressing you on the history and the tenets of the Jaina faith had fallen on that able person than on me. The inclemency of the climate, and the distant voyage which one has