________________
394
SVASTI - Essays in Honour of Prof. Hampa Nagarajaiah
moment. It felt like looking for a needle in the haystack. But patience, openness and empathy were soon to be rewarded.
Jains in Antwerp
This article is giving an overview of the Jain Community in Antwerp/B. I lived very close to this community for four years. To collect the data I needed took me several years, from 2004 to 2006. I was able to collect them mainly by participating observation, by active participation, and by many talks and visits with the Jain families. This is an explorative study focusing on the religious life, the construction of the temple, and the guru network of the Jains in Antwerp In comparison with the Jains in the USA and England,' the Jain diaspora in Antwerp is very small. The number of Jains living out of India reportedly varies between 70,000 and 80,000 (Dundas, 2002) and one million (Jain Center, Toronto, 1998). There are no exact statistical data available around the Jains, but the following figures are acceptable: There are around seven million Jains worldwide. Around six million Jains are living in India, which is less than 1% of the whole population. The largest Jain diaspora is to be found in North America, comprising 60,000 people, the second largest – 10,000 people - in the UK, followed by 10,000 in East Africa and 310 families in Antwerp. Till today, no research has been done around the Jain immigrants in Antwerp. There are only studies available around Germans, French, Polish, Italians, Jews, and Turkish and Moroccan migrants in Antwerp. According to the mailing list? of the Indian Community, there are 310 Jain families living in Antwerp. All Jains in Antwerp have come directly from Gujarat to Antwerp for diamond trade. Most of them came to Antwerp at the end of the 1970s or in the early 1980s. Most of them are between 40 and 60 years old. In the meantime, many of them got the Belgian nationality or an unlimited residence permit. In the early days, the migrants settled close to the diamond centre, --where many Jewish families live as well. After some time, the Indian migrants bought land in the district of Wilrijk, where they proceeded to build their villas. Today many Jain families also live in Edegem and Schoten, districts where many villas are to be found, too. The diamond business in Antwerp refers back to a tradition of four centuries. In the book 'Brilliant Story of Antwerp', one can find an exact documentation of the historical development of the diamond business in Antwerp. History shows that the diamond trade in Antwerp has always been in the hands of migrants up to the present date. The Flemish port on the Schelde river, with its convenient infrastructure and its
Jacobsen, Knut A.; Kumar, P. Pratap: South Asians in the Diaspora: Histories and Religious Traditions, Leiden: Brill, 2004: 4-7. 2 Antwerp Indian Association (Hg.), 2005.
Kockelbergh, Iris; Vleeschdrager, Eddy; Walgrave, Jan, The Brilliant Story of Antwerp Diamonds. Antwerp: MIM, 1992.
