Systems of Indian Philosophy

Author(s): Virchand R Gandhi
Publisher: Mahavir Jain Vidyalay

Page 24

EXPONENT OF JAINISM TO THE WEST
(Tribute to Shri Virchand R. Gandhi)
Certain personalities leave indelible footprints on the sands of time, their legacy is not affected by the constantly revolving wheel of time.
At the World Religions Conference held in Chicago, U.S.A., almost a century ago, America, and the west, for the first time heard the determined, spirited, resonant voice of ancient India, and the message of Indian philosophy and culture. Two Indian delegates participating at this conference awakened the Western world to the spiritual heritage of India. One of these was Swami Vivekanand whose success in the World Religions Conference of Chicago is fresh in everyone's memory today. But the contribution of another Indian delegate to the same Conference, Shri Virchand Raghavji Gandhi, the representative of the Jain religion, has a claim to equal attention by virtue of the success he achieved at the Conference and also by his work as a religious thinker.
Hundred years ago in 1893, more than three thousand delegates of different nations and religions had assembled at the conference. The conference was inaugurated on 11th September, 1893, and Virchand Gandhi, Swami Vivekanand, P. C. Majmudar and other eminent scholars from India were present as distinguished participants. The aim of this religious conference was to impart to the world the knowledge of different religions, and to promote a feeling of fraternity between followers of diverse religious persuasion, and so to pave the way for world peace.
Virchand Gandhi, a young man of twenty-nine, impressed the delegates not only by his eloquence, but also by the sheer weight of his scholarship. He wore a long and loose kurta, a white shawl on his shoulder, a golden-bordered Kathiawadi turban on his head, and country shoes. This external appearance bore the imprint of India. The sholarship, the impartiality of outlook and the oratorical skill of this man facinated the delegates at the Conference of World Religions. An American newspaper wrote, "of all Eastern scholars it was this youth whose lecture on Jain faith and conduct was listened to with the interest engaging the greatest attention."
Virchand Gandhi talked about the doctrines of Jainism in such
21