________________
ell
Pgo) eds beloved on the conference also unanimously passed a resolution at certain pernicious social customs should be stopped or discouraged viz., early marriages, the marriages of old persons, the sale of girls 'in marriages, feasts on account of deaths, weeping and beating the breast at deaths and unnecessary expenditure on social ceremonies.
The Jain's number about 15 lacs in the whole of India, and by their prominent commercial position, great wealth, and their strong attachment to their faith, they form one of the most important communities of India. Their religion does not recognize caste distinctions, though in practice they obserye them like the orthodox Hindus. The resolutions passed by them do credit to their sound common sense, and many of them are such as other communities may with advantage adopt. With the purely sectarian resolutions, the public at large is not likely to concern itself. Complete toleration and sympathy is the spirit which every educated Indian, be he a Hindu, a Mahomedan, or a Parsee, will show towards them. Though religious tenets are divurgent, truth is one, and all sincere lovers of the latter are now agreed that the interests of truth will be best served, if each religious community honestly looks into the foundations of its faith, their compatibility with other bran. ches of knowledge, and the reason for and against each tenet. There are however other resolutions of the conference, where it is on common ground with the followers of other faiths. The necessity of a proper system of industrial training is one of these, and here the Jains have every thing to gain by making common cause with the rest of India. The education of women is another of these subjects, and here too we think that they cannot detach themselves from the rest of India, In the mat: ter of stopping pernicious customs the Jains are in the same condition as the majority of the people of India, but we think the desired end will be best attained, if they pursue methods which appear to them best calculated to accelerate their pace. One of the prominent speakers at the conference dwelt upon the great importance of physical culture, and here too the Jain
Jain Education International
For Personal & Private Use Only
www.jainelibrary.org
