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Even the short life span of Shri Virchand Raghavji Gandhi is full of multifarious glorious achievements. He was the first graduate of the Jain society who got his B. A. with Hons, in 1884. When his father died in 1890 he abandoned in those days bad custom of weeping and breast-beating in mourning. It is no ordinary feat. At the age of twenty one, as the secretary of Shri Jain Association of India' he worked for the abolition of poll-tax levied on pilgrims to Palitana. Annoyed by poll-tax and other harassments the Anandji Kalyanji firm had filed a suit against the ruler of Palitana.
But Sursinghji, the ruler (Thakor) of Palitana was a right-hand man of the Political Agent. The Political Agent did not give fair justice. Virchandbkai took up the problem, In those days to rise against the ruler was to engage in an encounter with death. He often went from Mahuva to palitana and prepared a baekground for compromise. He met Lord Ray, the Governor of Bombay and Colonel Watson, the Political Agent, made a strong representation, and got the poll-tax abolished. An English man installed on Mt. Sametshikhar a factory for extracting pig's fat on order; to stop it Virchand went to Calcutta. In order to understand the documents, he stayed in Calcutta for six months and learnt the Bengali Language and ultimately got the judgement-Sametshikar is a place of Jain pilgrimage and nobody else has a right to interfere there." He became quiet only after getting this judgement and after getting the factory closed down. He brought the dispute regarding the temple at Kavi to a happy soultion.
Virchandhai Gandhi passed away in the midst of his prime youth in 1901 when he was only thirty seven. He rendered yeomen service to India and Jainism by interpreting this to the western world. Indian culture and religion in its true spirit opened the doors of Indian philosophy to the West. In this respect he enjoys pride of place in the galaxy of Indian thinkers and philosophers and will as such be long remembered in history.
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