(RNS) — Dr. Jasvant Modi has had a front-row seat to the development of the Indian neighborhood in america since he immigrated in 1975.
When he arrived, “there wasn’t a spot the place we may get collectively and rejoice our rituals or festivals or perhaps a social exercise,” he advised RNS. “It was the start of the Indian neighborhood.”
Step by step, Hindu immigrants sprouted a whole lot of homes of worship throughout the nation, from single-deity altars in outdated church buildings to sprawling campuses with structure rivaling India’s personal.
However nonetheless, Modi, a retired doctor who has lived in Los Angeles since 1983, mentioned Jains like himself — followers of a minority Indian faith that emphasizes nonviolence and who don’t consider in a ‘creator’ God — have been misunderstood. When requested “Are you a Hindu?” by his sufferers and colleagues, Modi responded, “Not precisely.”
“Lots of the rules of Jainism are type of associated to Buddhism and Hinduism, however we aren’t truly Hindu,” mentioned Modi.
This misunderstanding prolonged to educational settings, Modi mentioned, including that some spiritual research departments on the time hadn’t even mentioned Jainism.
Dr. Jasvant Modi. (Courtesy picture)
“We felt that college schooling is a gnan mandir (temple of data),” he mentioned. “Anyone must take an initiative to make ourselves recognized and to alter the narrative.”
A gaggle of Jain immigrants got down to make that change beginning within the early 2000s, and their grassroots efforts have paid off within the educational world. Since 2010, over 30 American universities have adopted both Jain research lectureships, endowed chairs, distinguished professorships or postdoctoral fellowships because of massive, particular person donations from Jain households like Modi’s.
Revealed to the general public final month, Modi donated $1.5 million to determine the Bhagawan Abhinandan Endowed Chair for Jain Research and Religions of South Asia on the College of California, Los Angeles, the primary endowed professorship within the discipline on the college.
Modi and his spouse, Meera, have additionally given a whole lot of hundreds of {dollars} to create college applications, together with at UC Santa Barbara and California State College’s Lengthy Seaside and Northridge campuses — donations he credit to his Jain beliefs.
“In Jainism, there’s a worth of aparigraha, which implies nonpossessiveness,” mentioned Modi, who owns and operates a number of assisted residing amenities. “Which means if in case you have greater than you want, it’s best to give for the advantage of different folks.”
Sulekh Jain, founding father of JAINA, the most important Jain group within the U.S., mentioned this Jain worth is exemplified within the nonattachment of the households’ names to their donations. The vast majority of the chairs or lectureships are named after the 24 tirthankaras of Jainism, the enlightened beings who conquered the trail of rebirth, moderately than the about 10 households largely liable for the presents throughout American instructional establishments.
“To today, absolute nonviolence, nonpossessiveness and common tolerance stay the guiding rules of our custom,” Jain mentioned on the inauguration of a Jain chair on the College of Texas at Austin on July 19. “Jainism stands among the many only a few faiths that outline moral values with such mental rigor and ethical readability.”
The fruits of the households’ labor are already seen. A professor educating the religion estimated that 90% of scholars had by no means heard of Jainism 15 years in the past, Jain mentioned. Now, symposiums and courses are stuffed every semester, even waitlisted.
“(The scholars) regarded on the issues of the world from their very own Judeo-Christian glasses,” Jain advised RNS. “And (the professor) mentioned, ‘I gave them one other pair of glasses — the glasses of interfaith, the glasses of nonviolence and the glasses of tolerance and residing collectively, respecting one another.’”
Immediately, there are not less than 45 college students pursuing a doctorate in Jain research within the U.S., he mentioned, and donors and leaders hope to encourage extra Jains to change into students within the discipline.
“Jains have at all times been businesspeople or engineers or docs or working in Silicon Valley,” he mentioned. “However there are some new youth who’re studying quite a bit about Jainism in order that they will use that of their apply. For instance, ‘Let me not create an organization that destroys the setting.’ That’s the place Jainism suits in — a lot of these values which can be sensible of their occupation as effectively.”
Among the many rising checklist of schools with Jain instructional choices, Rice College in Houston and Georgetown College in Washington, D.C., are set to begin applications later this yr.
An vital a part of some California applications, Modi mentioned, is for college students to work together with the Jain neighborhood and see their lived faith in motion — together with at LA’s greater than 45-year-old Jain neighborhood middle, the place he has lengthy been a member.
“I consider that each one religions, together with Sikhism, Buddhism, Hinduism and Jainism, must be studied as a result of no faith ought to exist in a vacuum,” Modi mentioned. “You may see how all religions, kind of, in case you take a look at the core values, (are) the identical by way of preserving humanity. We hope that this schooling will produce extra Nelson Mandelas, extra Martin Luther Kings and extra Gandhis, and can make the world higher.”
