Address by Nemu Chandaria

Ahimsa Day 2008   15th October
Portcullis House
House of Commons
London
                                                                                                                       
Full Text of Nemu Chandaria’s address welcoming the guests and outlining the Institute’s achievements during the past twelve months. He is the Deputy Chairman of the Institute.

On behalf of our chairman, Mr R.P.Chandaria I have pleasure in welcoming you all to this sixth annual Ahimsa Day celebrations in the House of Commons. 

To commemorate the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, last year the United Nations declared 2nd October as International Ahimsa Day. The Institute decided that it would celebrate the achievements of Ghandhiji by presenting an AHIMSA AWARD each year to an international personality who had lived a life dedicated to non-violence.  

Those of you who were present on this occasion last year may be aware that two awards were declared in absentia: one to Dr Nelson Mandela and the other to HH The Dalai Lama.  We were fortunate that His Holiness granted us an audience on 21st May 2008 when he expressed his appreciation for the award as well as discussing the subtlety of non-violence in Jain philosophy and its relevance to contemporary times. 

Our theme this year is the  ALLEVIATION OF GLOBAL POVERTY.   

Earlier this year, the Prime Minister called for  action at the UN from global leaders to support the commitment to alleviating global poverty. This call  resonates with AHIMSA. Alleviating poverty is a duty for all those that believe in non-violence as well as compassion.  

The Institute supported by various Hindu Organisations, sent by e-mail a letter with a Flyer ‘BE THAT CHANGE’ to about 100,000 Jains all over the globe requesting active part in achieving Millennium Development Goals by any one or all three i.e. Switching of lights at 900pm, skipping a meal or sponsoring a child in india. . The response has been encouraging.  

This year’s AHIMSA AWARD  will go to a Jain ascetic who has been called a living saint by many. We are delighted that he  has agreed to receive this award and sent us a message which will be read later in the programme.  

The past 12 months have continued to provide the Institute with further progress and, if I may, I shall spend a few minutes giving you a brief update. 

After we published DISCOVER JAINISM, for the primary Religious Education curriculum, the London Boroughs of Harrow and Barnet both organised a formal launch. It has since continued to be taken up by many schools around the country.

The second book in the series – Jain Tales – is expected next year and we hope that it too has equal success.  

Many of you will remember that we catalogued the Jain Manuscipts collection at the British Library and this was launched by Prince Philip and the Prime Minister of India. We are now in the final stages of producing the catalogue of the Jain collections in the Wellcome Trust. We plan to publish this sometime next year.  

Following this we hope to move our attention to the collections in the Bodleian Library, Oxford and the collections in the Florence University and the National Library in Florence. 

We also announced last year that we wanted to digitise some of these manuscripts so that we can widen access to them.We am delighted to announce that we were successful in receiving a grant of £375,000 from the Heritage Lottery Fund as part of the £700,000 JAINpedia project. 

The project was formally launched on 17th September at the V&A Museum and some of you were present there.  We hope to be able to launch the first version of JAINpedia next year, where we will be able to show you some of the finest Jain manuscripts held by UK institutions with background material. We will then tour this project around the UK and hold exhibitions at the holding institutions. 

We have also expanded our education portfolio over the past year and held our certificate courses in Jainism in the Far East. We ran 10 session courses in SINGAPORE, KUALA LUMPUR and PERTH.  There has been tremendous feedback which is available on our brand new website for you all to read. 

We also continue to partner with leading education and learning organisation in the UK:  Birkbeck College, School of Oriental and African Studies, Victoria and Albert Museum, The British Library, The Wellcome Trust Library, the Bodleian Library at Oxford, Religious Education (R E) Council of England and Wales, Qualifications and Curriculum Authority (QCA), Interfaith Network of UK, and several Government Departments. 

We continue to pursue our aim of promoting Jain culture, art and education in order to make more widely known the philosophy of Bhagwan Mahavir as it continues to be relevant today as it was some 2,500 years ago. I sincerely hope that you will continue to support and participate in our work. 

Ladies and Gentlemen:

 I welcome you all once again.  Please sit back, relax and enjoy the presentations this evening.
Thank you.