Topic started by Mahavir Sanglikar (@ 61.11.16.90) on Wed Jan 23 03:59:06 .
All times in EST +10:30 for IST.
Recently I visited my native place Samdoli near
Sangali in South Maharashtra. Before visiting Samdoli,I had read in some Jain discussion groups that Jains should not join military and they should not do agriculture. So when I reached to Samdoli I started to collect information on occupations of Jains in Samdoli. Before releasing the facts, Let me tell you about Samdoli village.
Samdoli is a typical Jain village of South
Maharashtra. It is called a Jain village because more than 70% of the people in the village are Jains.(There are about 450 Jain villages in South
Maharashtra and North Karnatak and 12% of total Jains in India live in these region according to the census) Another 10% people of Samdoli who are not Jains by birth but follow Jainism. They are mainly Kolis(Adivasis), Dhangars (Shepherds), Sutars (Carpenters)& Nais (Barbers).
Being a Jain village, there are many Jain activities in Samdoli. There are three Jain temples. One of them was established in 14th century. The people of Samdoli are very religious and as a results Samdoli has given many Digambar Jain Munis, Kshullaks,Ailakas, Brahmacharis, Aryikas etc.to Jain community right from it’s establishment. Right now three Digambar Jain Munis are from Samdoli. Samdoli is the place where Acharya Shantisagarji, the first Digambar
Jain Acharya of modern age got Acharya pad
during his Chaturmas in Samdoli in 1926.
In Samdoli there is branch of Veer Seva Dal, the
strongest & largest Jain youth organization or this region. It runs two pathshalas in Samdoli. Most of the young Jains, including the non Jain followers of Jainism in Samdoli are related with various activities of Veer Seva Dal.
Now I would like to tell you about occupations of
Jains in Samdoli. All the Jains in Samdoli are born farmers. Agriculture is their traditional occupation.100% of Samdolian Jains are literate. A large number of them are teachers and some are Engineers,Advocates, Doctors etc. But all of them have their own farms. Many of them are working in nearby cities and on weekends and holidays they themselves work in their farms.
During my visit to Samdoli I met Vidyadhar Upadhye,one of my friends. He is from a Jain priest family. So he knows Jain Philosophy very well. Although it is a priest family, they have their own farm and what is the occupation of Vidyadhar? He is a military man. He told me that 10 young Jains from Samdoli are in Indian Military and 8 of them are in infantry. I
remembered younger brother of my grandfather, who was a soldier in Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose’s Azad Hind Sena. ( He is the first Samdolian who visited foreign countries) I remembered a cousin of my father who was a soldier and who took part in 1965 Indo-Pak War. I remembered Captain Bhupal Patil, Husband of my father’s sister who took part in 1971 Indo-Pak War. I remembered one of my maternal uncle’s close Jain friend who was a fighter pilot in Indian Air force. I
remembered my friend Major Praksh Patil (retired) who helps and guides young Jains to Indian Arm Forces. The list is very big. But it is not the tradition of Jains of Samdoli only,or not the tradition of my relatives and Jain friends
only. It is tradition of this entire region. Sainik Takli is a village in Kolhapur District. The name of this village itself tells about the popular occupations of people there. About 30% of people in Sainik Takli are Jains. Minimum 1 person of every family, including Jain families in this village are in Military.
And this is not tradition of Jains only of this
region. This is tradition of Jains all over India. I remeber my first Tamil Jain Friend, Ravichandran was a capton in Indian Military. While writing these article I got a news from Palliwal Jain Patrika. Lieutenant Goutam
Jain, 22 died in Kashmir while fighting with
terrorists. he was from a very religious and very rich family of Indore. He was son of Mr. Sumit Prakash Jain, Vice President of Khethan Chemicals & Fertilizers Ltd. Goutam was student of National
Defense Academy, Pune and Indian Military Academy
Dehra Dun. There are many such Goutam Jains in Indian Armed Forces. You can find many Jains there right from Soldiers to Major Generals, Fighter Pilots to Air Vice Marshals, Sailors to Admirals.
So farming and joining Armed Forces are not rare
things for Jains. Jainism do not opposes to these
occupations. Both the occupations where taught by
Rishab Dev. But some of us are saying different things now. It is their partial knowledge of Jain philosophy and Jain community. They don’t know much about history of Jains. I suggest such people to know about our history and know about Jains belonging to other linguistic groups and castes.
Mahavir Sanglikar
Tell your friend about this topic