Invitation To The Workshop "THE JAINA AND THE BRITISH"

Invitation to the workshop
"THE JAINA AND THE BRITISH"
Collaboration and Conflict Concealment and Contribution during the 19th and early 20th century
19./20. February 2010
University of Tübingen
Institute of Asian and Oriental Studies (AOI)
Department of Indology and Comparative Religion

Gartenstraße 19, 72074 Tübingen, Germany

• Which Jaina entrepreneurs were among the most successful middle­men on behalf of the British East India Company, and the Empire? How did these successful Jaina invest their profits for religious or for social purposes?
  
  
• Are the life histories of influential Jaina merchants exceptional or do they reflect the general history of their local communities?
  
  
• How do the Jaina perceive their own role in the 19th century? Do oral and written family histories, as produced during the last 150 years, provide answers and questions?
  
  
• What kind of references to the Jaina community can be traced in journals of British travellers, missionaries, or British East India Company employees during the 19th century? How are "the Jainas" characterized in these accounts?
  
  
• How do these findings correspond with those data of German sources from the late 19th and early 20th centuries? Why were German indologists more successful in getting access to Jaina manuscripts than the British researchers?
  
  
• Which - newly formed or existing - Jaina institutions, organisations or outstanding personalities openly promoted the study of sacred texts in spite of the opposition among orthodox Jaina?
  
  
• Did the "discovery" of "Jainism" as an independent religious tradition have an effect on the Jaina's entrepreneurial position within the colonial economy?
  
  
• To what extent do recent Jaina demands for the legal acknowledge­ment of their minority status refer to findings of the late 19th century scholars?                         
• Which - newly formed or existing - Jaina institutions, organisations or out­standing personalities successfully promoted the revival of the almost extinct mendicant orders during the 19th century?

For further details on the content of the workshop please read the detailed position paper attached to this invitation.

Prof. Dr. Klaus Butzenberger
Dr. des. Andrea Luithle-Hardenberg
Dr. Heike Moser

Click on image to download the PDF.

Deadline and Organisation

1. We invite all interested scholars to propose a presentation of 30 minutes including time of discussion. Interested scholars without a presentation are also welcome. We kindly request you to notify us before 30/11/2009.
2. Participant with a presentation are kindly requested to submit an abstract of 200-250 words until 30/10/2009 to Dr. des. Andrea Luithle-Hardenberg at .
3. The language of the workshop will be English.
4. We are intending to publish all papers presented in the workshop in a joint volume.
5. The final program will be circulated by 15/12/2009.
6. The workshop will be held at the Castle Hohentūbingen.
7. For further questions regarding the organisation of the workshop please do not hesitate to contact Jainl .