ISJS, the preferred Global centre for Jain studies

The unique experiment 'ISJS' to take the academic studies of Jainism to the universities of the world was launched in January 2005. In 2009 ISJS made significant progress and expanded its reach in India and abroad. The graph below shows the progress in terms of the participants who have benefitted by our International Summer School for Jain Studies (ISSJS) programs so far.



Originally the Indian program was designed for a two month summer stay in India at Jain centres in Delhi, Jaipur and Varanasi. A typical ISSJS program included over 100 class room lectures by eminent Jain scholars, visits to temples, monks and nuns, laity, rituals, pilgrim places and social welfare organizations run by Jains.

With the growing class sizes and diverse interests of the participants, the classes for 2009 ISSJS were split into two tiers; one for the starters (of four weeks duration) who had little exposure to Jain studies and the other for advanced graduates and faculty members (of seven weeks duration) who had prior good experience of Jain studies /research/ teaching. The two tier programs extremely well received by all. In 2009 another combined program was started at Mahidol University Bangkok Thailand.

For 2010, another specially designed program for University of Ottawa, Canada was added. Further, the 4 weeks Introduction to Jainism program and the 7 weeks advance Jainism program were reduced to 3 weeks and 6 weeks respectively.

The response for admission for ISSJS2010 was overwhelming. Due to the physical facility constraints in India (in terms of accommodation), many applicants have been asked to wait for 2011. Thus ISSJS2010 will be the biggest with 60 undergraduate and graduate students, senior faculty and research scholars attending.

ISJS dedicated 2009 to network the Indian universities with the ISSJS program and to provide a linkage to the already developed network of foreign universities for exchange of Jain scholarship. Accordingly the following new initiatives were successfully implemented in 2009-10:

a. Holding National seminars at Indian Universities on 'Social Consciousness and Jainism'.
b. Establishment of an offshore ISJS campus at Mahidol University Bangkok Thailand
c. Inviting Jain scholars from Abroad to teach at ISJS programs in India.
d. Setting up the year round Ecumenical and Research Centre at Varanasi
e. ISSJS alumni scaling new heights.
f. Miscellaneous.

a. Ten National Seminars on Social Consciousness and Jainism (Feb. - Mar. 2010).

ISJS successfully organized the following ten national seminars at Indian universities across the country with the objective of networking ISJS with Indian universities to create a corpus of knowledge and researchers for international exchange and build a faculty resource base for ISSJS programs. The topics were chosen to build a corpus of knowledge on the subject to negate/counter some prevailing perception that Jainism as a religion mostly emphasizes detachment only and hence is of little practical value for day to day life.

Place	Institution/ University	Coordinator	Papers	Attendees	Theme
Jaipur	Rajasthan University Centre for Advanced Studies (P)	Prof Kusum Jain	6	50	Phil, History
Nagpur	RTS Nagpur University	Prof. B. C. Jain Mrs Manju Jain	6	80	History, health
Mumbai	Mumbai University	Prof. M. Katarnikar	8	50	Phil, M/Eco
Mumbai	Somaiya Vidhya Vihar	Dr. Geeta Mehta	10	60	Orgs, eco, phil
Bangalore	Jain University	Prof. Choodamani	10	65	Art, ethics
Chennai	Univ of Madras	Prof. Priya Jain	10	70	Orgs, social
Indore	Kunda Kunda Gyanpeeth	Prof. Anupam Jain	8	50	Eco/M/Social
Varanasi	Parashwanath Vidhyapeeth	Dr. S.P.Pandey	10	50	Phil, ethics
Moradabad	Teerthanker Mahaveer University	Prof. R.C.Mittal	6	75	Sc, religion
Delhi	L. B. Shastri Sanskrit Vidhyapeeth	Prof. V.S.Jain	10	60	Phil, org, edu.

br>These seminars were appreciated by all (participating universities, experts presenting the papers and attendees including local Jain luminaries) resulting in many universities showing keen interest in extending cooperation with ISJS to have international exposure (through ISJS) and enhance Jain studies. These seminars also provided encouragement to new and young scholars to conduct further research in Jainism. Three scholarships of Rs 50000 each per annum were also instituted by Jain community to support PhD students for conducting research on Jain archaeology and history outside India.

Formal agreements of cooperation with six Universities have been made already. As a result, ISSJS2010 Classes will be conducted and participants housed at two of the Universities (Somaiya Vidhya Vihar Mumbai University and Teerthankar Mahaveer University). In 2011, ISJS is also planning to hold ISSJS 2011 classes at University of Madras as well. All the papers presented at the above Seminars are being compiled for publication by year end.