Mohandas Gandhi, formed in a Gujarati household where Jain practice stood close beside Hindu devotion, made ahimsa the engine of a political method that changed two empires. His spiritual mentor was the Shvetambara layman and poet Shrimad Rajchandra, whom Gandhi credited above every other modern teacher; Gandhi's fasts, vows, and doctrine of nonviolent resistance carry the Jain discipline into world history.
Tagged: Jain Shvetambara
The Event
- Date
- 1869-1948 (exact)
- Also called
- Gandhi and Jainism
- Era
- Modern; Standard periodization of Jain history
- Location
- India and South Africa; today India
- Traditions
- Jainism
- Streams
- Shvetambara
- Key figures
- Mohandas K. Gandhi, Shrimad Rajchandra
Primary Sources
- The Jain inscriptional and temple record of the period.
Secondary Sources
- Cort, John E. Jains in the World: Religious Values and Ideology in India. Oxford University Press, 2001.
- Wiley, Kristi L. Historical Dictionary of Jainism. Scarecrow Press, 2004.
Provenance: HIST-0615; confidence 0.95; accessed 2026-10-27.
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- Shvetambara canon committed to writing History Event