The relationships of the Jains with colonial administrators Western scholars and missionaries
between 1800 and 1950 were marked by both competition and cooperation as they interacted in
economic political intellectual and religious spheres. This volume traces these encounters
and also examines the contributions to the history of Jain studies made by Jain and non-Jain
Indians through their collaborations with Western scholars. The book is divided into three
sections. The first considers the engagement on the part of European missionaries and
Orientalists and British colonial officials with Jains and Jainism from the eighteenth
century to the early twentieth century. The second focuses on the changing dynamics of
identities within the Jain community during the nineteenth century brought about through their
mercantile entrepreneurial philanthropic and legal activities. The final section maps the
trajectory of Jainological studies undertaken by German Italian American and Indian scholars
from the second half of the nineteenth century into the early twentieth century. Taken together
these chapters make an important interdisciplinary contribution to scholarly understanding of
the Jains' situation as a religious minority.
