Virachand R. Gandhi (1864 - 1901) represented Jain s at the first World Parliament of Religions in Chicago in 1893. He was probably the first Jain to arrive in the USA and his statue stands in the Jain temple at Chicago. At 21, Gandhi became the first honorary secretary of the Jain Association of India in 1885. He worked to abolish the tax levied on Jain pilgrims to Mount Shatrunjay , Gujarat , India. He died at age 37. [ [ http://virchandgandhi.blog.com/ Virachand Gandhi ] ] In 1891 Mr. Boddam, an English man, started a factory for slaughtering animals near Mount Sametshikhar , a holy place of Jain pilgrimage . Virchand Gandhi stayed in Calcutta for six months, learned Bengali, prepared his case against the factory, and successfully got the factory closed. He was contemporary to Swami Vivekanand . Herbert Warren studied Jainism under him and adopted ...
