London August 19th 2012
Indian High commission had arranged a public celebration of India’s 65th independence anniversary at the Indian Gymkhana Grounds. The celebration was in the form of a grand fair with over 40 different stalls.
It was a beautiful summer’s day with the green and well trimmed grounds of the Gymkhana at its best. Most Indian communities were represented through their stalls. Institute of Jainology stall represented the Jain community. Indian Banks and other State organisations were also present in numbers.
Institute’s stand with JAINpedia project panels and a running demo was one of the very few stands displaying cultural heritage – most communities were busy preparing their culinary specialities and serving them.
At 11 am – H E The High Commissioner, Dr J Bhagwati arrived. The Indian tri-colour was raised and followed by the Indian national anthem. H E then proceeded to welcome the public with a short address. He referred to the speech given by the first Indian Prime Minister Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru to the Constituent Assembly on the independence day quoting ‘ Long years ago we made a tryst with destiny, and now the time comes when we shall redeem our pledge, not wholly or in full measure …’ and went on to elaborate on that. He also referred to Nobel Poet Laureature , Rabindranath Tagore and his composition of the Indian and Bangladesh national anthems. He also quoted Poet Laureate’s translation of a poem from Gita.
There were few presentations cultural items following which H E the High Commissioner went round to all the stalls. He found the Institute’s stall very interesting and spent quite sometime there leaving with a request to send him further details of the JAINpedia project.
There were a large number of visitors to the stall and over 120 completed the JAINpedia survey form. There was a free prize draw with copies of Tatvartha Sutra, Jain Tales and Discover Jainism being offered as first, second and third prizes. The stall was manned by both the Directors of the Institute and JAINpedia staff and volunteers.
Based on the amount of interest shown by non- Jain visitors to the stand, the day was considered to be a very successful one.
