Why it's hard to believe Class 12 topper who scored 99.99 percentile wants to become a Jain monk
On June 8, at 6am sharp, thousands will congregate at Adajan in Surat, Gujarat. Varshil Shah, 17, no longer a child, but not quite adult, will ceremoniously renounce this world of pleasure and pain, to embrace monkhood.
Guests will come bearing gifts, their last, at his final moment of material indulgence. They will burst into songs of celebration and break into garba, as his hair is plucked out and head shaved. After all the feasting, he will shed the name given by his parents — an income-tax officer and a homemaker, and adorn white robes, for a lifetime of fasting and frugality, with round-the-clock dos and don’ts, in a Jain derasar or upashray.
Ceremony of the innocent
He is a face among thousands (according to some count) of young Jains who take bal-diksha (or child ordination) every year. Varshil’s 32-year-old guru was a bal-dikshit, too.
Varshil is in the news for scoring 99.99th percentile in Class 12 board exams, the results released a fortnight ago, and then giving up access to any lucrative career he could have had — a tough call indeed for a proverbially money-conscious community.
He is also the latest candidate in a system that has been in the eye of storm for long.
In 2004, an eight-year-old Priyal Bagricha’s induction as a Jain sadhvi in Mumbai had kicked off a storm of legal wrangles over child rights. When examined by psychiatrists from the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, she was found to be unsure what diksha meant or the implications it had.
In the ensuing case it was alleged that in the name of religion, very young children were being misguided, misled and lured to renounce the world and take "diksha". But by 2009, following representations from the Jain groups, the ministry of women and child development issued a notification that Bal Diksha cases could not be tried under Juvenile Justice (Care and Protection of Children) Act 2000. That meant, child rights groups could no longer stop such ceremonies.
Child rights or abuse?
In the past few years, such ceremonies are being reported increasingly. There have been anecdotal reports of priests who advice parents to donate a child to god, to enhance family prestige, power or prosperity, along with those of children being brainwashed and even forced into divine service. In 2015, the image of child, barely one-year-old and in diksha robes, had created furore on social media.
The priests and community elders typically warn outsiders to shut up and stay out — as they did in 2016 when a nationwide debate erupted over the teenager Aradhana Samdariya’s death due to fasting, approved and arranged for the prosperity of her family.
Diksha Mahotsavs are routinely organised, videos of youngsters being ordained into monkhood are posted on the Internet, with glowing commentary on their “complete transformation” and “new identity” after renunciation.
In the first two decades of the 20th century there was hectic attempts at social reform among sections of the community, especially the Shvetambara sect. Intellectuals, writers and progressive leaders of the Murtipujaka Shvetambara Jains of Bombay province and Gujarat had started the “Bala Diksha Pratibandha Andolan” (Prevention of Child Initiation Movement).
Jain Yuvak Sangh of Bombay had carried out a sustained campaign, influencing public opinion and the princely state of Baroda to pass a legislation prohibiting the practice. There have been repeated attempts since 1955 to get a legislative bill passed in Parliament against bal diksha.
In 2008, the division bench of Bombay High Court had observed, "No religion can allow a minor to become a sadhu. It’s as bad as Sati and there should be some law to prevent minors from taking diksha.”
Varshil has expressed his deep disappointment with worldly life. A boy from a privileged background and sheltered life, one wonders what exactly he knows of "life". One can only hope that he doesn’t face disappointments in the future he has chosen.