London's Wellcome Collection returns 2,000 manuscripts to the Jain community

"London's Wellcome Collection is to restitute 2,000 manuscripts that had been acquired in 1919 at "a low price" from a Jain temple in what is now Pakistan. This represents the largest group of Jain manuscripts outside South Asia. A Memorandum of Understanding on the formal transfer is being signed at the House of Commons this evening."

"In an unusual arrangement, the restitution will not be to the country of origin, but to a UK body, the Institute of Jainology, for deposit at the University of Birmingham. This may come as a surprise, since there are only 60,000 Jains in the UK and six million in India, but the situation in South Asia became very difficult for the Jain community after the partition of India in 1947."

"Today there are virtually no Jains left in Pakistan-and therefore no suitable depository there for the Wellcome manuscripts. The Jains in India are a fragmented community, with no obvious single institution to care for the collection."

"How did the Jain manuscripts arrive at the Wellcome? The Jain manuscripts in London had been acquired in 1919 by Henry Wellcome, who had made a fortune from his pharmaceutical business. He collected an enormous quantity of objects and documents relating to health and medicine from all around the world. Most of the objects were later dispersed to the Science Museum, but the Wellcome Collection in London's Euston Road retains the archival material and artworks, where they are available for study."

Wellcome Collection will restitute 2,000 Jain manuscripts acquired in 1919 at a low price from a Jain temple in what is now Pakistan. The transfer will be formalized through a Memorandum of Understanding signed at the House of Commons. The manuscripts will not be returned to the country of origin, but deposited with the Institute of Jainology at the University of Birmingham. Pakistan has virtually no Jains today, leaving no suitable depository there. After the partition of India in 1947, Jain survivors largely fled to India, where the community is fragmented and lacks a single obvious institution to care for the collection. The manuscripts were acquired by Henry Wellcome, whose pharmaceutical fortune enabled a global collection of health and medicine materials.

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