A bitter debate broke out in the Digambar Jain community in the middle of the twentieth century following the passage of the Bombay Harijan Temple Entry Act in 1947, which continued until well after the promulgation of the Untouchability (Offences) Act 1955. These laws included Jains in the definition of ‘Hindu’, and thus threw open the doors of Jain temples to formerly Untouchable castes. In the eyes of its Jain opponents, this was a frontal and terrible assault on the integrity and sanctity of the Jain dharma. Those who called themselves reformists, on the other hand, insisted on the closeness between Jainism and Hinduism. Temple entry laws and the public debates over caste became occasions for the Jains not only to examine their distance—or closeness—to Hinduism, but also the relationship between their community and the state, which came to be imagined as predominantly Hindu. This article, by focusing on the Jains and this forgotten episode, hopes to illuminate the civilizational categories underlying state practices and the fraught relationship between nationalism and minorities.

中文翻译：

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耆那教处于危险之中？后殖民时期印度的寺庙进入与宗教修辞与改革

20 世纪中叶，随着 1947 年《孟买哈里扬圣殿进入法》的通过，迪甘巴尔耆那教社区爆发了一场激烈的辩论，该法一直持续到 1955 年《贱民（犯罪）法》颁布之后。这些法律包括耆那教在“印度教”的定义中，因此向以前的贱民种姓敞开了耆那教寺庙的大门。在耆那教的反对者眼中，这是对耆那教的正直和神圣的正面和可怕的攻击法. 另一方面，那些自称改革派的人坚持耆那教和印度教之间的密切关系。进入寺庙的法律和关于种姓的公开辩论成为耆那教徒不仅审视他们与印度教的距离或接近程度的机会，而且还审视了他们的社区与国家之间的关系，后者被认为主要是印度教。本文通过关注耆那教和这一被遗忘的事件，希望阐明国家实践背后的文明类别以及民族主义与少数民族之间的紧张关系。