BABU AJIT PRASAD JAIN ADVOCATE

BABU AJIT PRASAD JAIN ADVOCATE
(1874-17-9-1951)

A distinguished citizen of Lucknow and a widely known social figure and religious enthusiast B. Ajit Prasad Jain was born at Nasirabad (Rajasthan). His ancestors belonged to Delhi. His great grand-father Seth Chainsukh Das had settled at Nasirabad. After the death of his son, Shri Banarsi Das, who served in a senior government service and died there in 1858 at the young age of 35 years, the family had come back to Delhi. The father of Sh. Ajit Prasad served as teacher at various places. He was an important figure among the Jains of Delhi. As his mother had died of T.B. in 1880 and the step-mother did not treat him well, the religious life of Shri Jain's affectionate grand-mother much influenced him from the very childhood.

A brilliant student throughout, Shri Jain did his B.A. from Canning College, Lucknow in 1893 securing first position and gold medal. As he could not obtain financial support for doing I.C.S. from England he did his LL.B. in 1894 and M.A. in 1895, After practising at Allahabad for few years, he achieved commendable success in the legal profession at Lucknow. After working as Munsif at Rai Bareilly for few months in 1901, he returned back to Lucknow and worked as Government Counsel there upto 1916, in which year he resigned from the assignment.

His residence Ajitashram in Ganeshganj in Lucknow built by him in 1910 was venue of several important religious, social and public functions, even addressed by Mahatma Gandhi.

For the convenience of Brahamchari Shital Prasadji he had established a Jain Chaitya- laya there. He presided over the A.I. Jain Association at Jaipur in 1910 and the Bombay Prantik Sabha Session at Bombay in December, 1912. Founder-member of Rishabh Brahamcharya- shram Hastinapur he was its Hon. Secretary for several years. He took keen interest in the protection of Jain Tirthakshetras and made sincere efforts, but in vain, to resolve differences among the Digamberand Swetam- ber sects,Appointed Judge of Bikaner State High Court in 1929 he worked there for 2-3 years. He travelled extensively and practised in several High Courts. He conducted the famous Kakori Conspiracy Case in the initial stages to defend Ram Prasad Bismil, the martyr. For many years he had edited Jain Gazette (English) and made significant contribution in translation, editing and printing of many Prakrit and Sanskrit works.