The Wellcome Collection in London announced Friday its plans to return 2,000 manuscripts to the Jain community. In an unusual move, however, they will not be returned to Pakistan, where many of the manuscripts were purchased a century ago, or to India, where the majority of Jains live today. Instead, they will head to the University of Birmingham’s Dharmanath Network in Jain Studies, which was established in 2023 and is wholly financed by Jain communities living in the UK, the US, and India. Related Articles In a release, the collection said it “believes this to be the most appropriate place to maximise community access, deepen research opportunities and safeguard the future of this significant collection.” The transfer comes after “several years of open dialogue” between the Wellcome Collection and the UK-based Institute of Jainology. The release adds that the Dharmanath Network “will open the collection to those researchers and faith communities who are best placed to read, interpret and translate their content for a global audience.” In a statement, Marie-Helene Gorisse, an assistant professor at …